Todd Alan Petrie

Todd Alan Petrie was a man of two countries, a former United States Marine who held both American and Canadian citizenship. Known to his loved ones as a challenge at times, he was also a son who called his mother faithfully every week or two and kept in touch with his siblings. His mother, Joyce Petrie, from Saginaw, Michigan, remembers her son and continues to seek answers about his life and his violent death. After his time in the military, Todd eventually settled in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where the 48-year-old man was a familiar face in the city's downtown core.

On the afternoon of February 27, 2011, Todd was found dead inside his second-floor apartment at 142 Albert Street East. A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death was blunt force trauma. Investigators with the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, who were soon joined by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), noted that Todd lived alone and was known to be very security conscious. This detail led them to believe that he likely knew his killer and had willingly let them into his home. In the weeks before his death, Todd had told his mother he was trying to move because his neighborhood was not a good place.

The investigation into Todd Petrie’s homicide has remained active for over a decade, but no arrests have ever been made. The case became one of three homicides in Sault Ste. Marie in a short period, prompting local police to request the OPP's assistance. Hundreds of interviews have been conducted across Canada, with some individuals being spoken to multiple times. However, the passage of time has presented significant challenges. As OPP Detective Inspector Shawn Glassford noted in 2021, a number of people connected to the investigation have died over the years, taking any potential information with them to the grave.

Joyce Petrie has been a relentless advocate for her son, expressing frustration with the pace of the police investigation and at one point vowing to sell a cabin to hire private detectives and even a psychic to help crack the case. She acknowledged that in the last couple of years of his life, Todd may have become involved with drugs, a world he kept hidden from his family. "I think it was in the last couple of years that he got into drugs," she said in a 2016 interview. "We didn't know how extreme it was until we saw the picture and he was murdered. I didn't even recognize him." She has traveled to Sault Ste. Marie multiple times, pleading with people in the drug community for information, but feels that they will not talk to the police.

"I'm in this to the end. I'm not going to let it go," Joyce Petrie has stated. "I want to know who killed my son — and why." Her resolve has never wavered, though she has also expressed a sad resignation that she may never get the answers she seeks in her lifetime. Todd is buried at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Michigan, where his mother left a wreath at his grave in the fall of 2020 before heading to her winter home in Florida.

As of February 2021, the investigation into the murder of Todd Petrie is ongoing. Police continue to hope that with the passage of time, someone's circumstances or allegiances may have changed, prompting them to finally come forward with what they know. "Somebody in the community of Sault Ste. Marie knows what happened to Todd Petrie, and we want that person to come forward," said Detective Inspector Glassford.

A provincial government reward of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Todd’s murder remains in place. In February 2021, on the tenth anniversary of her son's death, Joyce Petrie added $10,000 of her own money to the reward. Anyone with information is urged to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122, the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service at 705-949-6300 ext. 288, or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.