Western Canada: DNA identifies now-deceased killer of four young women, girls in Alberta

Hi everyone, Mark Iype in Edmonton today.

It seems every week we hear about a police department somewhere in the world announcing that a DNA match has cracked the case of years-old unsolved crime.

On Friday, as The Globe’s Jana Pruden reported, it was the Alberta RCMP’s turn to share news that they had solved the murders of four young women, whose families had spent nearly 50 years wondering who had killed them.

At a news conference in Edmonton, RCMP said Gary Allen Srery was responsible for the murders of teenagers Eva Dvorak and Patricia “Patsy” McQueen, both 14, Melissa Rehorek, 20, and Barbara MacLean, 19.

“We don’t use the word closure, because you don’t ever get closure when someone in your family is murdered. But you do get answers,” said Staff Sergeant Travis McKenzie at RCMP headquarters on Friday.

An American sex offender originally from the United States, Srery was identified through DNA as the serial killer who strangled the four to death in and around Calgary between February, 1976, and February, 1977.

Srery, who was serving a life sentence in an Idaho prison for rape, died in 2011.

With a long history of violent sexual offences against women and facing new rape charges, Srery made his way to Canada illegally some time between 1974 and 1976.

But he had no recorded contact with police in Canada until 1996, when he was charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement in New Westminster, B.C. He went to prison for that crime, and he was deported once he was freed in 2003.

Investigators released what they know about his whereabouts in that 20-year window in hope that anyone with information about him – including possible survivors of sexual assaults committed by him – will come forward.

“We truly believe the suspect is not involved in only four homicides, but there’s a distinct possibility that he’s responsible for many more, either in Alberta, British Columbia or the Western United States,” Staff Sgt. McKenzie said.

Over the years, police have looked back at the cases of the four women, believing that they were connected. But despite several attempts at identifying the killer, with four separate task forces re-examining the more than 800 tips, 500 statements and the investigation of 853 suspects or persons of interest, Srery’s name never came up.

“His name never surfaced,” Staff Sgt. McKenzie said. “In the investigation world, we have this saying that your suspect’s name is in the file. Srery’s name was never in the file. He was never interviewed. He truly went unnoticed.”

It wasn’t until last year that the pieces finally came together.

As is so often the case, DNA connected all the victims, and then conclusively pointed the finger at Srery.

“In 2023, the Idaho State Police forensic services did a direct match to our suspect’s DNA from all four crime scenes,” Staff Sgt. McKenzie said.

RCMP now hope that the public can help fill “quite significant” gaps in Srery’s history.

“He has a consistent pattern of regularly committing sexual based offences, getting charged, getting convicted. And then when he comes to Canada, it’s almost like he disappears,” Staff Sgt. McKenzie said. “So our biggest concern is that there are other victims out there that we don’t know about.”

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.