Identified! Canada - Vancouver, 2 WhtMale Brothers, 7-10, "Babes in the Woods", Jan'53 - Derek and David D’Alton

anthrobones

New Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
1,142
Reaction score
253
http://doenetwork.org/cases/68umbc.html

http://doenetwork.org/cases/69umbc.html



Unidentified White Male Located on January 14, 1953 in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada
Cause of death was homicide; the victim and his unidentified brother both died as a result of blunt force trauma to their skulls.



<LI>Both victims had been deceased since approximately the fall of 1947.
  • Estimated age: 7 - 10 years old
  • Approximate Height and Weight: N/A
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: Both children are thought to have had light hair.
  • Dentals: Available
  • Clothing: The boys' clothing had deteriorated by the time their remains were discovered. Both children were wearing brown Oxfords with white crepe rubber soles, identical belts and leather aviation helmets were also found on them, only one flying helmet had goggles. Both wore a type of zipper jacket or sweater.

The victim and his unidentified brother were located in a brush-filled area of Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada in January 1953.
Their heights, weights and eye colors are undetermined due to skeletal remains located at the scene.
The children were covered by what appeared to be a woman's raincape. The bodies were laying in a straight line with their feet almost close together and their heads at opposite directions.
Found among the bodies was a little blue tin lunchbox, the paper lining rotted to a pulpy mess. Also there was a small worn rusty hatchet of the type used by shinglers or lathers, it's handle broken in 2 pieces. The axe was most likely used as the murder weapon in these cases, as one victim's skull had a wound to the back of the head which the axe fit in exact proportions. The other skull was fractured by what may have been the hammer of the axe.
The victim described in Case File 69UMBC was initially believed to be a female child; however, DNA testing conducted in 1998 proved that victim was indeed male and the brother of this victim.

Vancouver police wish to identify a woman & 2 boys who may or may not have been involved with this case. In 1949 or 1950, a man who worked in a logging camp, who was with his buddy, picked up a woman with 2 children. During the ride, she had told the men that she had been in trouble with the Mission police for vagrancy charges. They learned that either one or both her children at sometime attended Cedar Valley school and that she lived on Cherry Street in Mission, B.C. There is the possibility that the woman had meant "Vag C", which in the criminal code at that time meant prostitution. The only description available for this woman is that she had "red hair". The 2 boys who were with her were about 6 & 7 years old and at least one wore an aviator flying helmet. Because of this lead, the police managed to find the family name of "Grant", but this lead was exhausted after speaking to surviving family members.

 
I've heard about this story. It is to me one of the most haunting cold cases I've ever heard about. I always check back on it just in case something has been found.
 
I do not have any more information than what is posted, but do have a few comments or observations.

The boys were dressed in similar fasion, and it would seem that they were dressed for weather of late spring or early fall, more likely early fall, based on the new appearance of the shoe, and the fact that so much of their clothing matched - like the outfits had been purchased for school. Boys have a tendancy to wear out or lose things in the course of time, and so it was more likely early fall, shortly after starting school.

The rainy season begins in Vancouver, BC in early September. the rain cape might indicate that time of year.

The oxfords having white crepe soles might have been a requirement of the school so as not to mark up the floors with black scuff marks. It just seems an odd choice of shoes, as white would get dirty so quickly! The oxfords are similar to Boy Scout shoes of the era, with the exception of the large crepe heels/soles. The size of the sole/heel is like that of the "wing tip" style of shoe.

The leather aviation style caps with goggles were in style for boys in the 1930's and early 1940's. Two of the characters in "A Christmas Story" (about little Ralphie and his BB gun), can be seen wearing that style cap. The year setting for that movie was 1939. While it is possible that that style continued for some time after WW II, I do not recall seeing any such caps in the 1950's.

These little guys were killed by an extremely violent man as evidenced by their injuries and by the fact that the Lath hammer used to kill them had been broken in two places. It is likely that the boys' mother was also killed and that her body is somewhere close to where they were found.

The school mentioned sounds like a good place for them to have checked. If that is the source of the name "Grant" it is possible that they were enrolled under an assumed name rather than their correct one. Could the boys and their mother have been on the run after leaving an abusive home situation? Were they being further pursued?

I wonder where the date of 1947 came from. Perhaps that was the earliest time that logging began, or just an attempt by the Mounties to generate more leads. Maybe a 1947 penny was found at the site? I would think that 1949-50 might be more likely based on the story about the woman and her sons.

What family group is missing from that time frame, and what extremely violent individuals were later caught in that area?
 
Hmmm this sounds more like musclebound loggers work than crazed stranger. The account of injuries is sketchy though. No mention made of multiple blows. If someone was strong enough and could aim good enough to hit and kill with one blow that was additionally strong enough to break the handle of the hatchet once for each child then I think that person would need to have some experience in using a hatchet. I wonder if the witnesses who picked up the woman and children were more than just witnesses?
 
Are there any known newspaper articles on this? Police reports we could see? Anything? It does sounds as though these boys were dressed for school. They appeared to be dressed pretty well too. I wonder if they investigated where these shoes came from.
 
The caps might have been given to them, maybe by a charity or Goodwill type organization which would have a lot of used things, stuff that would be several years old. What about the little blue lunchbox that was found with them. If we could get a picture of it, we could find out when it was made, where it was sold, that would also narrow the time period.I have an account with NewspaperArchives.com. I'll see if I can find any articles there.
 
If you go to A&E Networks website and click onto the episode archives for Cold Case Files, the story of the two skulls is featured in an episode titled "Hunter Homicides/Skulls of Stanley Park. Off to the right side you can click to download the original police report on the skulls. I've been trying to decipher the handwriting. It might provide us with some clues to work from.
 
Susan Shock said:
If you go to A&E Networks website and click onto the episode archives for Cold Case Files, the story of the two skulls is featured in an episode titled "Hunter Homicides/Skulls of Stanley Park. Off to the right side you can click to download the original police report on the skulls. I've been trying to decipher the handwriting. It might provide us with some clues to work from.
Here is my poor attempt at reading the writing in that report:
Vancouver City Police Department
Report Detective Division Branch
To the Chief constable Date Jan20/1953
sir- subject re bodies found in Stanly Park
12:05 (am/pm?) On a call to Ron 34
New T(F?)rentain Hotel and saw George Mcguiness who stated about
3 yrs ago he knew a Jack & Bernice
Wilson who at the time lived in
the Atlantic (Arms or Rooms) and they had
two boys about the age of the ones
found in the park and one day
both those children disappeared and
the Wilsons claimed they had adopted
them out in North Van but he never
saw the children again. He saw
Wilson last about 2 1/2 yrs ago. Wilson
at the time was working as a
laborer on the Granville (?) ft. bridge when
they were repaving it and later worked
at Port (Hardy?). He has seen Bernice
Wilson since the last time she was
living in a rooming house near the White
Land (200 or Zoo?) (at?) W. P(ember?) St. Jack Wilson
served a term in Alberta? for forgery but
was arrested in Van. he is described
*********************
Next Page
*********************
as 35-38 yrs. 5' 5 1/2" med build,
138 lbs and dark hair.
(unknown - signature?)
(Desor?) of 2 boys skeletons of boy or girls.
Note added at bottom of page:
Boys Located
apprehended by welfare
Tip concurred
(signature?)
http://www.aetv.com/tv/shows/coldcasefiles/evidence/police_report.fh10.pdf
 
Looks pretty good. You got further with it than I did. Perhaps the next step is to find out more about these Wilsons, what happened to them, if they really had children and those two found were theirs.

I think also that a new forensic reconstruction needs to be done on the skulls. What was done earlier is probably not very accurate. New facial reconstructions might trigger memories in someone.

Oops. Didn't see the last page about boys being apprehended. Still, I wonder though.
 
Just a thought, why is it that these two boys were so violently murdered and then placed so ceremoniously together (the way they were found) and covered almost like someone else was there besides the killer.
 
Hollow said:
Just a thought, why is it that these two boys were so violently murdered and then placed so ceremoniously together (the way they were found) and covered almost like someone else was there besides the killer.

Like a parent (mother), covering their child at night. Good point.
 
Hollow said:
Just a thought, why is it that these two boys were so violently murdered and then placed so ceremoniously together (the way they were found) and covered almost like someone else was there besides the killer.
....or that the killer was someone who cared about them, which doesn't make any sense.
 
Look at the difference in the terrain of Stanley park from that time period until now (see link). I had found an article about a boatwreck in this area with some older boys (17-21) that were lost in this virtual jungle and the searchers had said they were giving up hope of finding them because of the overgrowth and it was too hard. No wonder these boys weren't discovered for so long. Also, from this same era, almost on every news page, someone was being arrested for vagrancy, so the "redhead" very well might have meant just that.

www.seestanleypark.com
 
Excellent article! Thank goodness for Honeybourn, otherwise they never would have got the DNA tested, and they'd still be looking for a boy and a girl, instead of 2 brothers!
 
My thinking is, if this womans shoe (one shoe?) was left behind, why would she do that? Makes me think there was a struggle, that she lost it. Would she leave her coat if it was cold, even to cover her sons??? Seems like you wouldn't want to lose a necessity like a coat, just thinking out loud on the computer.
 
If it was fur, as the investigator stated in the article, its possible it had blood on it. It wasn't laid over the boys to comfort them, instead it was done so that it would be laid as flat as possible, before the boys, and the evidence was buried.
 
PonderingThings said:
If it was fur, as the investigator stated in the article, its possible it had blood on it. It wasn't laid over the boys to comfort them, instead it was done so that it would be laid as flat as possible, before the boys, and the evidence was buried.
I don't think they were buried, were they???
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
183
Guests online
843
Total visitors
1,026

Forum statistics

Threads
589,937
Messages
17,927,915
Members
228,006
Latest member
Suesleuth
Back
Top