Search continues for killer in 30-year-old Halifax murder case

Thirty years after her murder in 1994, Halifax police are still looking for Kimber Leanne Lucas's killer.

Halifax Regional Police issued a news release Thursday saying they continue to investigate Lucas's death and believe there are people who have information that could help solve the case.

Police say Lucas's body was found on Nov. 23, 1994, at the rear of a North Street address in Halifax. Investigators determined that Lucas, 25, had been in the area of North and Maitland streets between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m. AT on the day of her death. She was seven months pregnant at the time.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact authorities. The case is also a part of the province's Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program, which offers a cash reward of up to $150,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for major unsolved crimes.

Much of the sometimes harsh media coverage of Lucas's murder at the time highlighted her sex work, her criminal record and drug use.

Her funeral was attended by nearly 300 people at the Baptist church on what is now Nora Bernard Street. Coverage of the funeral by the now-defunct Daily News reported that Lucas was a part-time model and had been a good student.

The violent nature of her death "sent a chill down the spines" of the city's sex workers, according to one article published in the Daily News a few days after her death.

Lucas was one of a number of sex workers in the city who were killed in the 1990s. The Daily News later reported Lucas had been told three men were looking for her and meant to do her harm, according to her aunt, Tuney Flint.

Her death was thought to be connected to the murder of Brenda Way, another sex worker who was found dead in Dartmouth in November 1995.

In the spring of 2000, Halifax police spoke with Michael Wayne McGray, a convicted serial killer, while he was in prison to ask if he had been involved in Lucas's death. McGray had told reporters he killed 16 people across Canada and the U.S., including a sex worker in Halifax. He did not, however, remember their name or the date of the killing.

In November 2000, six years after Lucas's murder, Halifax police said they believed they had the DNA profile of her killer and a suspect, but they weren't able to make a connection between the two.