On June 26, 1969, 16-year-old Philip Porter left his home in Townsite, Kimberley to run some errands for his mother. The son of the Cominco boss never came home. A ransom note demanding $100,000 for his safe return arrived instead.
In the late 1960s, Kimberley was a one-company town located in the East Kootenays. The population was around 7,000, and most worked in Cominco’s iron and fertilizer plants or in the Sullivan mine—the biggest lead-zinc mine in the world. Robin Porter was the superintendent of Cominco, and he was in the process of moving his family to Trail, where he would take over an even more impressive role heading up the multi-million dollar Fording Coal Company.
Townsite:
The Porters lived in a large white company house that sat on four acres on Giegerich Road in Townsite, a short walk through a wooded area away from the town centre. At around 1:00 pm on June 26, 1969, Patricia asked Philip to go to the grocery store to pick up some supplies and to collect her airline ticket from the travel agency. Philip was 16 and had an intellectual disability, and when he hadn’t returned by 5:00 pm, Patricia was worried. She called around to his friends to see if he had stopped by for a visit, though it was out of character for Philip not to call if he was going to be even a little bit late. She phoned the police to report him missing and they immediately put out a missing persons bulletin on the local radio station.
Ransom Note:
While police were searching for Philip, Patricia received a strange phone call from a man demanding $100,000 for the safe return of her son. He talked very slowly and she thought he was either drunk or foreign. He said if she told police, her son was dead. He’d be in touch with further instructions.
The search for Philip continued into the next day, with 1,500 volunteers, an RCMP plane, and a tracking dog. It was one of the largest ground and air searches seen in the Interior.
The search for Philip:
“Kimberley was a hundred-year-old mining town, and there are deep tunnels and shafts that can be 1,140 feet deep,” retired Sgt. Fred Bodnaruk told me. “A lot of the locals believe if you want to get rid of somebody, you throw them down a mine shaft. We went through all of them with a camera and a probe.”
And then on July 17, three weeks after Philip was last seen, the Porters received a ransom note in the mail. It was typed on cheap paper in capital letters without punctuation or sentence breaks, like a telegram. It was signed “The Syndicate.”
BOY ALIVE WELL MISSES MOTHER SMARTEN UP IF YOU WANT HIM BACK ALIVE YOU WERE TOLD NOT TO CALL COPS JUNE 26 DUMB PLAY YOUR PART FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY OR YOU WILL NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN TRUST US AS NO ONE WILL EVER FIND HIM …
Robin raised the $100,000 and waited for the next note to arrive. It came a week later with instructions on where to leave the money. Police had staked out the area and were able to arrest the extortionist—a 52-year-old disgruntled Cominco employee.
There was no trace of Philip.
SHOW NOTES:
Sponsors: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and Erin Hakin Jewellery
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro : Mark Dunn
Voiceovers: Mark Dunn and Megan Dunn
Interviews: Faye Greenaway; retired RCMP Sgt. Fred Bodnaruk
Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media
Podcast promo: What was that Like?
Source: Cold Case BC: The Stories Behind the Province’s Most Intriguing Murder and Missing Persons Cases
With thanks to Marie Stang, Kimberley Heritage Museum and the Larix Hotel where we stayed in Kimberley having no idea when I booked it that it was the former headquarters for Cominco and one of the last places Philip was seen before he disappeared.
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
24 comments on “Kidnapped: The Philip Porter Story”
Did we ever find out what became of the poor lad?
No. There are at least a few old-timers in Kimberley who have a theory who was responsible. (I live in Kimberley and until recently lived just around the corner from the beautiful Cominco Manager’s house shown here.) Apparently the authorities did, or were going to? drag Moyie Lake to see if the body had been dumped there.
There’s a couple points in Eve’s retelling that aren’t sitting well with me – firstly, the Sullivan mine had nothing to do with iron, it was initially silver and then lead-zinc.
Also, and I will double-check this to see if perhaps the legal name for the operations in Trail (where Mr. Porter was about to be transferred to) in 1969 was “Fording Coal” but I don’t believe so – what’s in Trail is of course the mighty lead-zinc smelter, which has nothing to do with coal (it’s still the largest lead-zinc smelter in the world). The smelter has always been referred to as CM&S (Consolidated Mining and Smelting), yes with CPR connections, which later became “Cominco,” then Teck Cominco, now just Teck (it was a very sad day for Kimberley, I think, when they dropped the “Cominco” from “Teck Cominco,” whose presence is still very much felt in this town – and there are still people in Kimberley who were with the company during both the CM&S years as well as the Cominco years, yet their obituaries refer only to CM&S…)
Finally, this idea of throwing a body down a mine shaft…well, again I will check with some of the mining experts in this town – and there are plenty! A body would not be tossed down a shaft of the active mine, of course; and yes there are mine shafts around town, particularly on the ski hill (one is nicknamed the “Bears’ Cave”) – but it seems like a bit of a hassle to drag a body all the way up the ski hill to get rid of it; dumping it into one of the local lakes makes more sense.
If poor Philip was indeed seen near the Cominco office, then that makes sense about who may have been responsible; a local old-timer’s theory as to who was responsible says the perpetrator lived quite close to the Cominco office.
Eve, did you notice the “Cominco” sign that’s still on the hotel? The script is left over from the days when Kimberley was billing itself as the “Bavarian City of the Rockies.” This is an appellation Kimberley has been doing its best to shake for years now – I think the only vestiges are Bavarian Hardware, the Platzl (the downtown pedestrian-only zone) and the Old Bauernhaus restaurant, which was not created to fit in with the Bavarian theme but, rather, is a real 350+ year old Bavarian farmhouse (Bauernhaus is German for farmhouse) that was dismantled and brought here and reconstructed piece by piece, and serves the best food in town!
Just listened to the last half of the podcast – I see they did indeed search Moyie Lake.
There is no reason for this to remain a cold case. They have enough evidence to do DNA testing on the toque and blanket. If people wants this solved they need to eml the Minister of Safety in Victoria.
Unfortunately the evidence was destroyed years before DNA was used. The investigator of this case was devastated.
Where did u read that? That is horrible. I say EB is guilty. I would like to know more about the neighbours house that he was keeping an eye on. The police did not find out about this house til August and they found vegetables similar to what he bought the day he went missing. How can we find out whose house this was.
The house was mine. I have been haunted by this since it happened. Unfortunately, my ex-husband has died, and if he as involved, it has gone to the grave with Jim!
Diana
How do you know the evidence is destroyed?
Eve
Do you know if it is destroyed?
I don’t know whether the evidence has been destroyed. But evidence was destroyed in so many cases prior to DNA hitting the scene in the mid 1990’s that I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Eve do you know where evidence is kept? Would Philip’s evidence be kept locally or is it moved to Vancouver? Also at what point are the public allowed to have access to info when a case is cold? Hoping you might know. Thank you for including Philip in your podcasts. Have you ever done a podcast on Sheila Henry who was also from Kimberley?
I read in the newspaper that after DNA came alone Sgt. Bodnarack tried to have it looked at but it had been destroyed in a flood in the basement of the courthouse
I was living in Kimberley in 1969 10 years old my Dad work for Cominco at the time he worked many hours on the case and he had his theory
What did they find in Bennet’s basement? A circle of glass to keep him in the circle? I lived next door to the Bennets at the time. The top cop informed my dad our house was under surveillance during this investigation because of comments Bennet made re his perceived (wrongly) that we too were in his sites. I’m sick of ppl who lived in Kimberley and were ‘best friends’ with Karen (his daughter) that to this very day say that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping and murder of sweet Philip. The same ppl probably believe Trump is innocent for the insurrection. Jeeze…
Karen could you explain the circle of glass to me. Do u mean Philip was made to stay in the circle?
EB needed money and it seems Philip was an opportunity. Philip was seen walking close to EB’s home on his way home. Do u know by any chance whose house EB was keeping an eye on. If EB hadn’t died in a plane crash he would have been charged with murder eventually. The evidence was at the so called farm. The truth needs to be told.
The podcast tried to present some facts but with the time line too condensed. For example, obviously there were not 1500 volunteers the next day. The ransom money was also taken into the United States by Mr. Porter escorted by us in the air, and many FBI on the ground. No contact was ever made so the ransom was returned to Kimberley from Hotel Vancouver by yours truly.
Thanks so much Bob, appreciate the clarification. Wish I’d had you to interview!
You could have done interview with me Arthur Betts
Arthur, if I’d known about you at the time, I definitely would have.
Apparently Bennett did not kill Phillip Porter directly he was alive at the time when the Ransom was supposed to be paid but he said to me after he couldnt get the ransom money ,he could not return Philip to his Parents because he knew if he did he would be charged with kidnapping and be in Prison the rest of his life . Earl Bennett was an aquaintence of mine, so thats how I know about the Kidnapping and thats what he told me , I read something about a Cabin But he never mention that part to me ; But he mentioned something about a shed thats had something to do with Philip what cant remember what that was about now . But the oil drum makes scence that he would have buried Philip alive and was feeding him while waiting for the Ransom money .( my theory) Im thinking Bennett Could have buried Philip under the floorboards of the unknown where abouts of that shed . also Bennett acted Alone . He let me know very little But I can remember very little of it all the years He never ever revealed very much detail. if Bennett was telling the truth to me it may help some one in some way .
Where are the oil drums ?Were they ever found ?I know for a fact that the Brother Ross had nothing to do with it if I believed Earl .
Ross Bennett was not at his home when the k
Kidnapping took place.
I remember Phillip’s mom coming into the store after all this happened. What a mess she was!I had children of my own then, and felt so sorry for her as she was moving and they had not found her boy. It struck me at the time that he was buried in the deep ditch between the catholic church and the railway underpass. Did they ever look there?
Just found the bones in a hidden crawl space of a shed in Kimberley.
What I wrote was very accurate Nobody come to me at any time with what I had wrote . why hadnt they ? Were they afraid I might get the reward ? My story about the Shed was the Crime Solver !!!!!
When were the bones found – and how were they identified? I lived in Kimberley then (worked for the RCMP) and the case was truly baffling. So many inconsistencies. Phillip was last seen at the foot of the stairs leading up the hill towards his house .. but there was no further sighting of him after that.