Identified! Canada - Tofield, AB, 'Septic Tank Sam' Ntv/WhtMale 1046UMAB, Apr'77 - Gordon Edwin Sanderson

[breachtones]

My best guess has to be personal vendetta. I don't think a gang-related crime or hate crime would involved such brutal torture to the genitalia.

 

[beubeubeu]

How long? Every violent racist in Edmonton willing to kill an indigenous man. That puts it in four, maybe five figures - yes, I'm talking 10,000.

You can start theorising with 10.000 people, or even 100.000 people. Sooner or later, you'll end up with very few.

Even thou it's certainly possible that this level of sadistic violence could be aimed at random victim with no previous connection, but that is unlikely here cause he was abducted at the time where his disappearance was conveniently covered by his plans to visit brother who lived far away.
Can you name few violently murdered Indigenous men in Canada who's cases were thoroughly investigated, widely publicised and followed by the community? I'm not a Canadian, but I can't. Never heard of it. He could be dumped on the street in 1977 and it wouldn't be thoroughly investigated, cause there will be no such expectations from the community. But he wasn't. They made an effort to not only torture him and murder him, but from all, long, long list of possible places to hide a body in Canada, places where he'd never be found, or where he'd be easily found with no significant effort to make him any justice, he was thrown head down into a septic tank and covered in lime.
Many racially motivated murders in Canada? Many. Many this cruel? Many. Many victims found head down in septic tanks? Not many. So you can narrow it down to a person (who doesn't have to be known to be a violent racist, to be the worse of what humanity has to offer) who knew that abandoned property is there, that septic tank is there, and that people not tend to wander around there. That's not 10.000 people.
And Lindbrook isn't just conveniently close to where he lived or where he could be spotted on the street and abducted. It's a distance. Reasonably close but still, a distance.

I don't see a violent racist happily driving with kidnapped man that he's willing to murder in his truck and just searching for a good place to torture him, murder him and dump his body. Neither would I expect such a person to want to have his body in his car any longer that it's absolutely necessary to fullfill the crime.
They had all the reasons to not feel threatened by any legal consequences of murdering Gordon. They had all the reasons to expect that noone will be bothered with his death, no matter how horrific it was. Was there anyone who would hold a grudge over it so high that they'd fear that as soon as these people will learn what happened to Gordon, they'll find them and do same to them? I don't think so.
They did it this way and they used this location cause IMO they felt comfortable there. Cause they had knowledge of the area. And that narrows down the suspect list significantly.

And then you have not a few, but neither a 10.000. Few hundreds at worse.
You can't investigate few hundreds of suspects, but you can keep thinking.
Two possibilities there, and having access to a local case files you'll be able to tell.

Not that many THIS horrendous crimes against Indigenous man in the area? Then you can assume that more likely than not, thing was personal. So you're narrowing it down to the people who had ties to Lindbrook and knew Gordon close enough to know that he's going to visit his brother and you'll end up with single digits.
Many crimes like that in the area? Many this cruel? Many unsolved? Big community of racist violent trash in the area? Then what on Earth would stop them from bragging about it? Not LE. Not community outrage. Not bad experiences with expressing their hate and commiting crimes. Then what? Nothing. They'd be bragging about it over the years making the mistery solvable. Why even try to hide that from people who would be up for doing the same and admire the crime?

To keep every racist violent man in the area as possible suspect you have to assume that you're dealing with a community of people who keep doing things with no apparent reason.
Being a racist violent psycho is in a reason for a violent racist psycho to torture and murder a person of color.
But here, there are few more "reasons" that the murderer/s had to do what they did.
Taking an effort to hide such a crime? - why?
Hundreds of Indigenous man beaten to death after whitnessed abduction and no conviction in last 20-30 years. Much worse back then. Some scary, threatening convictions for the murderers? No. Then why?
Why attempt to hide identity of a victim and carry a body to a place where it won't be discovered anytime soon (but surely and unavoidably at some point will be)? - they had a reason to do that and not having anything better to do than messing up with a dead body is not a good enough reason, people don't do that. Throwing him head down into a septic tank could be the last act of cruelty towards him. Racist violent psychos could have fun doing that just cause they could (and knew of this abandoned property). But they also covered him in lime. Why? By accident? They didn't seem that sloppy. Throwing someone in somebody elses septic tank costs zero money. Lime cost something. Why waste it? It doesn't hurt a dead person. It's not degrading either. No matter how you look at it it's a lead.

And that lead either points at this widely repeated theory of it being failed attempt to speed up decomposition or...
What does that mean he was covered in lime? Was that lime all over the septic tank, like someone emptied a bucket full of it in there? Or was it mostly on the body?

Btw. is that assumption that murderers thought that it will slow down decomposition just a wild lazy guess that someone made at some point or is there actually something to support that? Is or was it some common belief that lime can do that? Was it mentioned in movies? Crime books maybe?

If not, then... well. Lindbrook seems to be a farming community. How big are those farms? Pretty big? And what kind of lime that was? They should be able to tell if some more sophisticated mixture, or the most commonly used agricultural lime.
If it was agricultural lime, why not wonder if it maybe wasn't done on purpose?
He was found in April 13th. So spring. Was there for months up to possibly longer. What about "since the Fall", before crop fields around were turned - cause that's when farmers are adding lime to the soil to increase soil quality and better their crops. And they're using a lot of lime. A LOT. Many big bags. Many big bags that are usually bought not long before using them. And transported to the farms. Maybe in a cargo bed of a pickup truck - which would be all covered in lime, spilling from its bags.
Isn't that more likely explanation of WHY he was covered in lime? Cause his body was thrown onto same cargo bed that was previously used to transport lime for a farm?
UNLESS there really was common belief of lime speeding up decomposition. Which I personally never heard of anywhere apart from this case, that's why I wonder.

And on what exactly they based that assumption that he wasn't local? Anything but noone from Lindbrook going missing?
I don't follow. How being covered in lime, and being found on farm, near other big farms, where people do farming, and use lime while farming speaks "most likely an failed attempt to speed up the decomposition"?
But they also assummed that he was seasonal worker from somewhere else. So they were seasonal workers employed on these farms. Guys who had nothing better to do on their break than to look around and discuss what field/property belongs to who and which one is abandoned, cause it's interesting thing to mention. This screams seasonal worker or local farmer with some ties to Gordon.

Didn't they also have a bullets recovered? Even if it wasn't possible to match it to any specific guns, it should narrow down the possibilities at least a bit. His murderer was also a gun owner, comfortable with shooting, with access to a place to torture him so much, so not bothered with noise. Secluded location. Like some farm building. Easy access to a butane torch, farm shears. Come on... good investigation and single digits suspect list.

 

[breachtones]

Oh yeah, not sure how helpful this is, but these are pictures from some 70s newspaper article, can't remember which one.

https://imgur.com/a/ELm1reN

 

[beubeubeu]

My best guess has to be personal vendetta. I don't think a gang-related crime or hate crime would involved such brutal torture to the genitalia.

Gang-related seems to be less likely not cause of it's brutality, as gangs around the World go that far and further, but cause of supposed lack of similar level of brutality with other crimes in the area. Gangs are usually doing stuff for their gang business, to send some kind of message to other gangs or to scare people and don't shy away from claiming their involvement. There is no use for gang to have such a horrific crime hidden, unless it'd be show for those forced to whitness that. Could be of course some extremely sadistic and high profile member's actions falling under the umbrella of all gang crimes, as that is not unheard of either, but in neither of those cases it'd be one time thing, there would be other tortured victims.

As for hate crimes... I don't have access to any specific data, but aren't they usually much more brutal than personal vendettas? Most personal vendettas go only as far as doing whatever feels necessary to stop a person from living, maybe making some sort of statement or sending a message to someone - and that message waters down to "don't mess with me".
Hate crime is to punish someone for being alive, it's personal vendetta and beyond.
I don't know, I'm not sure, I only rely on things that I've read and heard - those things made me believe that it's very often for people, while being angry, outraged, furious, hateful and so on - they tend to fantasize, say or threat that "this person should be tortured to death, castrated..." while reffering to pedophiles, rapists, cheaters, men responsible for humiliating them or rejecting their advances. But this is what they say, not what they do. And from those that follow these urges to the extreme and are commiting murders very few are using torture. I mean - scarily many, but it's minority nonetheless.

On the other hand hate crimes are almost always brutal cause racial hate don't sooth with simply shooting someone. To even reach the level of being mentally able to murder someone over their race, religion, sexual orientation, or economic class... it requires years and years of building up and feeding this hate, it doesn't just appear at random. And these people also have these common fantasies I'd think, or at least they're widely exposed to it since I'm seeing this in every outraged comment section since comment sections became available.
I mean... personal vendetta is "just" personal vendetta, hate crime is personal vendetta and so much more.
People who actually became victims of the most sadistic crimes are the most vulnerable, cause sadism is less fueled by rage than it is by disgust, twisted feeling of righteousness and awareness that risk of retaliation is slim to none.
I don't think that castration is so rare in hate crimes, and surely wasn't decades ago. And racist philosophy is literally denying people right to live and procreate. Pretty close associacion with mutilating genitals. Kicking men in the abdomen during racially motivated assault is not rare at all.

 

[beubeubeu]

I wonder if they did their footwork right back then. Not much to work with, but there is this nylon rope. Was it exact same nylon rope that people in the area had? In Lindbrook? In neighbouring farms? Same kind that could be find in every hardware store in Tofield? Alberta? Or possibly different?

Here is some relatively new video about the case:

"Last time his family heard from Sanderson was IN SEVENTY SEVEN?!"
Not sure how accurate is that, since just a second later lady speaks about body being in septic tank for years and years - and he was not there for "years".

Another shocking info I just found but can find a source of it is that farm was abandoned for just a year. A year!? And owners lived just minutes away.
It takes some inside knowledge to be sure that nobody's going to show up in a week or two. Especially considering how many forests, lakes and secluded spots are around there. Nobodys showing up at random property to hide a body in their septic tank. And septic tanks need to be emptied regularily. As soon as someone would move in that property, that septic tank would be open and body found. Just bones if years would pass, but still. Why hide a body in a place where it will be unavoidably found?
Unless... you own this septic tank? wish all the worst on the property owners? don't care that he'll be find cause you're confident thats not going to happen soon enough for anyone to tell who he is and connect it to you?

 

[beubeubeu]

I have hard time trying to stop thinking about the case till I feel that I already got into everything that I could. So, few more random thoughts:

This crime didn't have to be gang related, revenge killing or hate crime, could be combination of two or even a few.

It's not adding much, but we can safely assume that Gordon's murderer was also a smoker.

I can't watch youtube videos about him. It makes me sick how easy it for people to decide that he was most likely a bad guy and a child molester cause he got so badly mutilated and tortured before murdered. Okay if it's just somebody's theory, it's a good theory as one of few, but there is something wrong with the fact that majority of people have so much trust in unknown murderer's judgement and good intentions. Unidentified victim (at the time when vids were made), unidentified killer, and somehow the murderer is more reliable, what the actual hell is happening there?

I wonder what was the usual choice for people who used lime in farming there: Fall or Spring? It's much better to do it before Winter, but I just learned that some people do that early Spring while it's still cold.

Maybe septic tank wasn't his murderer's first choice? Maybe they just had no better idea cause at the time of murder soil was frozen solid? And then they recalled of this abandoned property with septic tank?

Wasn't that a thing there for seasonal farm workers to head (back) to the nearest city for late Fall till early Spring, where there is not much work to do on farms?
It's hard to make any guesses not knowing much about the area. These arrangements may vary quite a bit: regular workers, seasonal workers, people who show up only for few weeks where there is the most work to do with crops and managing fields... or no workers at all, just people owning small farms with just family members working there.
But even that last possibility still means some people showing up at the properties occasionally. Like those who were emptying septic tanks. They would learn pretty quickly that oh, these neighbours don't need that now, they moved and their old house is just left there abandoned.

Edit:
The info about this case is not great. One place there is a claim that he could be in the tank for many months, including Summer months yet his clothes aren't made from 100% polyester and look relatively good considering the circumstances. Another claims that's miracle that he got found cause few Summer months and there would be nothing left of him. Is that true? For septic tank in use I have no doubts, but abandoned?
He probably was there for less than 4 months and one of the reasons why he didn't decompose so fast was cause of Winter cold.

 

[beubeubeu]

It's so frustrating that with every case I ever tried to think about it's never straightforward: here are the oficially released facts, here is the known timeline, but always well, either fact A or B is correct, if it's A then theory C makes sense, but if it's B then theory C makes zero sense... and so on, till whole alphabet is not enough to follow. And not only with old ones, even with relatively new.

Some things make sense here thou.

RCMP found him April 13, 1977, in a 1.8-meter deep septic tank on land at an abandoned farmhouse. He was found rolled in a yellow bed sheet, which was tied with nylon rope.

The abandoned farmhouse where the septic tank was and the victim’s body discovered
April 13, 1977. (...)
RCMP investigating the case described the murder as one of the most vindictive and sadistic they had ever seen."

(...)

According to RCMP, there wasn’t any evidence the victim was murdered on the property where his body was dumped."

No traces of any criminal activity related to Gordon's torture and murder on the property & the fact that he was rolled in bed sheet which was tied with nylon rope - cause that indicates that he was tortured and murdered at one location with his body later prepared for transportation to the dumping site.
With this specific septic tank on abandoned property in Lindbrook being NOT a thing of convenience, it was NOT chosen cause it was just there as the first acceptable dumping site in sight.

Biker gangs were mentioned in this thread before. I can see bikers checking out the area for abandoned properties, but I don't think so cause there are other places to hide the body, and if someone really wants to hide it and doesn't go for close and convenient won't risk the whole thing fail cause supposedly abandoned property ended up as being for sale or "something" would happen and either owners or their relatives end up moving back in the next day, with one of the first things they do being to check if septic tank needs maitenance.
Gordon's murderer had to have all reasons he needed to be sure than nobody's coming back there anytime soon. And no random stranger can have that knowledge.
Unless he chatted with locals about it, but then why locals wouldn't report it? There would be pretty easily connectable dots: body found on this property, few months earlier some random stranger asking about it -> sounds fishy, may be worth reporting.

It had to be someone known to the property owners or their new/old neighbours. Maybe a guy responsible for collecting gas/electricity bills/checking monthly usage... or those responsible for dealing with septic tank waste or someone from those people's closest circle of friends/family/acquaintances.

That's pretty high number of suspects, but ruling out all who weren't smoking or driving, all that lived or worked more than five minutes away from the property. It should be solvable. At least now, when Gordon got his name back.

RCMP investigating the case described the murder as one of the most vindictive and sadistic they had ever seen."

So apparently not much of similar things happening around there.
And some gang activity certainly was present in the area.
I highly doubt that this case would be still worked on if they'd notice significant amount of similarities with gang related crimes. First cause these are not the highest priority anywhere, second, cause LE usually have not that bad of an idea what's happening in local gangs (and that would allow them to have it somewhat figured out, at least mostly).
So I tend to assume that was not the case and Gordon's murder stood out.

As someone pointed it out here before - unlikely that he was police informant. He was from the area and that police officer would notice that his informant mysteriously disappeared.
Falsely suspected informant? Gang victim? Such a good theory but damn, also unlikely. 45 years passed. 45 years is more than enough for few gang members to end up in prison and start talking. Apparently nobody did. And it could be a good info to bargain with local police.

Same thing with hate crime. Nobody starts commiting racially motivated hate crimes with something like this just to stop right away. Even if LE wouldn't care about local indigenous men being beaten up, tortured and mutilated, Indignenous people would care very much. And they would know, they'd be scared. And again, 45 years and bit of decrease in racism is long enough to at least one person to lose it and scream in frustration about all these horrible acts they fell victims of while LE didn't care. Some of that probably happened, but still, nothing similar.

At the time of his death, he was wearing a blue work shirt, grey T-shirt and blue jeans. He was wearing brown shoes that were an imitation Wallabee brand. During the time of his death, there were a lot of laborers working on the construction of power lines in the area."

Those laborers could also have pretty good idea of which houses are abandoned, access to a fire torch for sure, but at least in my area, that would mean bunch of guys with no privacy, sleeping in same shed or barrack, or on as many beds as whatever room they got allowed it to stuff in there. But they may have different arrangements. And them being not local would explain lack of similar crimes in the area... but it doesn't explain lack of tips from the community. Not that many reasons to cover up or keep silence for some random strangers who likely would be also pretty troubling for the community.

"RCMP believe he may have been murdered as early as April 1976.

Okay, I think I get it now.
So April '76 is probably when property owners emptied septic tank and move out and everything about '76 is just estimated possible date, and articles written after his identification didn't have or didn't include info from his sister, that she was still in touch with him in early '77.
Some sense it makes. If she assumed that he disappeared on his way to Calgary or even after arriving there, and all the news from the area who mentioned Sam were talking about a victim murdered months before she last saw him.

It may be too far fetched, cause it could be explained by her simply not wanting to even consider that her brother could met such horrific fate, but why she (possibly, if she ever stumbled on Sam's clothing description or pictures) didn't recognize them?
Maybe cause she never saw them before, early '77 would be still the time for people to take new/best clothes while travelling somewhere.

On the other hand...

"At the time of his death, he was wearing a blue work shirt, grey T-shirt and blue jeans. He was wearing brown shoes that were an imitation Wallabee brand"

Grey t-shirt? Blue work shirt? Coincidentally it looks like on the only available pictures of him he's wearing exactly that: grey t-shirt and blue work shirt.

These pictures are too blurry to tell but it looks like it's possible that he was wearing the exact same shirt while he was murdered.



Shirts look similar, but there may be a clue here. If there is still someone who remember his dressing habits and could answer few questions:
Was this what he was wearing most of the time?
Was blue work shirt his usual choice when he was heading to visit someone?
And what about his shoes? Was he proud of them? Possibly his best shoes, something what he'd wear for a date? Or his only pair of shoes?
Somebodys memory could tell what were his plans, where he was heading while he got abducted.

Also we're apparently talking January in Canada. The coldest month.
Freezing cold. Weather archive says it was as low as -27°F. WIth average lowest 5°F and average highest 25°F - the latter obviously during few short hours in the day.
Where are his long underpants? If he expected to spend some time outside, he should have something more on him than just jeans. And he shoudl definitely have them while heading to Calgary.

And ground was frozen solid. So digging a grave or going anywhere far would be pretty inconvenient for a murderer. That septic tank must be a dumping spot of convenience.

But what about snow? It was snowing almost daily. Half of an inch on average. Not enough to cover everything but long enough to keep tracks visible for long.
So... what about people who were driving snow plows in the area? Wouldn't it stood out for them that on the road leading to the abandoned property there are suddenly some tire tracks? Wouldn't that stood out for a neighbour?
And how they even got there? Nobody was plowing that abandoned property's driwevay I'd assume. And weather archives suggest that there could be at least 3-4 inches of snow around 5th of January. Double that around 15th.
It was all covered in snow. Which makes the chance of it being an action of some random, not local person a perp here absolutely ridiculous. And rules out all these construction laboreres that were supposedly in the area. They were there in Summer/Fall of 1976 I assume. Not in freezing cold snowy January, shoveling snow to get to the septic tank's cover which was described as "barely visible".

Whoever got to that septic tank in snowy, freezing January was pretty confident of both: it's exact location and neighbours habits. Maybe that means that murder was planned months ahead and they were just waiting for convenient time to kidnap, torture, murder and eventually dump Gordon's body in there.
My guess would be that whoever opened (and closed) that septic tank cover in January had some excuse for his presence there, even at very unlikely time to stumble on anyone. And that would mean definitely local. And likely someone who opened that before. Maybe while checking it out, maybe while building it, and maybe emptying it.

Also, what rando could be sure that septic tank isn't full?
How could he be sure that owners emptied it before leaving?
Even if they did, few cracks in the wall and it could get full from ground water fast. We're talking premeditated crime here and dumping body in cold, freezing, snowy January. Abandoned septic tank. As far as random person concern goes, it could be not only full but also frozen solid. Luckily for them it wasn't? That septic tank was not that deep. And temperature dropped enough to make it likely for it to freeze. It was not below the ground freezing line, and no flow coming into it for months. Could snow insulate that? Possibly, but still, it speaks either of Gordon murderers luck, or some knowledge about septic tanks in general, and this specific septic tank as well.

Back in 1977 – only a few months before the body was found – Sgt. Lammerts, who was new to the Tofield detachment back then, responded to a call about a two to five-minute drive from the septic tank. He described the call as a “peculiar incident” but said he couldn’t “expound on that,” because if “you can’t prove it, you can’t say it.”

He thinks there may be a connection.

Sgt. Warren said there weren’t any strong suspects but he also had his own idea who may have been the killer(s).

“I have my suspicions and I will leave it at that.”

Identifying the victim key to solving the crime"

Two to five minute drive from that septic tank would be also two to five minute drive to owner's new property.
Possibly in another direction, but maybe not? Maybe someone had good eye on the owners. Possibly some friend who helped them move and shut down the old farmhouse? Maybe even help them empty their septic tank?

Also this timing seems to be scarily accurate. What this could mean "few months"... before April? If it'd be March, he wouldn't say "few months". February... still more likely to say "two", some people say a "couple months" when they mean "two months". January fits perfectly. Especially that it was the earliest possibility given by the autopsy and Sgt. Lammerts considered a connection there. So it had to be January.

And he had his suspects.
So this may be still solvable after all.

(I quotted dotr's post, since original article is no longer available).

 

[breachtones]

January fits perfectly. Especially that it was the earliest possibility given by the autopsy and Sgt. Lammerts considered a connection there. So it had to be January.

And he had his suspects.
So this may be still solvable after all.

When you really narrow it down, yeah, it very well could be solvable. The suspect had to know about this obscure, hidden-away septic tank on an abandoned farmhouse. If I were the perp, I wouldn't look at that house and immediately think it's abandoned because it doesn't look in that bad of a shape in the pictures. I would have to have frequented that area enough to recognize nobody goes there anymore, or have spoken to or known the McLeods well enough to realize they are moving to a new house and have left this one derelict.

The perp would likely have had access to lime, making him a seasonal worker. But since it's January 1977, the ground is frozen solid, the crops are all dead, no farming work to be done. Perhaps when there is no farming work to be done, he is some sort of a plumber. Am I correct in believing butane torches (like those used on Gordie) are also used in plumbing? Whoever it is has to have at least some ties to Edmonton as well.
I wonder if Lammerts and the Tofield RCMP have looked into people who have done work on that particular septic tank, or other septic tanks in the area.

The only enemy now is time. There's a good chance many people involved have already passed away

 

[beubeubeu]

The perp would likely have had access to lime, making him a seasonal worker. But since it's January 1977, the ground is frozen solid, the crops are all dead, no farming work to be done. Perhaps when there is no farming work to be done, he is some sort of a plumber. Am I correct in believing butane torches (like those used on Gordie) are also used in plumbing? Whoever it is has to have at least some ties to Edmonton as well.
I wonder if Lammerts and the Tofield RCMP have looked into people who have done work on that particular septic tank, or other septic tanks in the area.

The only enemy now is time. There's a good chance many people involved have already passed away

Well... Not really a need for seasonal worker. It's even less likely like that. What seasonal worker would have access to a location in lindbrook in the middle of winter? Local would. As for bhutane torch... A plumber yes, but just generally handy man would have that. You need that to fix farming vehicles, plows and so on. I wouldn't expect everyone having that in their garage but every other person probably. He'd be known for fixing things or burned himself accidentally while torturing Gordon if he wasn't used to that. And some leftovers lime could just sit in their barn, waiting for the next season.
Unless people at lindbrook weren't using lime on their fields, but that narrows down the suspects list even further.

 

[beubeubeu]

What we know about the crime scene is that it was:
- somewhere in Lindbrook, less than few minutes drive from the abandoned property,
- inside a building (may be a house, may be barn or some farm building),
- in some distance from the nearest occupied house,
- in a place where butane torch and farm shears were at easy grab.

Yes, those items could be brought there, but why? could those things have some special significance to the murderer? there is no shortage of that you can find in the house and use them to inflict horrific tortures on someone? but they didn't use some kitchen appliances - why? If he was tied to a bed, then kitchen should be closer than garage or barn where bhutane torch and farm shears would be. But they're not grabbing anything from the kitchen.
They're also not concerned with the mess. What with all the blood? Who'd torture a guy to death on his own bed? That's way more cleaning, and it's rural area, farm buildings are all around. Abandoned ones were probably checked by LE. So... not abandoned, inhabited.
So murderer either owned a garage, barn or some other farm building in the area or had exclusive access to it in January '77.
I can't narrow down the location of the abandoned property, but I'm now under impression that it was on the verge of Lindbrook and farther from Tolbrook than property owner's new home (so closer to Alberta).

So I'd guess it was somewhere along the road that led from Alberta to Lindbrook and eventually that abandoned property. South Lindbrook probably.
Access to Gordon's last known address and abandoned property location should probably help narrow it down significantly.

And the murderer was:
- local,
- smoker,
- gun owner,
- farm worker, likely farm owner or close relative to farm owner,
- a man,
- handy man,
- car owner, car that wouldn't bury itself in snow easily,
I'm backing out on a plumber unless the type of plumber that deals more with septic tanks than sinks and pipes. Cause nylon rope, not just some rope. That hints at farmer along with lime and farm shears.
- to some degree experienced mechanic,
- close to abandoned property owners,
- in some way connected to Gordon,
- violent and sadistic,
- yellow bedsheet owner.

 

[breachtones]

So I'd guess it was somewhere along the road that led from Alberta to Lindbrook and eventually that abandoned property. South Lindbrook probably.
Access to Gordon's last known address and abandoned property location should probably help narrow it down significantly.

This is all from memory right now, but I think the farm (which has since been torn down) was located off of Highway 14. The Global News segment on it pans over to Range Road 200 by AB-14, so I’m thinking it was probably there.

In a 1974-ish phone book, I did see a Gordon E Sanderson who lived roughly right in the middle of downtown Edmonton. Big 60s looking apartment block. Will try and see where exactly it was.

 

[beubeubeu]

This is all from memory right now, but I think the farm (which has since been torn down) was located off of Highway 14. The Global News segment on it pans over to Range Road 200 by AB-14, so I’m thinking it was probably there.

I tried to find similar looking crossroad around Range Road 200 but failed, and it doesn't really matter that much as far as online brainstorming goes (the exact location I mean). It's good to see that on the map, but at the end only local would be able to figure if there are some hints there or not.
Sadly the estimated TOD included so many Spring, Summer and Fall months that it could not spike a lot of attention since the body was discovered also at the time when snow was long gone.
It looks like this could be a dirt road. Many houses along it back then? Were snow plows riding along this road daily or were people from the nearby households forced to figure it out by themselves? Was that usually covered in deep snow or maybe wind was taking away most of it?
All of that just to figure out: was any significant additional effort needed on the murderer's side to get to the abandoned property in January '77 and if they had any reasons to be concerned that their visit can get any attention from neighbours.

I mean: if that road used to be completely covered in snow and people needed chains or had to remove snow with their own plows, and if there were few inhabited houses along that road, with no random traffic, then high chances that someone driving to work/store/whatever could see tire tracks or road cleaned off all snow all of the sudden would notice that and see that as odd.
Too many years to expect anyone to remember such detail, if those neighbours are even still alive but just that knowledge: that there could be a reason for such concern may work as useful hint for the investigators. Tiny tiny hint it is but a hint nonetheless.

In a 1974-ish phone book, I did see a Gordon E Sanderson who lived roughly right in the middle of downtown Edmonton. Big 60s looking apartment block. Will try and see where exactly it was.

Wow, really? Didn't you have to be a house/apartment owner to be in phone book? If he owned an apartement and then disappeared all of the sudden it'd be very strange to not report him missing.
This is weird. And what about his daughter? Did he abandoned her long before he went missing? Never supported her? Broke up with her mother long before?

So weird. Even thou it's certainly possible that unfortunate circumstances led all those who cared or sort of cared about him to believe that he disappeared on his own accord and is living somewhere else it's still pretty weird.
What happened with his apartement? Car? What happened when his siblings realised that none of them heard from Gordon for months or even years?
Maybe there was someone more than willing to give some explanations to everyone who started asking? Or maybe they didn't knew who to ask...

 

[beubeubeu]

So...
The blue line is the most obvious path between Edmonton and Lindbrook.
40ish mins long drive... to the Lindbrook "centre".
But if Gordon lived in downtown Edmonton, and ended up somewhere along Range Road 220 (red line) then it's just about 20 minutes.

Orange circle is roughly 5 minutes long drive from the likely location of abandoned farm. Red circle would be roughly 2 minutes.
And this "peculiar incident" happened somewhere there, in January.

That exact crossroad look pretty similar to what they showed in the vid but unless their recording was kinda old, it's not the same place.

If it's indeed there, then abandoned property was right next to the Cooking Lake.
Which means... somewhere here:

Likely no neighbours who could notice anything out of ordinary... but also no way that wind could take away snow from that road.

 

[beubeubeu]

Now it struck me.
Maybe it's just the matter of narrative and somebodys attempt to resonate with readers emotions better, adding some shock value but some things really don't make much sense here.
Like how it grew into main theory that "Sam" was transient, seasonal worker, not from the area? Even if he wasn't reported missing and nobody in Lindbrook recalled any local ma going missing recently...
10 mile radius from where he was found over a 1.000.000 residents. Were single men with no close family unheard of there? All missing immediately reported? Dentists in the area all equiped with the most efficient system that allowed them to keep their records perfect and had superhuman memory?

Maybe it's just cause of the way it was reported, but on one side it looks like local LE did some good effort trying to identify him, but on the other those assumptions are just nuts.
Great guess: victim seemed to have recent, unfinished dental work done -> let's ask dentists if they recognize his teeth, let's send them files. Good effort, someone could recognise him.
But if not... unless it was some serious, significant, complex and in a way unique dental work then who in the right mind could figure that no claims of doing that job means that it's even likely that he wasn't their patient?
We're talking at least a year later. One year means hundreds, thousands of patients. Even if all put on file (which didn't have to be the case), they'd be all searchable only by their names, maybe address. No dentist would have easy to check "left upper six fillings done in 1975/76" catalogue. So it'd be relying on memory. Or even less than memory cause unfinished dental work... how anyone could recognise that as their work year, years later? Were they seriously assumming that all dentists checked all their files for possible matches?
There is no substance to grow a conclusion that no such match means that none of these dentists did his teeth.
And there is no reasonable cause to conclude that he wasn't local just cause he wasn't reported missing in '77 - only awareness of most disapearrances being reported right away, and these reports being gladly accepted by LE could fuel this conclusion, and it was not the case, so they didn't have that.

Is this really one of those things that are so obvious only in handsight?
Yes, there was a chance of identifying him this way - but not getting any leads didn't mean that he was not anybody's patient, so not a local, it may only prove that his dental work wasn't distinctive enough.

Another tiny detail - if his teeth were really in such good condition, as I've read somewhere, then unfinished dental work would mean either sudden change in living condition shortly before death, or lack of intent of keeping that dental work unfinished. Also come on, did seasonal workers around there were known for having well cared teeth?

Last, not so tiny detail which I really hope is the matter of reporting, not an indicator of quality of work, but... how come that it took MONTHS to determine the gender? Were bones damaged? Was body so decayed? Isn't adult male's skeleton kinda different than female? No facial hair remained intact? No hair at all? Weren't clothes and hair length enough to conclude that he was male? Apparently his body wasn't in that bad of a condition if it stood through two exhumations few years later.

My point being: all retellings of his story seem to be extremely poorly made, with way too much freedom of interpretation used.

And the thing that I haven't noticed before: apparently his brother passed away just years ago... and in Edmonton. Like... really? Edmonton, from all the places it was Edmonton? So same city where both of his siblings lived last time he heard from/about them?
This makes me wonder, maybe he was hoping to find them, maybe at least recogise them on the street one day? And maybe - I'm probably thinking about it just to fuel the heartbreake but - maybe the reason why he lost touch with siblings was that Gordon promised to come and visit him but never did, never responded to any attempt of further conntact.

I believe that rumor about him being a child molester is very important. This is something that would make anyone who heard someone spilling beans about his murder shut up and never came forward. Cause who would like to be the one who helped imprison guys who did a "right thing", torturing and murdering a child molester? This IMO sounds like a direct coverup that could came from people involved, not only show up as stupid conclusion from someone who knew very little about the case.

I also wonder if whoever called police to notify about that "peculiar incident" in Lindbrook influenced murderer's decision to get rid of Gordon's body in septic tank so close to their farm.

At this point Im likely unable to add anything more.

 

[Fake Protagonist]

how come that it took MONTHS to determine the gender? Were bones damaged? Was body so decayed? Isn't adult male's skeleton kinda different than female? No facial hair remained intact? No hair at all? Weren't clothes and hair length enough to conclude that he was male?

It was because of the severe mutilation and advanced state of decomposition. His genitals were all but if not cut off. He was burned with a blow torch and cigarettes and was badly beaten. The quicklime poured over him dried his body out and caused additional burning. He'd been dead for months before he was found.

The only real indication of sex on a skeleton is the appearance of the pelvis, and it's not unreasonable to think Gordon might have had some damage to this area. Plus, certain skeletal factors previously believed to be indicators of sex are now widely disregarded as being unreliable. Take the case of Julie Doe, for example - she was believed, for decades, to be a cisgender female due to pitting on her pelvis which the ME thought was indicative of prior childbirth. They found out she was biologically male through DNA testing, and then determined the pitting was instead due to hormone replacement therapy (i.e. she was transgender). Another one that comes to mind is Mount Pleasant John Doe - thought to be a young female for many years due to certain skull features before DNA testing revealed the remains were actually of a teenage male.

All this taken into consideration, I don't think it's at all surprising that it took so long to determine the sex of the deceased in this case. MOO.

 

[Springrain]

I agree with @Fake Protagonist on this, for sure. Gordon's body was severely decomposed. He wasn't fully skeletonized, but he was described as not recognizable due to decomposition/putrefaction, and while it's unclear exactly what that entailed, it could not have been pleasant. And, of course, the sexual mutilation on top of all the other torture some sicko(s) inflicted on Gordon. His pelvis may have been damaged severely; with all the torture he suffered, it wouldn't be impossible. Since it was the 70s, they couldn't test his DNA, so I can see how it would be hard to determine.

I believe that rumor about him being a child molester is very important.

Is this referring to speculation from before he was ID'd?

 

[beubeubeu]

It was because of the severe mutilation and advanced state of decomposition. His genitals were all but if not cut off. He was burned with a blow torch and cigarettes and was badly beaten. The quicklime poured over him dried his body out and caused additional burning. He'd been dead for months before he was found.

The only real indication of sex on a skeleton is the appearance of the pelvis, and it's not unreasonable to think Gordon might have had some damage to this area. Plus, certain skeletal factors previously believed to be indicators of sex are now widely disregarded as being unreliable. Take the case of Julie Doe, for example - she was believed, for decades, to be a cisgender female due to pitting on her pelvis which the ME thought was indicative of prior childbirth. They found out she was biologically male through DNA testing, and then determined the pitting was instead due to hormone replacement therapy (i.e. she was transgender). Another one that comes to mind is Mount Pleasant John Doe - thought to be a young female for many years due to certain skull features before DNA testing revealed the remains were actually of a teenage male.

All this taken into consideration, I don't think it's at all surprising that it took so long to determine the sex of the deceased in this case. MOO.

I'm not seeing it as a big deal. In descriptions it sounds totally plausible and reasonable, but with this clothing on the victim...
This is clearly men's clothing. Possible that woman could wear that, but not that likely.
Stabbing and cut wounds are visible on the clothing. This could be done to a woman, but considering the pic I'd think that most people's first guess would be that victim is male. And the best description would be IMO that it took few months to confirm victim's gender to be male, not to determine that.
Stating that it took months to determine gender gives an impression than trough this months LE had no clue if they're looking for missing man or a woman and I find this inaccurate. Especially considering the fact that it wasn't a thing that investigators decided to keep close to their chest, that picture was released but description that was giving false impression was still circulating.

Science discoveries done in recent years and skeletal factors previously believed to be indicators of sex and now seen as unreliable couldn't travel in time and influence Sam's description. "Sam" could be a woman, untill they confirmed that he wasn't they couldn't know, but I don't find it odd that it took time to determine. With cases that you mentioned - there were reasons to make wrong assumptions, and only science development allowed us to know more. And initial assumptions later revelaed itself to be wrong. Unlike here, where they couldn't be certain from the day one, but no reasons apart from sheer "possibility" to assume that victim is not male as clothing indicated. This is what I find odd - that despite of it being reasonable conclusion and assumption that victim was male, it's still repeated that it took months to even determine the gender.
Cause when I read something like that (that it took months to determine the gender) I assume no clothing found or some unisex clothing found, not full skeleton recovered, or bones crushed so badly that it wasnt possible in to-day standards to even make a reasonable assumption - and it's just inaccurate description of what investigators were dealing with here.

Is this referring to speculation from before he was ID'd?

Yes, but it shows up in retellings of this case even after he was identified. It didn't change much in this aspect to my knowledge.
There is and was literally nothing to make this connection look reasonable.
Sexually mutilated, horrifically tortured murder victim - how many real child molesters ended up like that?
I haven't stumbled on one case like that, my awareness may be limited but I don't see anything to support this theory as long as other examples go. But it is there. Widely repeated. Why it is out there then? Especially considering that it is great and convincing justification to not care about him and his fate. IMO faked and planted in people's head to make those who could knew something about this case to shut up and others to not pay much attention.

 

[Fake Protagonist]

I'm not seeing it as a big deal. In descriptions it sounds totally plausible and reasonable, but with this clothing on the victim...

It takes more than clothing to reliably determine a person's sex. There's no guarantee that a murder victim dressed themself (Margaret Fetterolf comes to mind - murdered and assaulted while nude but redressed after death). What if the killer intentionally dressed their victim as the opposite sex to try and fool investigators? There are so many variables and LE couldn't make assumptions in a case like this without substantial evidence.

I can think of multiple Does who were found wearing clothing made for the opposite sex. For example, Peggy Johnson (Racine County Jane Doe while unidentified) was initially thought to be a man by the people who found her because she was quite tall, had short hair, and wore men's clothing.

And I brought up the skeletal markers to show that people often have and probably will always make mistakes during skeletal examinations. Sometimes, the only real way to determine sex is through DNA. They didn't have that understanding when Gordon was found.

MOO.

 

[beubeubeu]

It takes more than clothing to reliably determine a person's sex.

Yes it does, but it requires some knowledge of examples where what'd be anyone's first guess to be proven wrong later to express this level of uncertaintity in my mind.

It takes more than clothing to reliably determine a person's sex. There's no guarantee that a murder victim dressed themself (Margaret Fetterolf comes to mind - murdered and assaulted while nude but redressed after death). What if the killer intentionally dressed their victim as the opposite sex to try and fool investigators? There are so many variables and LE couldn't make assumptions in a case like this without substantial evidence.

I can think of multiple Does who were found wearing clothing made for the opposite sex. For example, Peggy Johnson (Racine County Jane Doe while unidentified) was initially thought to be a man by the people who found her because she was quite tall, had short hair, and wore men's clothing.

And I brought up the skeletal markers to show that people often have and probably will always make mistakes during skeletal examinations. Sometimes, the only real way to determine sex is through DNA. They didn't have that understanding when Gordon was found.

MOO.

Later discoveries (by "later" I mean since 1978), things that investigators can learn from could not possibly influence the way that those in 1977 were thinking and working.
Exactly, they didn't have that understanding then. But they had a lot to make a reasonable assumption that victim is male. It would be not reasonable, to act and think totally different than any other investigator at the time would and figure, that oh, we're not certain, so we need to wait and until we will be able to be sure we have to keep in mind that it could be a woman who dressed herself as a typical male would, or maybe murderer put those clothes on the victim before inflicting all this torture in order to confuse the investigators.
That would be nuts. Even now we know that victim wearing clothes of the opposite sex is a rare thing. How often that happens? 1 in 1000? Less? Murderers redressing victims in opposite sex clothing before torturing and murdering them is even rarer. Could be almost unheard of at the time.
Being open to possibilities is good, considering them (very unlikely possibilities) as being equally likely as what it appears to be is operating on the level of a Yeti hunter.

IMO accurate description here would be that "it took several months to confirm that victim was male" since there were reasons to assume that victim was male, even if initial autopsy couldn't determine if for sure.
And that's exactly what investigators did.
They assumed that victim is male but kept their minds open for a possibility that it may be a female - cause they couldn't be sure.
Just possibility, not working like they had no clue and considered Sam as "we don't know the gender so we're putting equally much work into looking for missing females as we do with males".
They didn't do that (as far as I know).
And that's why I see this description - that it took few months to determine victims gender - as inaccurate description. It's not false, but it leaves wrong impression of what was happening in the case.

 

[beubeubeu]

I stumbled on descriptions of tortures similar to what was done to Gordon. I can't go into much details for the sake of my sanity, but all it took was that groups of perps find themselves in position of power. They were attacking guys who in they saw as below them, after experiencing violence and repression from another group.

I should remember how it's called, cause it had some specific term, but I don't. Pretty sure that years ago I've read a whole book that was listing the examples of how to turn one group of people against another to hold power over both of these groups: opress and abuse both of them, but one noticeably less violent.
Whole point of that was that you'd tend to think that in these circumstances both groups will see their abusers as an issue and tend to go together against them... but that's not the case, instead the more abused group develops the biggest hatred towards less abused group and they're turning against them, attacking and murdering them, as it allows them to release their anger while keeping the risk of repercusions low.

Those guys who ended up tortured in such a horrific way did not hurt their attackers before.
Didn't hurt anyone close to the attackers before.
Did not started the attack.
Did not expect the attack.
Got ambushed, sometimes by people, who they were considering as friends or good neighbours some time before, tortured in the most horrific way that they could think of and murdered.

It didn't have to be revenge or a hate crime. Many hate crimes are happening not cause the hate towards the opressed group is so great, but mostly cause choosing them as victims (members of the opressed group I mean) holds the lowest risk of revenge, prosecution, penalty or even getting that much of an interest from the community.
Before I was thinking that it had to be group of white guys attacking an Indigenous man, but since that area, Lindbrook and Tofield I mean had a very high percentage of mixed marriages and Indigenous people... It doesn't make it impossible that some group of racists just wanted to murder a Native person, but it makes it more likely that whatever petty, ridiculous reasons they had to attack Gordon was fueled by awareness that single Native guy with no close tie to anyone is the most vulnerable and safest to murder out there, especially since he made people know that he's going to visit his brother who lived far away so nobody would be alarmed by his absence.

As I'm thinking now... this doesn't look like a revenge/hate killing at all. While having THIS much anger in him, THIS much violence, THIS much sick, twisted sadism to inflict Gordon with so much pain... would this person wait for a convenient time to abduct him? Single killer might, but here it's almost certain that there were multiple people involved.
And it's not like Canadian LE would be all on it if someone would report an adult guy missing. So not really a reason to bother with that, yet he was abducted while his absence was "covered" by his plans of visiting brother. It makes me think that they weren't releasing their anger while torturing Gordon, but that they were having "fun".