The Babes in the Woods case is the story of two tiny skeletons found in Stanley Park. It is one of Vancouver’s oldest unsolved murder mysteries. This episode is based on a story in 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.
While the murders happened sometime in the 1940s, the story starts in January 1953 when a Vancouver Parks Board employee stepped on a skull in a remote area of Stanley Park. When he scraped back the leaves, he found bones covered by a woman’s coat, two children’s flying helmets, shoes, a lunch box, and the murder weapon—a hatchet.
No one had reported missing children.
The Babes in the Woods is Vancouver’s own Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, a dark edge to the city’s beloved Stanley Park, but with an unsatisfying, inconclusive ending.
It’s also one of the most botched.
Before DNA profiling it was extremely difficult to determine sex from skeletal remains, and even though the clothes suggested otherwise, a pathologist determined that the bones belonged to a boy and a girl. For the next half century police searched school records and followed up on tips in an attempt to identify a missing brother and sister.
Police theorized that the children were taken to the park for a picnic by their mother, who then smashed in their heads with an axe, and now unencumbered, went off to have a good time.
There are more than a few problems with this theory. The children were covered with a woman’s coat, more an act of compassion than one of cold-blooded murder. And post-war Vancouver was a brutal place. There was rampant homelessness, transients and violence—especially against women. Women lost their jobs when the men came back from the war. There was no safety net and those post-war years saw a number of cases where desperate women killed their children and then committed suicide.
In 1996, when DNA profiling became part of the forensics toolkit, investigators reopened the file. A UBC scientist extracted DNA from the teeth and soon realized that he was dealing with two boys—not a brother and a sister. This information changed the course of the investigation.
In the next episode: Babes in the Woods Part 2: Kat Thorsen and I take a walk out to the secret spot in Stanley Park where the skeletons of the Babes in the Woods were first discovered. I talk to the VPD Inspector who was in charge of the file in 2015 about how he furthered the investigation, and I talk to the coroner, who reveals an exciting new development.
Show Notes
Intro: Mark Dunn
Music: Lament by Myuu, The Dark Piano
Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
Promo: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance
Guest: Retired VPD Detective Sergeant Brian Honeybourn
Graphic: Courtesy Kat Thorsen
Sources:
Lazarus, Eve. Cold Case Vancouver: the city’s most baffling unsolved murders. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2015
The Vancouver Police Museum and Archives
Vancouver Police Department annual reports 1940s and ’50s
Retired VPD officer Ron Amiel
Vital Statistics – death certificates
Georgia Straight
Globe and Mail
Ottawa Citizen
Province
Vancouver Sun
West Ender
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
16 comments on “The Babes in the Woods Part 1”
The Babes in the Woods’ skulls and other items around the murder scene used to be displayed in a Vancouver Police exhibit, (lower floor of the BC Pavilion) during the PNE. I worked on security patrol there from 1975 to 1977, and became pretty familiar with those poor children. Hopefully they’re in a better place.
I remember it well too!! I believe they were found at the entrance to Beaver Lake
The extracted DNA if it was put in the Ancestry data base you could most likely find the identities of the children and the mother. Cemetery Moore has had a lot of success on cold cases like this.
I meant to say Cece Moore
Will they one day use familial DNA through Ancestry to locate linking members related to these young children. It would be nice for them to find a final resting place with family.
It was such a long time ago. Many believe there was a better day in our history, but it certainly was not the decade that followed WW2 . And before a national health care program was in place. Were children murdered and did their parents actually not report the crimes? You can have the post war decade, not I.
Are the skeletons of boys and girls similar at a young age? Otherwise the Pathologist made a wrong call and set back any investigation of their sad demise. I am sure a few more bodies are in that park. Most of it is underbrush and wild.
The term “Babes in the woods” comes from a sad English tale/ballad from the 16th century about “two children abandoned in a wood, who die and are covered with leaves by robins.”
Certainly a lot of similarities! Thanks for stopping by
Such a tragic story. My heart goes out to these two little boys. I am very upset about their skeletal remains being cremated. I don’t understand why the Officer took it upon himself to have them cremated. It sounds like he had no one’s permission to do this. I think he should be held accountable for what he did. This may never be solved because of it. Poor little boys.
I hope the present day police have more sense than this jerk ,
It’s almost like he was trying to hide the. Evidence
Well the skulls were saved and the boys have a name now….6 & 7…..murdered probably by their mom….awesome huh? Even pics for them.
“There was no safety net and those post-war years saw a number of cases where desperate women killed their children and then committed suicide.”
What stopped these women from turning these children in to social services as my great-grandmother did with my grandfather after she was widowed and could no longer pay for his care?
In this particular case, we still don’t that the children weren’t in the care of social services.
Would those records still exist?
I don’t know, but police say they are investigating….