A Body on Crowder Road, an Emergency Response Team on the Scene and a Charge of Indignity to a Body: Grenville OPP Arrest Justin Donovan-Biscope, 35, of Smiths Falls Five Days After Chelsea Swinwood, 37, Was Found (Originally Reported September 3, 2026)
SPENCERVILLE — This file was issued on Thursday, September 3, 2026 and is not a story that broke today. Grenville County OPP were called to a house on Crowder Road on Saturday, August 29, and found one person dead inside. Five days later they arrested a 35-year-old man from Smiths Falls and charged him with second-degree murder — and with indignity to a body.
The second count is the one that changes the shape of the file. Indignity to a body is a separate offence under section 182 of the Criminal Code, and it is laid when something is alleged to have been done to a body after death. It is not a charge that follows automatically from a homicide. The OPP has laid it here and has explained nothing about it.
What the Ontario Provincial Police Has Put on the Record
- The call: officers from the Grenville County Detachment responded to a residence on Crowder Road, Spencerville, on Saturday, August 29, 2026, where one person was found deceased.
- The classification: the death was subsequently deemed a homicide.
- The deceased: Chelsea Swinwood, 37. Identified publicly earlier in the week of September 1.
- The arrest: Thursday, September 3, 2026.
- The accused: Justin Donovan-Biscope, 35, of Smiths Falls.
- The charges: second-degree murder, and indignity to a body, both under the Criminal Code.
- Custody: remains in custody; scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Brockville on Friday, September 4, 2026. No outcome of that appearance has been published.
- Investigative structure: Grenville County OPP under the direction of the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch, working with the Office of the Chief Coroner and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service. The OPP Emergency Response Team and OPP Forensic Identification Services are assisting.
- Contact: Grenville County OPP, 1-888-310-1122.
- What is absent: no cause of death, no time of death, no stated relationship between the accused and the deceased, no motive, no description of what the indignity count refers to, no statement on whether anyone else was present or is sought, and no criminal organization.
Two Reported Versions of the Day the Body Was Found
The outlets carrying this release do not agree on the date. Two local outlets — the Brockvilleist and 88.1 myFM via Lanark Leeds Today — both give Saturday, August 29, 2026. CTV News Ottawa, reporting the same release on the same day, says the body was found on the Sunday.
This briefing follows the two accounts that state a calendar date rather than the one that states a weekday, and flags the discrepancy rather than quietly picking a side. The two outlets also place Swinwood as a resident of Spencerville; CTV describes her as being from Grenville. Spencerville sits inside Grenville County, in the Township of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal, so both can be read as consistent without either being precise.
An Emergency Response Team on a Body Call
The list of assisting units is longer than a rural sudden death usually generates. Alongside the expected participants — the Criminal Investigation Branch, the Chief Coroner, the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service and Forensic Identification Services — the OPP names its Emergency Response Team.
ERT is a tactical resource. Its presence on a homicide file can mean a scene search across ground, or it can mean an arrest that was expected to be dangerous, and the OPP does not say which. What can be stated from the release is that the force committed a tactical unit to a file it had already classified as a homicide, and that the arrest came five days after the body was found.
What the Charge Sheet Does and Does Not Say
Second-degree murder is murder that is not planned and deliberate. The OPP has not upgraded the charge, has not said whether it expects to, and has named no second person.
Nothing in the release describes how Chelsea Swinwood died, and no post-mortem finding has been made public. The Office of the Chief Coroner and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service are named as participants, which is standard, and neither has published a finding.
What Is Not Claimed
The Ontario Provincial Police has named no criminal organization in this file and has offered no motive. None is asserted here. Justin Donovan-Biscope is charged and the charges have not been proven in court.
Grenville County OPP — Crowder Road, Spencerville
Primary Wire Sources
- The Brockvilleist: “Smiths Falls man charged with murder in death of Spencerville woman”, by Hollie Pratt-Campbell, published September 4, 2026. Source for the August 29 date, the arrest date and the full list of assisting agencies.
- Lanark Leeds Today / 88.1 myFM: “Smiths Falls man charged with second-degree murder in Spencerville homicide”, published September 4, 2026 at 7:12 a.m. Independently confirms the August 29 date, the charges and the investigative structure.
- CTV News Ottawa: “Person charged in connection to Spencerville, Ont. homicide: OPP”, by Adam Beauchemin, published September 3, 2026 at 3:41 p.m. EDT. Places the discovery on the Sunday and describes the deceased as being from Grenville; the discrepancies are flagged in the body above.
- Hometown TV12 Brockville: “Grenville OPP Charge Person in Connection with Homicide in Spencerville”, September 3, 2026, confirming the OPP issued a press release on the Thursday.
- The OPP newsroom renders its release list in JavaScript and could not be read directly; the release is reconstructed from four outlets carrying it, three of them local. No criminal organization has been named by the Ontario Provincial Police in this file, and none is named in this briefing.