Eighteen-year-old Andrea King graduated with honours from New Westminster Secondary in June 1991. She took a job with Greyhound Bus Company to save money for a trip across Canada. Her plan was to check out universities while she worked her way home to British Columbia. On January 1, 1992, Andrea took an Air Canada flight to Halifax. She phoned her family from the airport and told them she’d call the next day with the address of the Halifax hostel where she was staying. And then Andrea vanished.
When Andrea’s mother Ann King didn’t hear from Andrea the next day, she called the Halifax youth hostel where Andrea was staying and was told that she never arrived.
Wayne and Ann King are now in their 80s and still want to know what happened to their daughter. Ann shared a manuscript with me that she wrote about the search for Andrea, to help her with the grieving process. These are her words:
Ann King:
“It wasn’t like Andrea not to call. I kept telling myself nothing serious had happened. The police officer on the telephone asked her age, height, weight, what she was wearing. Did she know anyone in Halifax? Was she depressed? Did she do drugs? Was she pregnant? Did she have a medical problem? I wasn’t sure why he asked some of these questions. It made me feel upset. It was as though he didn’t believe me. I felt so frustrated. I really expected the police to actually go and look for Andrea. Well that was my hope, my dream. But they explained to us that these runaways usually telephone home and we should not be alarmed, but they would put her in the system anyway. I felt my insides knot up. Didn’t they listen: Andrea wasn’t a runaway. How could I make them understand?”
Ann King wasn’t waiting for the police to find her daughter. Six weeks after she disappeared, Ann had Andrea’s face and story on the front page of the Province and a segment lined up on a Crime Stoppers segment in Halifax for the following week.
New Westminster firefighters saw the Province story and bought plane tickets to Halifax for Ann and her daughter Debra.
No Leads:
Several weeks went past with no news and no leads. The Kings remortgaged their house and announced that they were willing to pay for any useful information as to their daughter’s whereabouts.
Nearly a year went by with no news. Andrea 19th birthday came on December 15. The family, was fostering four children at the time—two teens aged 17 and 18 and two small children aged two and five. They prepared for a traditional Christmas dinner, their first without Andrea.
Ann was making Christmas cookies when there was a knock on her door and all hopes of finding Andrea alive were dashed RCMP constable Phil Juby told her that Andrea had been found in the woods about halfway between the airport and downtown Halifax.
There was no mistake, he said, it was a near perfect match.
Andrew Paul Johnson:
The main suspect in Andrea’s murder is Andrew Paul Johnson, a sex offender and pedophile with a lengthy record. Currently he’s locked up in a Federal prison as a dangerous offender and also suspected in the kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Kimberly McAndrew from Halifax who vanished in August 1989.
I talked to former detective Tom Martin, the lead investigator on the McAndrew file. Martin retired from Halifax Police in 2008 after working on more than 500 major case investigations including lead investigator in 25 murders.
I asked Martin if he thought there was a chance these cases could still be solved.
“I believe that Kim McAndrew and Andrea King’s murders are solveable. Yes, absolutely. One hundred percent,” he said. “I believe in all these cases, somebody knows something. In Kim’s case specifically, I firmly believe that somebody knows something and they are just not coming forward.”
Kimberly McAndrew
Ann told me it’s been a long time since they’ve heard from the police and she thinks they’ve given up on her daughter. I asked her what she’d like to see happen with Andrea’s case. “I don’t want them to ever stop looking, but I don’t know if it would do any good,” she said. “I just don’t have a lot of faith anymore.”
Says Wayne: “We’re not going to live much longer and it would be nice to know.”
Kimberly McAndrew is still on police books as a missing person case. Andrea King’s murder is still unsolved. There is a $150,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Andrea’s murder and Kimberly’s disappearance. If you have information about Andrea’s murder call the homicide unit of the Integrated Criminal Investigation Division in Halifax at 902-490-5331. If you have information on Kimberly’s disappearance call Halifax police at 902-490-5020.
- Copies of my new book, Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck, are available through my publisher Arsenal Pulp Press, or from any independent bookstore across Canada
Show Notes:
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro: Mark Dunn
With thanks to: Tom Martin and Stephen Kimber in Halifax, former Province columnist Peter Clough, Ann and Wayne King, and to Lin, Andrea’s classmate for bringing her friend’s case to my attention.
Selected Sources:
Halifax RCMP Release, January 1, 2022
Kimber, Stephen. The Coast, November 19, 2009
Clough, Peter. Province, November 10, 2002
Times-Transcript, January 11, 1993
Babic, Mary. Surrey Leader, December 13, 1992
Horwood, Holly. Province, February 12, 1992
Related:
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Oh my goodness. So sad the families have not got any closure.
I lived in New West in 1991 so I vaguely remember this sad story…As shocking and lamentable as it is, I have to say that this list of murdered and missing people in Nova Scotia is quite shocking in its length. I suppose that province is no different from any other Canadian province…so much grief and mystery, and so little resolution.
https://novascotia.ca/just/public_safety/rewards/
Thanks for sharing the link Bill. When I was writing Cold Case Vancouver (2015) the VPD had 337 unsolved murders on its books dating back to 1970. No idea how many were missing.
How heartbreaking 💔 they have a suspect darn it yet he is not in prison . I just read that Andrea’s remains was found but not kimberleys
What about DNA? Did they check Andrew Johnson’s DNA?
Yes I would also like to know if they checked anyone’s DNA. Strange it hasn’t been mentioned, as far as I can tell?
What would they compare the DNA to?
I knew Andrea and the King family. It was heartbreaking for all of us. She was a vibrant caring young lady. I spoke with her a few days before she left. I will always remember our conversation and her friendship. I think of her often and pray for justice for her family.
Thank you Eve for doing this and not letting my Auntie Andrea be forgotten. My mother Maria was never the same after that year, they were so incredibly close. I blame Andrea’s killer for my mom’s suicide and a lot of my own struggles through life. I just celebrated 13 years clean from drug addiction and recently finally started trauma counselling finally after all these years. I refuse the allow APJ to continue inflicting pain to myself or the rest of the family. Thank you again for keeping this story and others alive.
I am so sorry about your mother. First Andrea’s disappearance and then to find out she was murdered almost a year later must have been devastating for the whole family. Congratulations for staying clean and getting counselling. That takes a lot of courage. I’m glad that telling Andrea’s story helped you. Eve