Four unsolved murders linked to serial killer arrested for rape
The unsolved murders of two 14-year-olds and two women nearly 50 years ago to a runaway US prisoner.
The unsolved murders of two 14-year-olds and two women nearly 50 years ago have been linked to a runaway US prisoner revealed to have been a serial killer.
Gary Allen Srery hid in Canada from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s after fleeing California.
He already had an extensive criminal record when he arrived in the country – including rape, kidnap and burglary.
In 1976 two 14-year-olds, Eva Dvorak and Patricia McQueen were last seen walking in Calgary, Alberta before their bodies were found the next day in a highway underpass.
That same year Melissa Rehorek, 20, who had moved to Calgary for new opportunities was last seen by her housemate before she went hitch hiking.
The next day her body was found in a ditch in a township west of Calgary.
In 1977 Barbara MacLean was a 19-year-old Calgary resident and was working a local bank and was last scene leaving a hotel bar – her body was found six hours later just outside Calgary.
Srery, who died in in 2011 in a state prison in Idaho while serving a life sentence for rape, was identified through the use of DNA and criminal databases that helped trace his family tree.
Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt. Dave Hall said he might also be linked to unsolved murders and sexual assaults in Western Canada and authorities are asking the public for more information that may link him to other unsolved cases.
He said: ‘We are now announcing that we have linked four previously unsolved homicides from the 1970s to a now deceased serial, sexual offender.’
Authorities at the time didn’t come up with a cause of death for the two 14-year-olds but said Rehorek and MacLean’s deaths were attributed to strangulation.
Hall said although semen from all four crime scenes was collected at the time but technology did not exist at the time to develop profile DNA.
‘Were Srery alive today he would be 81 years old,’ Hall said.
Srery, who would be 81-years-old if alive today, lived in Canada illegally until his arrest for sexual assault in New Westminster, British Columbia in 1998.
Alberta RCMP Insp. Breanne Brown said Srery used nine different aliases in his lifetime and frequently changed his appearance, residence and vehicles.
She said he obtained illegal identification and social assistance though aliases and lived a transient lifestyle while occasionally working as a cook in Calgary, Alberta from 1974 to 1979 and then in the area of Vancouver, British Columbia from 1979 until his arrest and conviction of sexual assault in New Westminster in 1998.
Brown said Srery was deported to the U.S. in 2003 where he was convicted in Idaho for sexually motivated crimes and sentenced to life in prison where ultimately died in 2011.
‘We know that Srery’s criminality spanned decades over multiple jurisdictions and numerous aliases. The Alberta RCMP believe there are more victims and we are asking the public to assist in further S’s timeline in Canada,’ Brown said.
‘It is particularly concerning that Srery appears to have no meaningful contact with law enforcement agencies within Canada since he entered the country illegally in mid 1970s until he was arrested, charged and convicted for the New Westminster assault in 1998.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.