The Monica Jack Murder

Monica Jack, 12 was riding her bike near her home in Quilchena when she was abducted and murdered in 1978. And, even though Garry Taylor Handlen was a suspect early on in this investigation and questioned in the 1975 murder of 11-year-old Kathryn-Mary Herbert, it would take another 36 years and a Mr. Big sting to convict him.

On May 6, 1978 Monica Jack got an early present for her 13th birthday. She was excited that her mother was letting her ride her new bike from their home on the Upper Nicola reserve at Quilchena to Merritt. She met up with her cousin Debbie. The girls shopped in Merritt and set off for their respective homes. Monica’s mother Madeline had also been to town that afternoon with her two younger sisters. They were returning around 7:45 p.m. when they saw Monica riding her bike. They asked Monica if she wanted to ride with them the rest of the way, but she said no.

Missing:

Madeline expected Monica to be home shortly. She left for her fishing trip. The children were looked after by their older cousins and siblings.

Monica had an outgoing personality and a distinctive laugh. She was a good student, a happy kid, and had lots of friends. She liked playing softball, playing with her siblings, hiking, and swimming. She was the third youngest of eight siblings and she wanted to be a social worker like her mum.

Bike found near lake:

When Madeline returned from fishing the next morning, she was shocked to find that Monica had not come home. She reported her missing to the Merritt RCMP, while her 18-year-old son Glen walked along the highway searching for his sister. He found her bike at a pullout by Nicola Lake. It had been tossed down the bank and landed a few feet from the water. Witnesses told police they’d seen a man in a truck with a camper at a pullout along Highway 5, where Monica was last seen. That led investigators to Garry Handlen, a convicted serial sex offender, and a suspect in the murder of eleven-year-old Kathryn-Mary Herbert of Abbotsford three years earlier.

Remains discovered:

On June 2, 1995—17 years after Monica Jack went missing—forestry workers from Merritt were doing some controlled on Swakum Mountain when they came across human remains. It took eight months to confirm through dental records and DNA testing that they were the remains of Monica Jack.

Investigators have always believed that Handlen was likely responsible for the murders of Monica Jack and Kathryn-Mary Herbert. But the evidence was all circumstantial, and the Crown would not lay charges.

In 2014, the RCMP launched Mr. Big—an undercover operation used to charge or clear suspects in major cold cases. An undercover police officer acting as a crime boss had an underling recruit Handlen, now 67, into what he thought was a criminal organization. He was paid for a series of what he thought were illegal activities. He thought that he was playing an increasingly important role in the organization.

After 10 months Handlen was introduced to Mr.Big, the crime boss. Mr. Big told him that police were investigating him for the murder of Monica Jack. The police had DNA evidence and witnesses and they were coming to get him. He could make a dying man in the organization make a death bed confession for the murders in exchange for money for his family, but to make it convincing, Handlen had to give him the details of the murders.

It worked.

Show Notes:

Sponsors: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours ANd Arsenal Pulp Press

Music:   Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’

Intro: Mark Dunn

Voice-over: Megan Dunn

Interview: Martin Nicholls, retired RCMP.

Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media

Promo:          True Crime Island

Sources:

• Cold Case BC: The stories behind the province’s most sensational murder and missing person cases
• A Garden of Tears Documentary, 2009 by David Ridgin.
• Court of Appeal for British Columbia, Rex V. Handlen 2022 BCCA 304
• Tape of the Mr. Big sting

Special thanks to Maria Weisgarber and CTV News for allowing me to use some of the clip from a 2019 news story