Edmonton, Alberta

Alberta RCMP offering $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a serial killer preying on women in the Edmonton area. Details

The following is copied from the CBC.

INDEPTH: EDMONTON MURDERS - Edmonton's murdered women

CBC News Online | Updated June 17, 2005

Police in Edmonton are looking for someone whom many people are calling a serial killer, targeting women. They have released a profile of a man they believe has killed several prostitutes and have offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

The profile prepared by the RCMP's Behavioural Science Branch suggests he:

• Drives a reliable, high-mileage truck, van or sport utility vehicle, and is comfortable driving in rural areas.
• Likes to hunt, fish, camp or participate in other outdoor activities.
• Has a past or present connection to the area south of Edmonton, including Leduc, Camrose and New Sarepta. May clean his vehicle at odd times of the day.
• Since 1983, more than 20 Edmonton women have been found murdered. All are described by police as being prostitutes or having high-risk lifestyles and only five of the cases have been solved.

Since 1983, more than 20 Edmonton women have been found murdered. All are described by police as being prostitutes or having high-risk lifestyles and only five of the cases have been solved.

The situation has stoked the growing fear in the city's estimated yearly population of 400 sex trade workers – a community already reeling from the discoveries in January of two of its members murdered.

Kourch Chan is a social worker with Crossroads, an outreach program for Edmonton sex trade workers. In an interview with CBC News Online in 2003, he said many of his clients had been "nervous and quite scared," since the bodies of Melissa Munch and Monique Pitre were discovered that month. "People are a little more hesitant to get out," he said. "There's a lot of speculation that there's one person who could have (committed the murders)."

While RCMP investigators say they have no information to prove any of the killings are related, they have joined forces with Edmonton city police to explore the possibility. City police are reopening all old case files involving missing women to see if there is any link to the most recent crimes.

Here is a list of women who have been found under similar circumstances since 1983:

• May 6, 2005:
  The body of sex-trade worker Ellie May Meyer, 33, is found near Sherwood Park.
• April 18, 2005:
  RCMP in Alberta identify the body of Charlene Gauld, 20, who burned remains were found near Camrose.
• Jan. 25, 2005:
  The body of 19-year-old Samantha Tayleen Berg is discovered under snow in a parking lot on Edmonton's North Side. The teenager worked in the sex trade.
• June 11, 2004:
  The body of 19-year-old Rachel Quinney is found in a wooded area near Sherwood Park, an Edmonton suburb.
• July 7, 2003:
  The body of 40-year-old Katie Sylvia Ballentyne, who worked in the sex trade, is found in Leduc County, about 20 km south of Edmonton. She is the fourth female found outside Edmonton in 2003, the fifth in 10 months. Her body was located in a field near Range Road 235, just north of Township Road 500.
• April 12, 2003:
  The skull and remains of 29-year-old Debbie Lake, a former prostitute, are found near Highway 623 near Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, approximately 70 km southeast of Edmonton.
• Jan. 12, 2003
  20-year-old Melissa Munch is found dead in a stand of trees on a farmer's field west of Range Road 220 and south of Highway 16 in Strathcona County. The discovery is made four days after the body of Monique Pitre was found less than 10 kilometres away.
• Jan. 8, 2003:
  The frozen body of Monique Pitre, 30, is found in a field south of Fort Saskatchewan (Range Road 222 and Township Rd). There is trauma to her entire body.
• Sept. 23, 2002:
  The burned body of 28-year-old Edna Bernard is found in a field east of Leduc, near Range Road 245, north of Highway 623.
• Jan. 27, 2001:
  24-year-old Kelly Dawn Reilly is found dead behind a gravel operation in the area of Range Road 264 and secondary highway 633, near Villeneuve.
• Sept. 1, 1997:
  22-year-old Cara King is found in a canola field in Sherwood Park (Highway 214 and Hwy. 16), east of Edmonton.
• June 14, 1997:
  The body of 24-year-old Jessica Cardinal is found in an alley behind a commercial building at 9325-111th Avenue. Her body is discovered behind a discarded shelving unit. Edmonton police have no suspect in her death.
• Oct. 19, 1997:
  The body of Joyce Hewitt is found in Sherwood Park, near 17th Street and 89th Avenue. RCMP spokesperson Roxanne Beaubien says Hewitt had a "high-risk lifestyle." The circumstances of her death were not available.
• Dec. 25, 1996:
  24-year-old Joanne Ghostkeeper is found strangled in her Edmonton apartment at 11925-34th Street East. Police have no suspect in her death.
• Feb. 11, 1993:
  The partially decomposed body of 25-year-old Elaine Ross is found stuffed under a bed in a motel room on 183rd Street near Stony Plain Road, Edmonton. Autopsy results were inconclusive and a cause of death is unknown, but police are treating it as a homicide.
• Dec. 21, 1990:
  Lorraine Wray, a 46-year-old masseuse and mother of one, is found strangled in the bathroom of her Edmonton business, West End Studio, at 15526 Stony Plain Road. According to Edmonton police spokesperson Dean Parthenis, several autopsies were performed, leading investigators to determine "manual strangulation" as the cause of death.
• Oct. 25, 1990:
  29-year-old Mavis Mason is found stabbed to death on a rural road west of Edmonton.
• Oct. 25, 1989:
  Bernadette Ahenakew, a 22-year-old mother of three, is found dead in a ditch alongside a rural road near Sherwood Park.
• Sept. 13, 1988:
  The body of 20-year-old Georgette Flint is found in Elk Island National Park. An exact cause of death is not determined.
• Sept. 21, 1986:
  The body of 21-year-old Melodie Joy Riegel is found on a hotel-room bed. She was last seen entering the hotel with a client.
• 1983:
  The skeletal remains of 21-year-old Gail Cardinal are found 10 kilometres south of Fort Saskatchewan. RCMP spokesperson Roxanne Beaubien says Cardinal had a "high-risk lifestyle." No cause was determined in her death.

Solved Murders
• 1993: Linda Giles (circumstances unavailable)
• 1996: Charmaine Pidlesny (circumstances unavailable)
• 1999: Sherry Ann Upright (circumstances unavailable)
• 1999: Catherine Ann Burrell (circumstances unavailable)
• April 26, 2001:
  Ginger Lee Bellerose is found in the courtyard area of Edmonton's International Hotel (since razed). The 26-year-old mother had been beaten to death. The murder was solved March 14, 2003 and 52-year-old Medicine Hat resident Richard David Douglas was charged with second-degree murder. Edmonton police do not suspect this murder was connected with the others.

Sources: Edmonton Police Service; RCMP; Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton; Canadian Press