Officers from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) went to Florida to extradite a former Montreal resident accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, who was found strangled in the Nation River in eastern Ontario 48 years ago.

Rodney Nichols, now 81 years old, is expected to appear in court for the first time via video link on Saturday.

Jewel Barsman Langford had not been identified for decades and was long known as the Nation River Lady - named after the site where her body was discovered in 1975.

This will be Nichols’ first appearance in Canada regarding her murder, after being extradited from the United States to face trial. He had lived for years in a nursing home in Hollywood, Florida.

Nichols, who has limited mobility and dementia, also returned to Ottawa on a special air ambulance. The flight departed from Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport early Friday afternoon.

The killing of Barsman Langford is one of the oldest cold cases in Canada, with one of her nieces, living in the United States, expressing relief upon learning of Nichols’ extradition despite his health problems.

A long police investigation...

The prosecution only made significant progress in its investigations in 2020 after the victim, whose remains were found in Casselman, Ontario, along Highway 417 between Ottawa and Montreal, was identified. Barsman Langford was identified through genetic genealogy, which helped locate her family members in Tennessee.

She had left the state in the mid-seventies to live in Montreal with Nichols, who was then a rugby player with a club in Westmount.

This discovery led the prosecution to work with the Montreal police, where her family reported her missing in 1975. At that time, the police did not connect her disappearance in Montreal with the discovery of the body in Ontario, about 150 kilometers to the west.

Also, according to documents submitted to the court regarding the extradition request, Nichols allegedly confessed to killing Barsman Langford last year during an interview with prosecution office investigators at his home.

According to the documents, he told investigators that he killed her after realizing she lied to him about her age. At the time of her death, the Tennessee woman was 48 years old and Nichols was 32.