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The family of a P.E.I. teacher murdered in 1988 wants to know how key evidence went missing after the Crown announced Tuesday that all charges in the cold case had been withdrawn.
“We’re very disappointed that this is not going through to the final conclusion, which we expected it would,” John Carr, the brother of Byron Carr, told Radio-Canada days before the Crown’s announcement.
“Also a little bit of uncertainty as to what actually happened and why we’re at the stage we’re at now. Despite all the years since it happened in 1988, it’s still very hurtful to all of us.”
The 36-year-old teacher was found in his home strangled with a towel and with multiple stab wounds on his body in November 1988.
Police announced in early 2024 — 35 years after the murder — that Todd Joseph Irving had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and interfering with human remains.
Irving, who used to use the surname Gallant, pleaded not guilty. His trial was scheduled to begin in November until the Crown announced Tuesday that all charges laid in the case had been withdrawn because crucial evidence — including a knife found at the scene and the towel used to strangle Carr — was lost.
John Carr says his family feels they have the answers they need in the 1988 murder of his brother, Byron Carr. (Radio-Canada)
John Carr said Charlottetown police first told him about the issues with the case in August, and the family still has questions: “When it disappeared, when they knew about it and, I guess, who was in charge of the evidence? Who was looking after the evidence when it was being stored?”
CBC News learned at Irving’s bail hearing on July 30 that police were unable to locate the knife and towel but couldn’t report on it until the charges were withdrawn due to a publication ban.
A lawyer for more than four decades, John Carr said he understands the case could not proceed without evidence the Crown could rely on and feels the family ultimately got the answers it needed.
“No matter what the result is here in the court, truth does not always equal justice. I understand that. We got answers and we were greatly relieved by the arrest and the prosecution to this point,” he said.
“We all had the same feeling, all our family. It was like a weight being lifted off us because until then, we had no idea…. We wondered if it was someone we knew, in this case we didn’t know the accused, but we always wondered and we certainly racked our brains and spent many sleepless nights thinking about it and wondering who it would have been. It was a big relief.”
John Carr wants his brother to be remembered as someone from a close, loving family who had a good sense of humour and was dedicated to his students.
“He had a good life until that night,” John Carr said.
“All you can do is go live your life, do the best you can. Try not to be too bitter. Try not to be too angry. Try to be as forgiving as you can, and get on with things. That’s the only answer.”
Byron Carr was strangled to death in the bedroom of his Charlottetown home in 1988. It’s one of the only cold cases on P.E.I. in modern history. CBC’s Sally Pitt looks back at Carr’s life and his unsolved murder.
