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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 29 ,2 02 1 | 8 oakville.ca The Town of Oakville intends to control weeds in medians and shrub beds along the following roadsides and parks: • Lakeshore Road, Church St, Robinson St, Dunn St, Reynolds St, Navy St, Thomas St, Allan St, Trafalgar Rd, Randall St, Kerr Street, Bronte Rd, East St, Nelson St, Jones St, Marine Dr. Upper Middle Road, Third Line, Dorval Drive, Neyagawa Blvd, Cornwall Rd, Dundas St., Bridge Rd, Rebecca St, within the Town of Oakville • Using the pesticide Finalsan Pro Commercial Concentrate containing active ingredient Soap (ammonium salt of fatty acids) Registration No. 30012 under the Pest Control Products Act (Canada). Commencing on April 19, 2021 weather permitting, and ending October 8, 2021 For further information contact: Service Oakville at 905-845-6601 Collect calls will be accepted from individuals calling long distance. Public notice of pesticide use Almost 50 years after her best friend was found dead in a field, Ilona Pallagi still wonders... what if ?. On a summer day in 1973, be- fore Pauline Ivy Dudley disap- peared on the way to her boy- friend's place in Milton from her parents' Oakville home on Lake- shore Road, the 17-year-old had called and asked Pallagi to hitch- hike together -- as the pair often did. But Pallagi already had plans and declined. "That was the last I talked to her," she said, as she contem- plates the what-ifs and whether things would have turned out dif- ferently had she been able to go. According to police, Pauline left Oakville at around 10 p.m. on Aug. 20, 1973. The following day, her boyfriend reported her miss- ing. The young woman was never seen alive again. Her decom- posed body was found by a farm- er in a field in the area of High- way 25 and Lower Base Line in Oakville -- just south of Milton -- a week later on Aug. 28. Police said Pauline was found fully clothed, with a hairline fracture in her jaw and her wallet nearby. It was determined that there were efforts by the perpe- trator to conceal the body under the hay and the wheat in the field -- all indicating foul play. The discovery put the commu- nities on edge. There were five young women murdered in and around Halton during the same period, all unsolved at the time. "It kind of scared everybody in the neighbourhood around the area," Pallagi recalled. Now in her 60s, she speaks fondly of the happy girl, shy and quiet at times, who had been her close friend for three years and remembers their adventurous days -- from hopping onto the back of trucks to the backcoun- try and horse riding at a nearby ranch to hanging out at what was known then as Hopedale Mall, where their mothers worked at an eatery. The two, who had matching purses, attended the former Gen- eral Wolfe High School. "We had plans to do stuff to- gether. We did things together and then she wasn't there any- more," she said. With Pauline gone, Pallagi didn't stay long in Oakville and eventually headed west. "I had to carry on until I could leave home ... and have a life," she noted. Pallagi has theories on who might be responsible for her friend's death. But whoever did it may not even be alive anymore, she said, and she hopes that the killer lived a life of misery. Det. Sgt. Trevor Bradley of Halton police's homicide unit said in a phone interview that solving the Pauline Ivy Dudley mystery, like other cold cases, gets more challenging with time as memories of those who may have information fade. Also, information about the case may die with individuals who actually have knowledge or understanding of what hap- pened. There were several suspects in the past but the investigation never went beyond the point where the police could lay charg- es. While advancement in foren- sic science brings hope, Bradley said that police don't have a DNA profile for an offender in this par- ticular case. A motive was also never established. "Regardless of the length of time that a case sort of has been active or unsolved, we still keep it open and ... we're always looking at avenues of investigation," said Bradley. "Our homicide tip line is always open for anybody that chooses to give us information because ultimately we want to solve them all ... It's never too late to reach out." For Pallagi, time could never erase the bond that she shared with Pauline. Not very far from where she lives -- at a village up in the Rockies in British Colum- bia -- Mount Pauline stands 2,650 meters tall. In a way, she sees it as her dear friend's namesake. "I think about her all the time," she said. "She's a part of me." With files from David Lea BEHIND THE CRIMES: NEARLY FIVE DECADES LATER, MURDERED TEEN'S FRIEND STILL WONDERS WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN Pauline Ivy Dudley's was found dead a week after she went missing while hitchhiking in August 1973. Halton police photo BAMBANG SADEWO bsadewo@metroland.com CRIME KILLED IN 1973, PAULINE IVY DUDLEY'S BODY FOUND IN OAKVILLE FIELD "I had to carry on until I could leave home... and have a life." - Ilona Pallagi