U.S. authorities have arrested a Florida man charged with murder in a decades-old Canadian cold case and have set a date for his extradition hearing.
Court documents show Rodney Mervyn Nichols, 81, was arrested by U.S. authorities on Tuesday in Hollywood, Fla., following a request by Ontario Provincial Police.
OPP have charged Nichols with murder in the death of Jewell 'Lalla' Langford, referred to as Lalla Jewel Langford in the U.S. court documents.
Police have said Langford, a 48-year-old who was from Tennessee, had travelled to Montreal in April 1975 and never returned home.
Her body was found in the Nation River in eastern Ontario but remained unidentified for decades – with the case being referred to as that of the "Nation River Lady" – until forensic genealogy identified her in 2020.
U.S. court documents say that when OPP questioned Nichols at a retirement home in February 2022, he initially denied any involvement in Langford’s disappearance but later said he had an altercation with her at his home in Montreal and subsequently dumped her body in the Nation River.
The documents say Nichols appeared in a Florida court on Tuesday and an extradition hearing was set for Sept. 26.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2023.
The Canadian Press
