MURDER MYSTERY: OPP determined to solve 1981 slaying of Veronica Kaye

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It’s been 43 years since Veronica Kaye was found slain in a shallow grave near Bolton – 11 months after the 18-year-old A-student was last seen hopping into a van in Mississauga.

But Caledon OPP detectives remain hopeful the young Etobicoke woman’s grisly murder can be solved. And they are reminding the public that a $50,000 reward is still up for grabs in the decades-old cold case.

“Investigators remain committed in the search for the individual(s) responsible for her death,” the OPP said in a statement Wednesday. “The Ontario Provincial Police is once again urging the public to come forward with any information, no matter how minor it may be, as even the smallest clue could help solve this case.”

The pretty blond had just been accepted to Humber College and was heading to Square One shopping centre in Mississauga to buy a new outfit for a keg party when things took a sinister turn on Nov. 7, 1980.

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On the way to the mall, she popped into a photography store on Hensall Cirlce – near Dundas St. E. and Cawthra Rd. – to visit a friend.

“I’ve got to run … I’ve got a ride,” Kaye told her friend before climbing into a white van.

It would be the last time she was seen alive. And police have never determined who was in the van with her when it drove off.

Two men walking a dog found Kaye’s badly decomposed body face down in a shallow grave in a wooded area southeast of Humber Station Road and Castlederg Sideroad – west of Bolton – on Oct. 9, 1981.

“When Veronica Kaye’s body was found almost a year later, she was wearing the same clothing she was last seen in by her friend in Mississauga,” the OPP says in their reward poster.

Kaye’s skull had been crushed and her pinky finger shattered.

Investigators also found a “unique button” under her body.

The silver and gold metal button is emblazoned with some sort of symbol – possibly a snake – and detectives believe it may be the key to identifying Kaye’s killer.

“Investigators believe that someone has the missing piece of information that will help identify those responsible for Veronica’s murder and bring resolution to her family,” the OPP said Wednesday.

Anyone with information is asked to call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

cdoucette@postmedia.com

@sundoucette