Every Place Has a Story

The Pauls Murders

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On June 10, 1958, David Pauls, Helen and their 11-year-old Dorothy, were murdered in their South Vancouver home. It was the city’s first triple murder. 

This podcast is based on a chapter from Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders

This episode is sponsored by Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours. Enter the code ColdCase for 15% off your tickets.

When I was researching this story of the Pauls murders, what upset me the most aside from the sheer brutality of the murders; was why this could happen to what seemed to be such a normal family, in their own home. This was the 1950s after all, people didn’t lock their doors and Vancouver was still a small town.

The Pauls house 1014 East 53rd. Courtesy Vancouver Police Museum

Apparently not. A search through the newspapers of the time shows a surprisingly violent city. There was a series of rapes, and Vancouver had lost its innocence three months before the Pauls died, when Evelyn Roche, 39, was murdered just blocks from her East Vancouver home.

Helen Pauls was shot in the hallway. Crime scene photo courtesy Vancouver Police Museum
Originally from Russia:

The Pauls were originally from Russia, attended the German Mennonite church until a short time before their deaths, and before moving to Vancouver in 1953, farmed in Aldergrove. David worked as a janitor for Woodwards, and in a period where most mothers stayed at home, Helen worked the afternoon shift at the Home Fancy Sausage Shop on East Hastings. Dorothy attended Walter Moberly Elementary School.

Helen’s purse lies open on the table in this crime scene photo. Courtesy Vancouver Police Museum
Few Clues:

The only clues police had to go on were a partial footprint in the garden, a bloody, but unidentifiable palm print on the bedroom wall, and a dislodged rock in the garden that indicated the way the killer had fled. The murder weapon was never found, but forensics determined that the bullets came from a Rohm RG-10 Revolver.

Another dead end as the RG-10 were a Saturday Night special that sold in stores throughout the US for $14.95.

Police investigated several theories in the Pauls murder including connections to Russia, a Mennonite conspiracy, a botched robbery and a peeping tom.

Dorothy’s bedroom. Crime scene photo, courtesy Vancouver Police Museum

When the Pauls case was reinvestigated again in the 1990s by the Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit, the theory was that little Dorothy was the target, and the adults were collateral damage.

The murders remain unsolved.

Dorothy Pauls, courtesy VPDColdCases.ca
SHOW NOTES:

If you have any information about these murders please call Vancouver Police at 604-717-3321, or if you wish to remain anonymous, call crime stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit the website solvecrime.ca

Intro:               Mark Dunn

Music:             Bittersweet by DarkPiano.com

Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

Promos:     Vancouver Police Museum and Archives; Blood, Sweat and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance

Sources:

Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders

The Vancouver Police Museum and Archives

1958 Inquest

Globe & Mail

Province

Vancouver Sun

West Ender

Interviews:

Richard Berrow: Vancouver lawyer

Brian Honeybourn: Retired detective Sergeant VPD, PUHU

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