Lennoxville cold case: La Presse tracks murder suspect to Guinea, where he leads a political party

Downtown Lennoxville, at the corner of Queen and College streets (2008). (Photo: Nick/Wikimedia Commons, Licence Art Libre)

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A La Presse investigative series published on June 6 has reignited public attention around one of the Eastern Townships’ most haunting unsolved murders — the 2007 killing of Lennoxville native Rachelle Wrathmall — after the Montreal newspaper’s reporter tracked the principal suspect to West Africa, where he has been living openly and pursuing a political career.

The four-part series, reported by La Presse journalist Isabelle Hachey and titled Meurtre irrésolu de Rachelle Wrathmall: Sur les traces du mari en fuite, is available in French at lapresse.ca. English-speaking readers are encouraged to visit the site and use their browser’s built-in translation feature to read the full investigation — it is a remarkable piece of journalism that deserves a wide audience.

According to La Presse‘s reporting, Rachelle Wrathmall, 31, was found stabbed to death in her family home on Downs Street in Lennoxville on June 29, 2007. She was discovered by her sister Donna, who had grown alarmed after Rachelle missed their daily morning phone call — something she had never done before.

Wrathmall was a well-known figure in Lennoxville, the daughter of the owners of Green’s pastry shop and a Bishop’s University graduate who worked at Revenue Canada. She had been in a relationship with Raphiou Sow, a Guinean national, since 2004. According to friends and family interviewed by La Presse, the relationship was marked from early on by jealousy, psychological control, and threats.

La Presse reports that Wrathmall had secretly written to Immigration Canada in 2005 warning that Sow “could be very violent” and that she feared his reaction if he discovered she had reported him. Despite those fears, she continued supporting his immigration applications — and ultimately married him on August 22, 2006, in Sherbrooke. The wedding was private; no one was invited.

Sow had been living in the United States at the time of the murder, having crossed illegally into Vermont after receiving a Canadian deportation order. According to La Presse, SQ investigators believe he rented a car in the U.S., recrossed the border on foot near Stanstead on the night of June 27-28, and took a taxi to central Lennoxville, asking to be dropped approximately 600 metres from Wrathmall’s home. A taxi driver interviewed by La Presse confirmed picking up a fare that night from a parking lot near the border, though he was unable to positively identify Sow from a photograph.

The murder weapon — described by La Presse as a bladed instrument — was never found.

The following evening, Sow was captured on airport surveillance footage at Montréal-Trudeau, arriving without luggage and paying cash for a one-way ticket to Casablanca. He has never returned to Canada.

Sergeant Éric Bolduc, head of the Sûreté du Québec’s cold case division, told La Presse he has no doubt about what happened. “If it wasn’t him, I don’t know who it could have been,” he said, adding that Wrathmall was almost certainly the victim of a femicide. Sow has never been charged with any offence in connection with her death.

La Presse reports that Sow resurfaced on social media in 2014, by which point he had returned to Guinea and entered politics, founding a small party called the Parti du renouveau et du progrès. Hachey travelled to Conakry to confront him, arranging an interview under the pretext of discussing Guinean politics.

When she raised the murder, Sow initially denied ever having been married to anyone named Rachelle Wrathmall — a claim La Presse says is contradicted by immigration documents and a signed letter in his own hand. When Hachey pointed out that airport footage showed him at Montréal-Trudeau the night of the murder, he ended the interview abruptly and walked away.

Guinea is currently governed by a military junta. Extradition is not considered a realistic prospect.

Rachelle Wrathmall’s case remains officially unsolved. Her sister Donna told La Presse she has never had any doubt about who killed her. Nearly 19 years later, she is still waiting for justice.

This article is based entirely on reporting by Isabelle Hachey and the investigative team at La Presse, published June 6, 2026. The Pulse has not independently verified the details of this investigation. To read the full series in French — and to use your browser’s translation feature for an English version — visit lapresse.ca and search “Rachelle Wrathmall.”

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