 Manion, 61, hanged himself in custody after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 1970 slaying of the 12-year-old on the outskirts of Kirkland Lake. (London Free Press/SUN MEDIA)
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LONDON - Police and forensic archeologists resumed searching the outskirts of Kirkland Lake Saturday for the remains of Kathy Wilson, killed almost 40 years ago by convicted Londoner Barry Manion.
Manion, 61, hanged himself in custody after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 1970 slaying of the 12-year-old on the outskirts of Kirkland Lake.
"We are starting our search within a few-acre area," said Det. Insp. Ken Leppert.
The OPP's lead investigator in the decades-old cold case. "We're starting in a specific area and we will move out of it if necessary."
Police couldn't start searching for the body until the ground thawed. Manion was found hanged in a provincial jail three days after pleading guilty and being sentenced to life in prison.
In 1970 Manion, who'd sexually abused the girl for at least two years, strangled and buried her in a woods after she resisted his demands she perform a sex act on him.
After his arrest in January in London, where he lived with his family for several years, Manion was able to guide police to where he recalled burying Kathy.
"After his arrests he took us to the spot where he thought he murdered her and he was as honest and as precise as he could have been after all this time," Leppert told The London Free Press.
Among those searching are a team of forensic archeologists from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, an expert in bone recognition, 15 students from Laurier and the University of Toronto's archaeology programs, police and other experts.
Police intended to search through the weekend.
kate.dubinski@sunmail.com
