Alberta’s criminal history includes several criminals who have stood out for their horrific actions, leaving behind tragedies that deeply shocked the public. Here are 10 of them, along with the chilling details of their crimes. More on calgaryski.net.
Mark Twitchell
This 28-year-old aspiring director from Edmonton was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 38-year-old John Bryan Altinger, a former oil equipment manufacturer. The trial attracted media attention because Twitchell was inspired by the fictional character Dexter Morgan from the popular TV series “Dexter,” emulating the sociopathic killer’s calculated behavior.
In October 2008, Twitchell lured the man to a rented garage, which he used as a film studio, through a fake online dating profile (posing as a woman). He then struck Altinger with a baton and knife before dismembering the body. The body was partially burned, and the remains were disposed of in garbage bags in a sewer.
Interestingly, a document was found on Twitchell’s laptop in which he described the details of the murder, a failed first attempt to lure the man online, the murder itself, the dismemberment, etc. This was meant to be the script for a short thriller, but Twitchell decided to carry out the plot in real life. Another document contained a detailed self-analysis of his psychopathic personality.
Jeremy Steinke and Jasmine Richardson
In April 2006, 23-year-old Steinke and his 12-year-old girlfriend Jasmine Richardson murdered her parents and 8-year-old brother in Medicine Hat after her parents objected to their relationship due to the significant age difference. Friends of Steinke reported that he called himself a 300-year-old vampire and said he loved the taste of blood. Moreover, Jeremy wore a small vial of blood around his neck.
In November 2007, Jasmine was sentenced to 10 years in prison (part of which was to be served in a psychiatric hospital) – the maximum sentence allowed for her age. She became the youngest person in Canada ever convicted of first-degree serial murder. As for Steinke, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in December 2008.
Steinke’s 19-year-old girlfriend, Casey Lancaster, was also implicated as an accomplice for driving the couple out of town the day of the murders. She was sentenced to one year of house arrest.
Robert Raymond Cook
In June 1959, Robert killed his 53-year-old father, 37-year-old stepmother, and five step-siblings. He shot the adults with a double-barrel shotgun and bludgeoned the children to death. The bodies were found in the oil pit of their garage in Stettler. The victims were in nightwear, and the mattresses were soaked with blood, indicating the massacre occurred during the night.
Although Robert was involved in the deaths of his entire family, he was only charged with the murder of his father to expedite the trial. He was sentenced to death, making him the last person executed for a crime in Alberta.
Interestingly, just months before the murders, Robert was struck on the head with a lead pipe during a sentence for car theft. After that, he became more impulsive.
Derek Jensen
In December 2011, 21-year-old Derek Jensen killed his ex-girlfriend and her friends in Calgary out of jealousy. A few days before the incident, he saw his ex at a party and threatened that the night “would not end well” for her. Later, he met her and her friends at a mini-market, where they had stopped on their way to the airport. Derek rammed their car, and when they stopped, he approached and shot everyone before killing himself. 21-year-old Tabitha (his ex-girlfriend), 20-year-old Mitch, and 22-year-old Tanner died on the spot, while 21-year-old Shayna survived.
Travis Baumgartner
In June 2012, 21-year-old armored car guard Travis Baumgartner, an employee of G4S Cash Solutions, shot and killed three of his colleagues in a mall building at the University of Alberta campus (Edmonton). He did this when they entered a secure vault located behind ATMs. Afterward, he approached the armored vehicle and shot another colleague, then stole the car and fled the scene. Only one victim survived.
The motive was to steal cash that the victims were transporting to the mall. At the time of the shooting, Baumgartner had only 26 cents in his bank account and owed his mother and friends $58,000, which he had borrowed to buy a car.
Before the crime, Travis posted on social media about planning something sinister. He was arrested the day after the killings in British Columbia when he tried to cross the U.S. border.
Clifford Slay
In September 1992, in Edmonton, 42-year-old Slay kidnapped, brutally raped, and then killed 6-year-old Corrin. He was arrested in 2003. By then, he had already been convicted of sexual violence against two other young girls. According to his confessions, he did this out of “anger at his common-law wife.”
At the time of the crime, Corrin was playing with a friend in an enclosed yard. Clifford grabbed her because she was closer to the fence.
John Etter Clark
Clark, a teacher and farmer from Stettler, was an unassuming, non-confrontational man and a member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly. In June 1956, after two nervous breakdowns, he committed mass murder and then suicide. Clark shot his wife, son, three daughters, a farmhand, and a visitor with a single-barrel rifle. The murderer-suicide was found in nightwear about 600 meters from the farmhouse.
James Roszko
In March 2005, in Rochfort Bridge (105 km from Edmonton), Roszko shot and killed four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers while they were conducting a property seizure at his farm.
Upon finding several stolen car parts and a marijuana grow operation on his property, Roszko hid in a shed, then opened fire on the officers. When two more officers arrived, he shot them as well. Four officers and Roszko were found dead (the killer committed suicide).
The massacre led to the suspension of the marijuana decriminalization law in the Canadian parliament.
Bryan Melly
In 2011, 23-year-old paralyzed single mother Victoria Shahtai instantly died in her wheelchair after opening a gift bag left at her doorstep in Innisfail. In 2015, Bryan Melly, a financial advisor, was convicted of the murder. Victoria had entrusted Bryan with over half a million dollars from a compensation settlement after a car accident that left her paralyzed. She had asked him to help invest the money so she could support herself and her daughter.
Melly had spent all of Victoria’s money, so to avoid repaying it, he sent her a bomb disguised as a gift bag. The green and gold gift bag was delivered to her door. Her caregiver brought it to her while she sat in her wheelchair at the kitchen table. Melly was sentenced to life imprisonment.