Mission Murder

On January 28, 1973, a 14-year-old boy, David Watson, and his two younger sisters were searching for bottles beside the Cade Barr Road in Mission, BC. What they found was the body of a dead girl. The youngsters ran as fast as they could to the General Store - which was owned by their father - and told him about their find. The elder Watson called the R.C.M.P.

Corporal Bomba of the Mission Detachment of the R.C.M.P. went to where the children had found the body. There he found the corpse of a young woman, approximately 20 years old. She was fully clothed and didn't not appear to have been sexually molested. The only signs of injury were bruises on her face and neck. There was no identification on the body - only a business card  for a Vancouver Cab Company. Her face and hands were covered with a white, paste-like substance later found to be garden lime. Was this an attempt to destroy the young woman's identity?

Photographs were taken of the body and then it was removed to the morgue. An autopsy was performed by Dr. Sturrock the next day and it was determined the cause of death was suffocation.  A wad of tissue was in the girl's mouth and another, heavily bloodstained, was in her blouse.

The lime caused third-degree burns on the face and the decomposition suggested death  had occurred days prior to the body being found.

The murder had taken place elsewhere and the children found a body, which had been dumped from a vehicle than rolled into the gully. The R.C.M.P. supplied the media with a description of the victim. Following the news broadcast, four young boys turned in a flight bag containing women's clothing. The boys had found the bag in the bushes beside a railroad track. That location was two miles from where the body was found.

On January 31, the victim was identified as Kathleen Mary McKenzie. Her parents identified the body and the police later confirmed the identity through fingerprint comparison.

Kathleen was in fact 20-years-old and she was living in a basement suite with a young couple Ivan Horvat and Dorothy Irish at 2679 Adanac Street.

February 1, 1973, R.C.M.P. officers went to the Adanac address and spoke with the landlord, Mr. Gobler. Gobler told the officers the suite was rented to Kathy McKenzie on December 30, 1972. Just after the first of the year, a couple - Horvat and Irish - moved in with McKenzie. The landlord had last seen McKenzie in mid-January and the other two had moved out on January 31. They left no forwarding address.

The suite was little more than a cupboard below the front steps of the house and was used as a wine cellar by a previous tenant. When the R.C.M.P. examined it, they found a few personal belongings of Kathleen McKenzie and furniture.

The above information is from the book Policebeat: 24 Vancouver Murders by Joe Swan. Thank you.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

RCPU

The year was 1938 and the Great Depression was hurting many. The maligned federal relief camps run by the Department of Defence had been replaced by relief projects run by the province and financed by both federal and provincial governments. The pay was the same, five dollars a month, and the work was primarily seasonal work on farms.

Many men from other parts of the province came to B.C. because of the milder weather and the opportunity to work on a forestry relief project, which paid more. From the government's point of view, these relief projects were ideal because the men were kept separate and therefore were less likely to organize. They did not want a repeat of the 1935 strike and 'On-to-Ottawa' trek. As well, this kept the disaffected, unemployed men out of urban centres.

This may not have been an ideal plan but at least the men were working, earning a little money and getting by. However, in early 1938, the Prime Minister of Canada cut grants-in-aid to the provinces, killing the relief projects. Premier Pattullo claimed the province could no longer shoulder the financial burden of these projects alone and shut down the relief projects in April.

Hundreds of unemployed men descended on Vancouver and these men were organized under the Relief Project Worker's Union (RCPU). On May 20, 1938, 1200 men left four different halls in East Vancouver - most believing they were heading to Stanley Park for a protest rally. However, when the group arrived at the corner of Granville and Hastings Streets, it became apparent that the park was not the destination.

About 700 men flooded into the newly renovated post office - now Sinclair Centre. Police reinforcements were called from Granville and Georgia Streets, leaving that area clear for 200 men to enter the Hotel Georgia while another 300 entered the Art Gallery.

The owner of the Hotel Georgia refused to call the police, probably worried about the potential property damage that may occur if the law arrived. He paid the group $500 and they left. The other two groups though stayed where they were for weeks to come. The art gallery closed their doors during the occupation but the post office stayed open.

This demonstration was led by a twenty-six-year-old named Steve Brodie. Brodie had been an activist three years earlier in the 1935 demonstrations and was now leader of the Youth Division of the RCPU. Brodie, and the RCPU, emphasized discipline among the protesters in order to get the public sympathy support. To this end, the post office remained open during the occupation.

Chief Constable Colonel W.W. Foster tried to persuade the men to leave, telling them that they had made their point and should now go home. Brodie politely told the Colonel that if these men had homes to go to, they would be in them. He also invited Foster to arrest the men, saying they would submit peacefully. The Chief Constable refused and decided to manage the situation instead of clogging the jails with 1000 new occupants. The attorney-general agreed with the Colonel, reasoning that the men would give up and leave in a few days. But those few days stretched into weeks and police officers stood by, waiting for orders to evict the men.

Colonel Foster had earned a reputation for diplomacy during the 1935 demonstration and it appeared that this was the way he was handling this event. However, behind the scenes, Foster was plotting with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and politicians to evict Brodie and his companions.

So what happens next? I  will tell you on  Friday.

I want to thank Wikipedia for the information on these demonstration.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Main

This is part of where I was headed yesterday before I got deterred. The first place on my stop was the Native Education Centre.

Although this center has been in existence since 1967 it moved into these quarters in 1985. The building was designed to look like  Pacific Coast Longhouse. It is like a piece of nature in the middle of the concrete.

The totem pole has an opening where I was told one woman uses to meditate. There is a door that can be opened on special occassions.

Walk about a block south of the centre and you can see a little bit of history again.

The Doering and Mastrand Brewery Building was built in 1904 when waters from brewery creek used to run through the area. This building has been very useful over the years housing such businesses as a candy factory, dairy, ice plant and a meat packing plant. In 1993 it was converted to, you guessed it, artist live/work studios.

A block or two away from here is the Quebec Manor.

Pretty pictures but I couldn't find a lot of information on this building. I do know that it was built around 1911 - at least according to a tenant that I met outside. He also told me that place is haunted, he deals with a couple of ghosts. In a place this old that isn't surprising.

The tile inlay at the main entrance is eye catching. I also took this next one of the lobby through the front door.

This may not be the best photo of the intricate tile work inside but I love the way the flowers were reflected in the glass.

Quite a few blocks away from here is Heritage Hall.

This building is at the corner of Main and 15th Avenue. When it was built in 1914 - 1916, Main Street was the major north-south connector between Main and Broadway and Main and Hastings.

The detail is exquisite. This building must have had a regal purpose such as a church or something like that. Maybe even a bank.

The land was bought in 1912 by the Canadian government and in 1914  a contract was given to T.J. Whiteside and G.E. Williamson to build a structure designed by A. Campbell Hope, with David Ewart as chief architect. It cost $92, 000 and what was the original purpose? A post office. Speculation was that this area would experience a surge in residents and this ornate building would help to generate more business. That didn't happen. However this building has served Vancouver well over the years.

From 1916 to 1949 Heritage Hall was a post office. From 1937 to 1963 it was the Dominion Agricultural Building and from 1963 to 1976 it was home to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.Then it remained empty and allowed to fall into disuse for six years even though it had been declared a heritage structure in 1974 by the city and in 1976 by Public Works. Fortunately in 1983 a group of people got together, raise funds and brought the hall back to life.

Remember the houses I was showing you yesterday? Well here is another one. This is an Edwardian built in 1908.

Here's its neighbour, built a year before.

Quite some time ago, July 8 2010 to be exact,  I wrote a little piece and showed you photos of a these statues by a stairway leading up the side of the hill from Great Northern Way. Then the statues were grayish, weather beaten and looking old. Now someone has given them new life.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

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