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But Brantford police are no closer to locating Hammond’s body: his killer died in 2010
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Vincent Ball, Brantford Exhibitor, Postmedia News It’s been 37 years since the disappearance of Mary Emma Hammond from Brantford.
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Brantford police say Mary Hammond’s disappearance in 1983 has been resolved by DNA testing, and the man responsible is a former resident of the dead city.
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At a news conference Wednesday, police said they believe Stephen Mudko kidnapped and killed Hammond as he walked to work at the former Buns Master Bakery on Morton Avenue from his townhouse on Elgin Street at 3:30 p.m. in the morning, September 8, 1983. The route took her north along Park Road North, now Wayne Gretzky Parkway, past the Massey-Ferguson Factory and through a field to the back of the bakery.
Mudko died at the age of 63 at Trafalgar Hospital in Oakville in June 2010. According to his obituary, he had been an employee of Ford Motor Co. in Oakville. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Brantford.
Hammond’s body has never been found.
“If he were alive today and could be tried, he (Mudko) would face the following charges: kidnapping and first-degree murder,” police said.
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Brantford police on Wednesday identified Stephen Mudko, who died in 2010, as a suspect in the disappearance and death of Mary Hammond in 1983.
Investigators said Mudko’s identification came from DNA evidence collected during a search of Mudko’s Memorial Drive in September 1983, just days after Hammond’s disappearance. The evidence has remained in police custody ever since.
“Through this seized historical evidence and advances in mitochondrial DNA analysis, investigators were able to forensically link Mary Hammond to a man (Mudko) believed to be responsible for her abduction and murder.” , said police. “Mitochondrial DNA analysis is a relatively new investigative tool for police.
“Through additional research, research and interviews, the use of this tool can lead to the identification of people of interest in historical cases like this.”
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Police said mitochondrial DNA is one of two types of DNA that can be found in human hair. Unlike nuclear DNA, which is found in the strand of a human hair root, mitochondrial DNA is found in the shaft of a human hair, police said.
Previously, police said, only nuclear DNA could be analyzed to identify an individual. But advances in science are now making it possible to identify individuals by analyzing nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.
Police on Wednesday released a photo of Mudko in hopes that it could lead to more information that could help locate Hammond’s body.
“Although a suspect has been identified, detectives believe other people may still have information or knowledge related to Mary Hammond’s disappearance,” police said. “This investigation is ongoing.
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“As a result of advances in technology and forensic science, the continued dedication of our officers, and the information of our community, we are one step closer to being able to determine what happened to Mary Hammond and close her family.”
Anyone with information about Hammond’s disappearance is asked to leave a voice message for investigators on an information line at 519-756-0113, ext. 2800 or email HammondDisappearance@police.brantford.on.ca. Anonymous information can be provided by contacting Brant- Brantford Crime Stoppers at 519-750-8477 or 1-800-222-8477. Alternatively, a webpage can be sent to: www.crimestoppersbb.com/submit-to-tip/
Brantford police have released photos of four men believed to be aware of the disappearance of Mary Hammond, who disappeared in Brantford on September 8, 1983.
Around 4 a.m. on the morning of her disappearance, a co-worker called Hammond’s husband to ask why he hadn’t gotten to work. His footprints were followed to the property line at the back of the bakery and to a point where he cut a field. They then disappeared and were alerted by police.
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Evidence at the scene includes some items from the woman’s lunch: a cup, a plate and a half-eaten apple.
One of Hammond’s white prey and a small amount of blood was located in an area of the field. At the time of his disappearance, Hammond was 25 years old, five feet 10, and weighed 140 pounds, with long, straight hair of reddish-brown hair, brown eyes, and light complexion.
Hammond was last seen wearing a blue, mauve and red wooden jacket, blue jeans, a yellow T-shirt and white Adidas running shoes with a silver stripe.
Police have described the abduction and murder as a “crime of circumstances.”
Mudko was 36 at the time of Hammond’s abduction.
A search for Exhibitor items from the 1960s and 1970s reveals that Mudko had a criminal record.
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Mudko and a co-defendant, according to an August 10, 1979 Exhibitor article, were charged with rape by Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police.
The article says that Mudko, then 32, lived on Memorial Drive. He and his co-defendant visited a Wilson Street home in Hamilton. After talking to a woman in the house, she was taken to the foot of McNab Street where she was sexually assaulted.
In November 1980, The Expositor reported that the charges against the co-defendants had been dropped. Mudko, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to a minor charge of forced confinement. He was sentenced to one year in the reformatory.
Other charges Mudko faces were related to careless driving or vehicle crashes.
As a young man, he participated in local sports and his photography was included in a sports column of Exhibitor on junior football in September 1964.
No brother or relative is mentioned in Mudko’s obituary. He is buried with his parents.
Vball@postmedia.comtwitter.com/EXPVBall
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