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Murders of 2 girls and 2 young women in Canada in the 1970s linked to American serial rapist
Canadian police announced Friday they have linked the deaths of two 14-year-old girls and two young women nearly 50 years ago to a now deceased U.S. fugitive who hid in Canada from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s.
Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt. Dave Hall said Friday that Gary Allen Srery might also be linked to other 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.
“We are now announcing that we have linked four previously unsolved homicides from the 1970s to a now deceased serial, sexual offender,” Hall said at a press conference in Edmonton, Alberta.
Police released a video on social media about the four women while appealing for tips from the public.
Srery died in 2011 in a state prison in Idaho while serving a life sentence for rape.
Hall said Srery was identified through the use of DNA and criminal databases that helped trace his family tree.
Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Hall said in 1976, Eva Dvorak and Patricia McQueen were both 14-year-olds living in Calgary, Alberta, attending junior high. He said they were last seen walking together in downtown Calgary and said the following day their bodies were found lying on the road under a highway underpass west of the city.
He said 20-year-old Melissa Rehorek moved to Calgary from Ontario for new opportunities in the spring of 1976. He said at the time of her death, she was a housekeeper living at the downtown YMCA in downtown Calgary and was last seen by a roommate before she went hitchhiking. Hall said the following day her body was located in a ditch in a township west of Calgary.
Hall said in 1977, Barbara MacLean was a 19-year-old Calgary resident from Nova Scotia who moved west only six months prior. Hall said MacLean worked at a local bank and was last seen leaving a hotel bar. He said her body was found six hours later just outside Calgary.
Hall said 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 the technology did not exist at the time to develop profile DNA.
“Were Srery alive today he would be 81 years old,” Hall said.
In a statement obtained by the Calgary Herald, McQueen’s family said in part: “This evil monster has caused so much pain and suffering for countless families. He took a piece of every one of us when he took our loved ones. We thank god that he is no longer alive and can never harm anyone else again.”
Alberta RCMP Insp. Breanne Brown said Srery had an extensive criminal record including forcible rape, kidnapping and burglary when he fled to Canada from California in 1974. He lived in Canada illegally until his arrest for sexual assault in New Westminster, British Columbia in 1998, she said.
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 through aliases and lived a transient lifestyle while occasionally working as a cook in Calgary 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.
At his sentencing in 2009, one of Srery’s victims gave emotional testimony and demanded that he look at her while she spoke in court, the Spokesman Review reported.
“You have made me have a stroke, because of the stress and the damage that you did to me in that bathroom. Do you understand me? A stroke, that caused irreversible damage to my complete left side,” she said in court, according to the newspaper. “You damaged me … and I can’t be repaired. There has got to be a lifetime sentence for you, just as I’m having to pay a lifetime sentence for no wrongdoing.”
Srery died in prison in 2011.
“We know that Srery’s criminality spanned decades over multiple jurisdictions and numerous aliases. The Alberta RCMP believes 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.”
Legislation to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now headed to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.
“The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake,” proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
The bill’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they’ve rightfully earned,” said Shannon Benton, executive director for the Senior Citizens League, which advocates for retirees and which has long pushed for the expansion of Social Security benefits. “This legislation finally restores fairness to the system and ensures the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
The vote came down to the wire, as the Senate looked to wrap up its current session. Senators rejected four amendments and a budgetary point of order late Friday night that would have derailed the measure, given the small window of time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among the 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote that took place Wednesday.
“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, told the chamber ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduce Social Security payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren’t covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet the bill’s bipartisan support eroded in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers voicing doubts due to its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have needed to be re-introduced in the next Congress.
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Saturday is the winter solstice and 2024’s shortest day. Here’s what to know about the official start of winter.
The 2024 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere. The celestial event signifies the first day of winter, astronomically.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the day each year that has the shortest period of daylight between sunrise and sunset, and therefore the longest night. It happens when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the globe south of the equator, the National Weather Service explains.
The farther north you are, the shorter the day will be, and in the Arctic Circle, the sun won’t rise at all.
How is the day of the winter solstice determined?
The winter solstice occurs because of the Earth’s tilt as it rotates around the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, the nights last longer. The longest night happens on the solstice because the hemisphere is in its furthest position from the sun. That occurs each year on Dec. 21 or 22.
This year, it falls on Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m ET, to be precise.
On the summer solstice, when the northern tilt is closest to the sun, we have the longest day, usually June 20 or 21.
National Weather Service
The solstices are not always exactly on the 21st every year because the earth’s rotation around the sun is 365.25 days, instead of 365 even.
Will days start getting longer after the winter solstice?
Yes. Each day after the solstice, we get one minute more of sunlight. It doesn’t sound like much, but after just two months, or around 60 days, we’ll be seeing about an hour more of sunlight.
When will winter officially be over in 2025?
The meteorological winter ends on March 20, 2025. Then, spring will last until June 20, when the summer solstice arrives.
How is the winter solstice celebrated around the world?
Nations and cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times with varying rituals and traditions. The influence of those solstice traditions can still be seen in our celebrations of holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Britannica notes.
The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival celebrated the end of the planting season and has close ties with modern-day Christmas. It honored Saturn, the god of harvest and farming. The multiple-day affair had lots of food, games and celebrations. Presents were given to children and the poor, and slaves were allowed to stop working.
Gatherings are held every year at Stonehenge, a monumental circle of massive stones in England that dates back about 5,000 years. The origins of Stonehenge are shrouded in mystery, but it was built to align with the sun on solstice days.
Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images
The Hopi, a Native American tribe in the northern Arizona area, celebrate the winter solstice with dancing, purification and sometimes gift-giving. A sacred ritual known as the Soyal Ceremony marks the annual milestone.
In Peru, people honor the return of the sun god on the winter solstice. The ancient tradition would be to hold sacrificial ceremonies, but today, people hold mock sacrifices to celebrate. Because Peru is in the Southern Hemisphere, their winter solstice happens in June, when the Northern Hemisphere is marking its summer solstice.
Scandinavia celebrates St. Lucia’s Day, a festival of lights.
The “arrival of winter,” or Dong Zhi, is a Chinese festival where family gathers to celebrate the year so far. Traditional foods include tang yuan, sweet rice balls with a black sesame filling. It’s believed to have its origins in post-harvest celebrations.
Researchers stationed in in Antarctica even have their own traditions, which may include an icy plunge into the polar waters. They celebrate “midwinter” with festive meals, movies and sometimes homemade gifts.