The Crime that Put East Hill on the Map

I have to be honest with you: I've been living in Lac-Brome for a few years now, and I only recently discovered East Hill.

Where is it located? East Hill is a tiny area just south of Knowlton, where Chemin du Mont-Écho meets Chemin de Turkey Hill, and north of that point.

The hamlet was originally founded by Paul Holland Knowlton, and as soon as he purchased the land, families such as the Joyals, Wilsons, and Sandborns settled there. Little has changed in East Hill since it was incorporated into Lac-Brome in 1971. It was and still is primarily a residential neighborhood. There isn't much to say about it. Except...

The three other residents of the house left around 7:30 a.m. to visit a neighbor, but Henri stayed home to take care of a sick cow. When they returned at 9:30 p.m., Henri's brother found his body in a pool of blood on the floor. There are signs of a struggle in the kitchen, which is a mess, but apart from the emptied cash register, the rest of the house is intact. Henri was stabbed three times, twice in the throat. A bloody knife was found in a kitchen drawer, but the only fingerprints found belonged to the cleaning lady's daughter, who had come to help her mother the previous week.

Three men were arrested and questioned two days later, but were released due to alibis and lack of evidence. The police suspected that the crime had been committed by several people, due to the multiple footprints found at the scene.

They decided that the best solution would be to question all the men in East Hill. One man stood out from the rest. André Collin was a Montreal photographer who had moved to East Hill to try his hand at farming after his photography business failed to take off. Collin owed money to the bank, and a few days before Bisonnette's murder, he did not have the necessary funds in his bank account. He had told some of his fellow citizens that he was considering selling his farm. On May 6, while the police were on their way, Collin got wind of it or saw them, went into his house, and shot himself. A few weeks later, a jury determined that Bisonette had most likely been killed by Collin and that Collin had committed suicide.

Stay tuned, because next time we'll take a quick look at Fulford!

Originally published in February 2025