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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Police investigated several theories in the Pauls murder including connections to Russia, a Mennonite conspiracy, a botched robbery and a peeping tom.
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.
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:
Promos: Vancouver Police Museum and Archives; Blood, Sweat and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance
Source: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders
Interviews:
Richard Berrow: Vancouver lawyer
Brian Honeybourn: Retired detective Sergeant VPD, PUHU
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
34 comments on “The Pauls Murders”
I think Motive #2 is the one that is most likely to be the correct one. And I have no idea why the VPD would not disclose information on this cold case. Everybody is gone now, and there is no reason to keep it private now. It gets me to thinking, the VPD may have botched the case.
Hi, I agree with you. But there’s also the possibility that the police knew who the killer was (i.e. someone prominent who “had a family to protect”) so they helped keep the news out of the press. Or, it could have been someone not from there, but not so far away that they used the city as their “killing field”; someone who traveled to, or near it, frequently.
From 1958, why would the police of today not open it up to the public. How can police today want to protect their police from sixty years ago. Makes no sense to me other than the person refusing to open it up is some inexperienced new recruit(little boy)in the basement of the police headquarters today.
Makes no sense to me either. But I filed a Freedom of Information request and when that was denied, I appealed it. That was denied as well.
Hi Eve, If you appealed to the same place you made the original application, you were wasting your time. You must always appeal it again to the OIPC. Then, that decision can be judicially reviewed. I have made several successful FOI requests that went to the court for review. If you make any future FOI requests for review, let me know. Maybe I can help. BTW, I have been following the disappearance of Emma Fillipoff and after a letter I wrote to the VicPD there might be some movement with respect to a potential suspect. Cheers
The appeal did go to the office of the information and privacy commissioner for BC. Happy to hear there may be some progress in the Emma Fillipoff case!
Did they give a reason for denial?
They Did. I go into detail in the podcast but essentially it was that releasing information about an unsolved murder could hurt their investigation ….
Makes you think why would they not want to reveal that type of information, was it that they were trying to protect someone from a prominent family? Why would they deny it the second time? Makes no sense
Eve, I had the same experience with refused FOI requests for my own security files (from CSIS) in the 1980s. There are so many exceptions to the “right” that it is consistently denied. But thanks for trying
I am the daughter of the native involved. Still wish for a coversation.
Thank you for trying Eve..our family appreciates any help
That’s a mystery that the public is never privy to. They might have one particular reason that was there from the start: lack of material evidence. That could be due to a careless investigation right from the start, i.e. missed finger prints, potential witnesses not speaking, fear of getting involved — all the usual excuses. And then, maybe no one ever knew at all. And, as I know from a case that has been an interest of mine for almost my whole life, the police by now probably feel that any effort would be futile. But people like us would ask, “But IS it really futile?” It is frustrating. My mother had a Nursing school classmate and good friend who moved north from Toronto to Cochrane, Ontario back in 1947. Only about 5 months after she went there to work at the Lady Minto Hospital, she was murdered after or during a Saturday night cottage party at Silver Queen Lake. The case has never been solved. The town went silent and people asking questions were threatened and some were all but run out of town. Someone that I became acquainted with was able to see the files and they were heavily redacted. Why the police do such things, I don’t understand and I think tampering with a document should be illegal. The filing and archiving system should be run much more strictly with more regulations in place. I don’t see how anyone could tamper with a murder file this way. Shaking my head. If you’re interested in an interesting case from Ontario, I have 2 FB pages on Valair Vandebelt that you can ask to join. I think one of them is public but the other is private and you must ask me to join. One more thing, even today, people in Cochrane Ontario still get flared up if the subject is brought up. So someone’s grandfather or grandmother even, is likely guilty and they don’t want anyone to know.
There certainly was a lot of corruption within the Police Dept’s and Government’s back in the day .. when people were threatened and told if they spoke , something bad may happen , they would not speak ..
Agree
This was my uncle, aunt, and cousin. It was totally horrible! From what I have gathered, Vancouver police messed up the case big time! It still hurts, especially since they could never find the criminal.
Please keep me on to your blogs. I did mot her a recording/
Sorry, you’re having trouble. Click on this link, push play on whichever episode you’d like to hear – the most recent is first and hopefully it will work https://evelazarus.com/category/podcast/cold-case-canada/
Another great and well-written podcast – thank you. I find this case perplexing but it was great to learn more than I remembered from your book. I am anxious to hear more about the serial killer theory linking this murder to the Evelyn Roche case. At the moment, I am wondering if a peeping Tom could also be a brutal murderer who’s a sexual predator.
Something tells me they were close the second time they re opened this case.The reason that you couldn’t get information is probably because other case files might be still open.Maybe the killer was young at the time? There’s so many possibilities here.But I’m sure this has to do with Dorothy.Being” exposed” ( after reading your book on the subject of this case) is what clues me in.How I’d love to see this one solved !Thanks for your podcasts and books,I very much enjoy them both.
Might want to look into a DNA search using Gedmatch
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there is no DNA to submit
I was at the funeral for the Paul’s. My parents knew them. Several other causes for the murders were talked about among acquaintances and within the Mennonite homes. Knowing the culture, they make sense to me, although I have no proof or leads.
did you know if they attended first united mennonite church down the street their home??
I was at the funeral. My parents knew them. Knowing the culture, I heard lots about them. It’s still not too late to discover who murdered them, even if the murderer is no longer alive
I just stumbled upon this and the story is absolutely fascinating. Checking out the full podcast now. Thanks for this.
Something about this case I never see mentioned. I grew up on East 56th a few blocks from the Pauls home. A Mennonite couple bought the old house beside us and tore it down to build a new home. The wife became chatty with my mother and she told my Mom about how she was a relative of the Paul family and asked my Mother if she knew about the case. This woman went on to tell my Mother that Mr. Paul was renting out a room in basement for men to bring women and have sex. Mr. Paul started video taping these encounters and started blackmailing the men. The woman told my Mother her family believed this was reason for the killings. Mr. Paul tried blackmailing the wrong person.
Did they have videotape back then?
I assume they did. What are you thinking?
Video taping in 1958?? Bit too early for that type of recording.
There were many available back then…only they were called movie cameras.
Thank you for this post. This was my Dad’s uncle, aunt, and cousin. He was so terrified as a kid because of their murders that he slept with a railway tie under his bed incase the murderer should come after him and his family. He was afraid that because the family had escaped persecution in Communist Russia that they were being followed. My dad said that a family member working for the police department in Vancouver tracked the murderer to a ship that was sailing to what was then the USSR, but the VPD took him off the case at that point and wouldn’t let him investigate further without explanation. Maybe he was misled or maybe he was onto something. Maybe it’s a family myth. I don’t know, but I agree with the other comments about police corruption at that time and it seems that this should have been solved. It would still do family members good, even today as it affected them deeply. It’s also ironic because Mennonites are peaceful and do not believe in killing others. Their family had left everything they had and escaped with their lives to come to Canada.
I would like to chat further.
This is interesting, I remember this event, when reading about the little boy in ‘47 this crossed my mind, there are a couple of theories that would work with the rented room blackmail idea, richie rich seduces a minor and Pauls threatens him, very possible excuse for murder. And hand cameras were in use at that time, home movies.
I have a query for the board, early ‘60s lower mainland, 4 boys went camping one kills the others, I remember this from my first job at 16 in queensboro and the coffee table talk was these murders.