Christine Demeter

Christine Demeter (/ˈdɛmətər/; 1940 – July 18, 1973) was murdered in the garage of her home in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 33. The case attracted much attention in Canada because Demeter, a model, was considered to be young and beautiful, and her murder had been mysterious.^[1]^[2]

The case was investigated by Detective William Teggart (who would later rise to police chief) of the Peel Regional Police.^[3] Demeter's husband, Peter Demeter, was subsequently convicted, seventeen months after the killing,^[4] of hiring a killer to murder her to cash in on a million-dollar insurance policy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He later received a second life sentence for unrelated criminal acts; as of May 31, 2010, then 77 years old, he was still in prison in Ontario.

George Jonas and his then-wife Barbara Amiel, published a book about the case, By Persons Unknown: The Strange Death of Christine Demeter (1976).

The Demeter case served as the basis for the fictional 1978 film I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses, directed by Murray Markowitz. The victim is renamed Magdalene Kruschen and is played by German actress Elke Sommer.