Alberta RCMP announced Friday that they have linked four historical homicides in the province to an American serial killer named Gary Allan Srery.
The victims, Eva Violet Dvorak, 14, Patricia Marie McQueen, 14, Melissa Ann Rehorek , 20 and Barbara Jean MacLean, 19, were last seen in Calgary.
None of the victims were Indigenous. Although Srery is not currently identified in any RCMP historical homicide cases, police suspect there may be other victims of either homicide or sexual violence that have not been identified.
Supt. David Hall, the officer in charge of the Alberta major crimes division for the RCMP, said recent breakthroughs in solving historic homicides helped link all four victims to Srery and make him an Alberta serial killer.
“The files were continually reassessed. Investigators followed all means that they could and the Initial investigations lasted into the 1980s in the 1990s. No less than four task forces were created to reexamine evidence tips from the public,” Said Hall about the extensive investigations into the deaths of the four young women.
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The murders of the young women went unsolved for nearly 50 years. All of the women went missing between 1976 and 1977.
“The RCMP believe this offender may be responsible for more unsolved homicides, sexual assaults in Western Canada,” said Hall.
Srery was born in Oak Park, Ill., in 1942. He moved to California in the mid ‘50s. He was married in 1960 to 1969 and had children, though the RCMP did not disclose the number of children.
“He lived a transient lifestyle and worked occasionally under the table as a cook and [frequently changed] his appearance, place of residence and his vehicles,” said Insp. Breanne Brown, officer in charge of Alberta RCMP serious crimes branch.
From 1979 onwards, he was believed to have lived in the Lower Mainland, Sunshine Coast, and Fraser Valley areas of B.C.
“It is particularly concerning that Srery appears to have no meaningful contact with police, with Canadian law enforcement agencies, since he illegally entered the country until he was arrested.” said Brown.
The California man had an extensive criminal record beginning in 1961 with petty theft but his crimes escalated in 1965 when he was charged with “rape by force, oral copulation, sodomy, kidnapping and assault to commit rape” by the Las Angeles Police Department according to the RCMP investigation.
In 1998, he was convicted of sexual assault in New Westminster, B.C. and was sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence, he was deported back to the United States in 2003.
Srery was then convicted of a sexually motivated crime in Idaho and was sentenced to life in prison where he died in an Idaho prison serving a life sentence for rape. He was not a suspect in any of the deaths of the young women before a genealogical DNA match linked him to semen collected from all four investigations.
RCMP have determined that Srery went by several aliases such as Rex Long, David Blackwell, Rex Edward Long, Travis Blackwell and Gary Delorme. He also went by other names.
The families of the murdered women each released a statement that shared some information about the young women.
From the McQueen family:
“It has been 48 years since our Sister Patsy (Patricia) was taken from us. As the years went on we thought we would never in our lifetime find out what happened on that dreadful day but never gave up hope that one day we would know the answers and finally have some comfort and closure.”
McQueen would have been 62 years old this year.
From the Dvorak family:
“Eva was loved and cherished by her family and all who knew her. Her bright smile and bubbly personality were contagious and lit up any room. When Eva was around there was no sitting still, always dancing and singing any time of day. She enjoyed spending time with her sisters and cousins while swimming, roller skating and ice skating. “
From the Rehorek family:
“Our message is one about Melissa being a fun loving, adventurous and hard-working person. She was an honest positive person who trusted people. She enjoyed travelling to Banff for her love of nature but also to travel for her curiosity about seeing Canada.”
From the MacLean family:
“Today marks a significant moment in the long journey of seeking justice for our daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, and niece, Barbara Jean MacLean-one that began nearly 50 years ago. The pain of losing Barbara so tragically has been a constant presence in our lives, but recent developments have finally brought us answers to questions that we’ve had to live with all these years.”
There are currently 233 unsolved homicide cases within the jurisdiction of the Alberta RCMP.
