Alison May Campbell Parrott (September 28, 1974July 25, 1986) was an 11-year-old Canadian girl who was lured out of her home by a male phone caller in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her remains were found two days later in a densely wooded area of Kings Mill Park in Etobicoke.
A decade later, a link analysis helped Toronto homicide detectives match the DNA evidence with a man who was charged with the crime. Francis Carl Roy was convicted of first-degree murder on April 13, 1999. Sentenced to life in prison, he has been eligible for parole since 2021.
Early life
Alison May Campbell Parrott was born on September 28, 1974, in Toronto. She was also an avid runner and a member of the Tom Longboat track-and-field club for youth aged 8 to 12. They discussed the route she would take and arranged that she would return home by 2:30 pm.
Investigation
Police announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the murderer. The caller had apparently phoned other families with the surname of Parrott in an effort to locate "the Alison Parrott who was going to the International Youth Track Championships in New Jersey". Police speculated that the murderer may have also gathered information about Alison's training patterns at her club.
Suspect
Francis Carl Roy (born September 18, 1957) was questioned by police during their first round of interviews, as he used the same training facility as Alison's track club, and also because he had a criminal record.
Verdict
After a month-long trial and six days of deliberation, on April 13, 1999, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder.
In 2003, the Court of Appeal for Ontario rejected an appeal by Roy, who claimed that police at his interrogation had denied him his right to remain silent.
Stay Alert ... Stay Safe
In May 1987, Lesley Parrott, aided by colleagues at the advertising agency where she worked, launched the Canada-wide Stay Alert ... Stay Safe program. Aimed at children aged seven through ten, the program's main objective was to attune children's instincts to dangerous situations, whether at home or elsewhere.
Both Alison and her younger brother had attended an all-day "streetproofing" seminar the year before her murder, in which young children receive instruction on how to "avoid potential molesters and abductors".
Parrott's murder was one of the cases examined in the 2007 documentary Forgiveness: Stories For Our Time.
See also
- Disappearance of Nicole Morin, an 8-year-old Toronto girl who has not been seen since 1985
- List of solved missing person cases: 1950–1999