Nancy Alice Edward Eaton (May 28, 1961 – January 21, 1985) was a Canadian heiress and a member of the prominent

Eaton family The Eaton family is a Canadian family of Scottish-Irish Methodist origin. Established in Toronto, the family dynasty began in 1869 when Timothy Eaton (1834–1907) founded Eaton's, which became a national chain of department stores. At its heig ...

. She was the great-great-granddaughter of

Timothy Eaton Timothy Eaton (March 1834 – 31 January 1907) was a Northern Irish-Canadian businessman who founded the Eaton's department store, one of the most important retail businesses in Canada's history. Early life and family He was born in Ballymena, ...

, founder of

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's g ...

, a Canadian department store chain. She was the only daughter of Edward Eaton and Nancy Leigh (Gossage) Eaton of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Murder

On January 21, 1985, Eaton was stabbed twenty-one times and then raped in her Farnham Street apartment in Toronto. An acquaintance of Eaton's, Ernest John Andrew Leyshon-Hughes, also known as Andrew Leyshon-Hughes, who was himself a member of the prominent Canadian Osler family, admitted to murdering her, but was found not guilty by

reason of insanity The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act. ...

. He was indefinitely remanded to the custody of The Ontario Review Board. In February 2001, Leyshon-Hughes was living at the Royal Ottawa Hospital and was a student at

Algonquin College Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is a publicly funded English-language college located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The college has three campuses, all in Ontario: a primary campus in Ottawa, and secondary campuses in Perth and ...

. In 2005, Leyshon-Hughes was discharged from the psychiatric hospital into the community. Eaton was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.

In popular culture

In 2003, the television movie ''The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton'' was released.

Jessica Paré Jessica Paré (born December 5, 1980) is a Canadian actress and musician known for her co-starring roles on the AMC series '' Mad Men'' and the CBS series '' SEAL Team''. She has also appeared in the films '' Stardom'' (2000), '' Lost and Del ...

played the part of Nancy. It airs on LMN in the United States and is based on the book ''A Question of Guilt'' by William Scoular. As of 2018 the movie was released online on Encore+.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, Nancy

Nancy Eaton Nancy Alice Edward Eaton (May 28, 1961 – January 21, 1985) was a Canadian heiress and a member of the prominent Eaton family (Toronto), Eaton family. She was the great-great-granddaughter of Timothy Eaton, founder of Eaton's, a Canadian dep ...

1961 births 1985 deaths 1980s murders in Canada 1985 crimes in Canada 1985 murders in North America Canadian murder victims Canadian socialites Deaths by stabbing in Canada Female murder victims People murdered in Toronto Violence against women in Canada 1985 in Ontario Crime in Toronto Burials at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto

Murder

In popular culture

See also

References