Image

Teen from Ajax is the murder victim found in Oil Springs

January 26, 2022

Lambton OPP has identified a teen from Ajax as the person found south of Oil Springs in a double murder.

On. Dec 28, around 2:30 pm, OPP were called to Crooked Road in Enniskillen Township, south of the village. Police say human remains were found. Shortly after, police searched a home on Watson St in Sarnia and found another man dead.

Forensic investigators and the coroner have been trying to positively identify the person found in Enniskillen. Today, they say Jelani Byer-Coates, 18, of Ajax has been identified as the second victim.

Police identified the first victim as Lance Richardson, 31, of Mississauga on Jan. 1.

Richardson, who had a criminal record which dated back over ten years, had been arrested in a summer drug raid in Toronto. In October he was released after the crown dropped the charges.

Richardson was in Lambton visiting friends before Christmas according to his lawyer, Stefan Peters. His partner was expecting Richardson would spend Christmas with her and their two year-old son, but he never returned home.

Peters says Richardson had recently called him, concerned about rumours he had traded information about other drug dealers in return for the trafficking charges being dropped. Peters says that wasn’t the case.

A 42 year-old man is facing second degree murder charges. Matthew Theriault, of Sarnia and a native of Oil Springs, had been charged with two counts of second degree murder and two counts of indignity to a dead body.

Share This

Image
Sports

Forest Xtreme to represent Ontario

April 17, 2025

The Independent The Forest Xtreme will represent Ontario this week at the Eastern Canadian Ringette Championships in Quebec. They are in suburban Montreal panning for gold in the under-16 division involving teams from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Forest opens the round robin portion of the tournament with a game against the PEI Edge tonight. Games continue on Friday with

Read More

Image
News

Renewed Gladu looks for fourth term

April 17, 2025

Cathy Dobson/The Independent There was a period around 2020 when Marilyn Gladu was so disillusioned that she considered retiring from politics. At the time, she’d been Sarnia-Lambton’s MP for five years and was badly stung by a failed attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). When Erin O’Toole won that race, Gladu says she did not

Read More

Image
Sports

Lightning win gold at OWHA provincials

April 17, 2025

The Independent Soon another banner will be on display at the Watford Arena. The Lambton Lightning won five consecutive contests last weekend to capture the championship in the Senior C division at the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincials in the GTA.   They defeated the Honeywood Badgers, 4-1 in the final.  Lambton had beaten Cornwall, 4-1, blanked Otonabee, 8-0, edged Waterloo, 1-0

Read More

Image
Front Page

BREAKING: Province reneges on EA promise for York1 landfill proposal in Dresden

April 17, 2025

Cites landfill shortage, US tariff threats Proposal on Environmental Registry calls for a larger landfill than York1 first proposed Heather Wright/The Independent There is shock in Dresden after the provincial government dropped a bomb shell heading into the long weekend. Saying the threat of US tariffs is threatening Ontario’s waste sector, the province has launched legislation to remove the environmental

Read More