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Evangeline Azarcon: Abducted

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When 7-year-old Evangeline Azarcon disappeared on her way home from Edith Cavell Elementary on November 20, 1969, her abduction sparked the biggest search in BC’s history. 

This episode is based on original research and interviews conducted for my book Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders.

The Azarcon family lived in a duplex in the South Cambie area of Vancouver. Seven-year-old Evangeline, the second oldest of five children, went to Edith Cavell Elementary school. On November 20, 1969, she walked to school with her friend and next-door neighbour Caroline Cruz as they normally did.

The Azarcon’s home on West 19th Avenue, Vancouver. Eve Lazarus photo, 2015

Most afternoons Evangeline and Caroline stayed after school to help their teacher get the classroom ready for the next day. But on this particular day, Caroline wasn’t available, and Evangeline stayed behind with Stephanie Yada. The two little girls walked home afterwards. They parted company near Heather Street and 19th Avenue, by the park, at around 3:15 pm.

Edith Cavell Elementary where Evangeline attended Grade 2 in 1969. Eve Lazarus photo, 2015
Missing:

When Evangeline hadn’t arrived home by 3:30 pm, her mother began to worry. If Evangeline was going to a friend’s place to play after school she always asked her mother first. At 4:00 pm Corazon started calling around Evangeline’s friends. No one had seen her. Then she called Evangeline’s father, Alejandro who came home from work and spent hours searching the neighbourhood. At first he thought she might have either fallen, been hit by a car or taken a detour and got lost. When he couldn’t find any trace of his daughter he called police.

Azarcon family
Azarcon family, Times Colonist, November 29, 1969

Police asked residents in the area to check their yard, garage, basement and even their garbage cans. Anywhere that might offer a potential clue as to the little girl’s disappearance. More than 5,000 people joined in the search, tramping through dense bush in areas as far east as Chilliwack and as far south as the Blaine-Douglas US border. By the time the official search was called off on December 12, close to 50,000 people had searched bush, back streets, mountains, beaches and river banks.

Evangeline Azarcon
Mounted police constables Gary Larsen on Gunner and Harold Newcomb on Soldier search brush in Stanley Park for Evangeline. Province, November 25, 1969
Found:

At 9:30 a.m. on January 20, 1970, a farmer in Port Kells, a neighbourhood of Surrey, was walking through an abandoned mill site that adjoined his property when he found a red child’s lunch box with Evangeline’s name written inside it. He called police.

Police scoured the property and found a child’s body lying face down in a drainage trench flooded by about 60 centimetres of water. Evangeline was still dressed in the clothes she wore the day she went missing. It was two months to the day after she disappeared.

Evangeline Azarcon
Thousands of people join the search for Evangeline Azarcon. Province November 24, 1969

An autopsy showed Evangeline died the day she was taken—between four and ten hours after eating the lunch her mother had packed for her. She had been sexually assaulted and had either drowned or choked to death on her own stomach contents.

In 1972, police figured they had their man following the kidnap and murder of another seven-year-old girl from Vancouver. Next week: Tanya Busch, the Prison Guard’s Daughter.

If you have any information about Evangeline Azarcon’s unsolved murder, please contact Vancouver Police 604-717-3321 or crime stoppers 1-800-222-8477.

Show notes:

Sponsored by Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours.

Music:   Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’

Intro :   Mark Dunn

Voiceover:  Mark Dunn

Interviews:   Dr. Neil Boyd, Andrea Nicholson, Dorothy Yada, Stephanie Yada,

Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media

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13 comments on “Evangeline Azarcon: Abducted”

I was a 9 year old attending Edith Cavell at the time of Evangeline’s disappearance. We always played road hockey at the tennis courts at Heather Park on 19th and Heather and on that day we did not have enough players either due to the weather or whatever, normally we would have had 10 plus kids playing in that exact area but the numbers were few. I remember the search the questioning by my parents and the feeling of fear and loss that followed at our school. Sad day for so many that drastically changed the tone of how kids were managed with life in the city. A terrible tragic loss for a caring family.

I will never forget Evangelines dad,standing on the corner of the school in the morning as us students arrived..He had a picture in his hand and was showing it to everyone as they came by asked us all if we’d seen Evangeline. His english was not great but the look on his face told me this is very serious. I have never forgotten his face that day.
We had been told on more than one occasion by announcement by Prinicipal Findlay i believe it was,that if a man wearing a long trench school approached us ,we were to go the other way.
I lived on 18 and Ash with my mom and sister.
The captain of the police force came to our door and talked to our mom. He told her that in the area where we lived, there was a high rate of sexual predators living around us.
I myself had more than one scary encounters with men who were tailing me as i rode my bike. One of them rode beside me as i rode and stared at me and had a very evil scary look on his face. I remember my heart instantly going hard and fast..this was real…i said to my sister,lets go and i hoped desperately,that she would follow that she would get this was serious and she had better follow me like i requested…it was hard to shake him,the street was wide and open. I then took a ride thru a houses pathway to the back alley by my house and rode hard and fast turn into a space by a garage and hid behind some berry bushes and lumber for quite a while til i felt we were safe. I had that lucense plate number memorized for decades,but ive now since forgotten it..
I have never forgotten Evangeline ..i am always checking to see if there is anything new being found.
I recently found an article that said they did have a suspect but they could never prove it and he is now dead..
Interestingly it just occured to me since hearing the pod cast,that the point at which i realized i was in danger is the exact same spot where Stephie and Evangeline went separate ways.
This, Evangelines very tragic death shaped my whole life imnensely. Its at the core of so much,especially when raising my own kids..
I am forever sad..Whenever i could,i would get her name out there and i would say Evangeline,you are not firgooten,and she is still not..

Thanks so much for writing this Barbara. I’m so sorry about Evangeline, about her horrific kidnapping and murder and also that it was never definitively solved. What I’ve realized in researching these cases is how far reaching they are. Not only do family and friends have their lives destroyed but it’s also devastating for entire communities even decades and decades afterwards. I’ll be releasing an episode about Tanya Busch next week and show how these two cases were likely linked.

I remember this so clearly. I would have been 10 at the time and lived in Oakridge area. I also remember when they found her in Surrey. So, so sad.

We’re they not able to collect any dna? I understand it most likely wasn’t available back then, but if they had kept any, maybe today they would have had some identity? I’m sure the monster that did this horrendous crime is now dead though, hopefully.
Did her family move back to the Philippines or did they remain in Vancouver?

Sadly her body had been out in the elements and in water for two months, so it’s unlikely there would have been DNA left even if they’d thought to preserve it. My understanding is that the family moved to California but I don’t know for how long

I was one of the two guys who set up the search parties of this huge search. I will write a few times I am sure as memories flooded back. How we dealt with the media, set up a makeshift Call Centre, kept reporters away from the family to keep them protected, doing Newspaper and TV Interviews to get the word out and going sometimes 24 hours with almost no sleep.

Wow. Brings back sad memories. Are you going to comment on the site?
I might. Especially if you do.
Memories flooded back as I read peoples comments.
These sexual predators have changed everything as one person commented.
Like after school and on weekends the Parks are empty of children. The equipment and playing fields are there …. but no children. I remember heading to the park regularly to play until it was getting dark and then heading home for supper.
Also…. you see long lines of cars driving their children to and from school. You don’t often see kids walking or riding bikes to school. If they are walking it’s usually with a Grandparent or Caretaker.
We are the prisoners. Not free to be a child and grow up without fear.
More later.

This is just heartbreaking! I saw your name mentioned in the newspapers when I was doing the research for this story. Thanks for writing, I think it’s so important to remember the impact that an abduction has on entire communities even decades after it took place. Eve

I had just turned 10 when this tragedy occurred. I attended General Wolfe Elementary – which was not that far from Evangeline’s school. Remember the police coming to our school and remember posters being put up re her disappearance. And I remember being very afraid – was a real loss of innocence re feeling safe. Have never forgotten this sweet little girl – haunting and heartbreaking.

I was 8 years old and living in New Westminster when my mother told me that a little girl named Evangeline Azarcon was missing, and then that she had been found murdered. Childhoods we’re immediately changed forever! A child bullying me, suddenly turned to me for protection when we saw a man who frightened us. (He was probably harmless). An abduction attempt was made on a child in New Westminster but her brother was struggling with the would be abductor fled when the girl downstairs from us came around the corner delivering her papers. I also remember when Tanya Busch was murdered probably a year later. If I remember right, her murderer had a grudge against Tanya’s father who was a prison guard at the Okalla Prison Farm. This man had been out on a day pass when he kidnapped Tanya. He made the mistake of bragging to an under cover police man who was posing as a fellow inmate.
I hope and pray that Evangeline’s killer is brought to Justice, though he would no doubt be at least in his 80s now.

My sister worked with Evangeline’s Dad at Canadian Comstock. She said he was a really nice guy. To this day I still remember the talk about her going missing, the search parties, and finding her remains. With all the technology we have now, it is too bad they can’t solve it. My understanding from my sister is that her parents were so distraught, they didn’t want to stay in Vancouver anymore. Too many memories.

I was in kindergarten in the Mount Pleasant area. Our new school was being built and there was a mam in his car with his cat and dog just watching. I told the neighbour hood kids about him and the older ones said that he kidnaps and kills kids. So in Kindergarten the next day, I told a boy my story. A girl was listening to us talk and started crying, she then told the teacher. The police were involved and I got in so much trouble. My mom had to walk that girl, to and from school for the rest of the year.

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