Tanya Busch disappeared on the way to her Vancouver school on June 2, 1972. She was the second 7-year-old abducted in just over two years. Was there a connection?
Klaus Busch, 33 and his wife Ingrid, 29 moved to Vancouver from Germany in 1966. They lived with their two children Tanya, 7 and Ralphie, 5, in a duplex at the corner of Clark Drive and East 14th Avenue, several blocks from the Charles Dickens Elementary School in East Vancouver and just over 4 kilometres from the Azarcon’s home.
On Friday June 2, 1972 Tanya Busch left home at 8:25 and walked to school with a friend, as she normally did. When they got to school the friends separated and Tanya played on the swings in Sunnyside Park, across from the school.
School friends told police that Tanya jumped off the swing and ran back in the direction of her house. Two girls who knew Tanya said a man approached her. He was about six-feet-tall with reddish bushy hair and “very starey” eyes. About 25 years old they told police. The man talked to Tanya, then took her by the arm, led her across the road and shoved her into the passenger seat of a small dark car. Then he ran to the driver’s side, jumped in and drove away.
Reported Missing:
Tanya was reported missing at 9:10 a.m. Klaus Busch combed the area in his car while his wife searched on foot. School teachers joined in the search and police were phoned at 10:00 a.m. Newspapers and radio stations reported Tanya’s disappearance, and likely with the memory of Evangeline’s abduction and murder still fresh in their minds, several hundred volunteers joined in the search.
On June 14, two police officers were searching an area in Surrey. They came across the badly decomposed body of a young girl. Dental charts confirmed it was Tanya. She was found about six kilometres from where Evangeline Azarcon’s body had been recovered in 1970. Both Tanya’s and Evangeline’s dump sites were reached from the same exit off the Trans Canada Highway.
Police have a suspect:
Police quickly zeroed in on 26-year-old Charles David Garry Head. He was an inmate at BC Penitentiary and had a toxic relationship with Klaus Busch, a prison guard. At the time of Tanya’s abduction, Head was out of jail on a temporary four-day pass and staying at his mother’s house in Surrey. What was so shocking was that he had already been declared a dangerous offender and was supposedly serving life in prison. This was his third pass for the year and it was only June.
He was charged with Tanya Busch’s murder. After Head’s sentencing Busch told a reporter that he believed that Head had coldly and calculatedly murdered his daughter. He said that he believed that Head’s conviction and incarceration had saved the life of his then six-year-old son Ralphie.
Head died of natural causes at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon on March 7, 2013. He was 66.
In 1969, when Evangeline Azarcon was abducted, raped and murdered, the prison records were in such a mess and the penal system was so lax and corrupt, that police and prosecutors could never determine whether Head was locked up or out on a pass.
SHOW NOTES:
Sponsored by Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours.
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro : Mark Dunn
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9 comments on “Tanya Busch: The Prison Guard’s Daughter”
So sad
Hello I was the friend that walked to school and went to swings with her she has always been with me in my heart and soul always miss my friend
My sister and I remember her well. We went to school with her too. I’m glad she was not forgotten-we always think about her and talk about that day.
I don’t recall you walking with me and Tanya to school that day, I walked her to school that day. Tanya’s parents were friends of my parents, my father was also a prison guard at B.C. Pen, not at the same time as Tanya’s father, we lived just a block away and went to school every day, I didn’t even know her abducter was caught until I got a copy of Eve’s book, I was 11 years old at the time, my brother was friends with Ralphie as they were both the same age
Thinking about Tanya brings back a lot of memories, and speaking with my brother, who because of Tanya’s abduction, became a Search & Rescue volunteer, he said my father’s friendship with Tanya’s father was more likely through the prison guard training they both took as my father actually worked at Ocalla and not B.C. Pen. I remember my birthday parties and Tanya was among the neighborhood children that attended, I’m still trying to get an old photo of a party with Tanya, that’s still etched on my brain, as my Uncle took my mother’s collection of photo’s after she passed away. I remember her mother was also at my birthday parties, and came to me the day of Tanya’s abduction as I was the “Friend” who walked her to school that day, it still haunts me and often times I feel that if we hadn’t separated that day she would still be here ( we lived a block away), I was in my Gym class in the old gravel playing field as we were practicing for Sports Day, she was a tall lady. It may have been 50 years ago, I was 11 then, but I remember as if it was just yesterday. My mother was also friend’s with Tanya’s mother, probably because we lived so close as I recall her coming to our house, and I used to babysit Tanya when I was in Brownies getting my Babysitter Badge, I think Tanya may have also gone to Brownie’s with me. My parents lost touch with the Tanya’s parents and they thought that they may have moved back to Germany, and after both my grandparents passed away the summer of the year Tanya was taken my parents moved us from Vancouver. Through Eve’s book I have come to learn her brother and Parent’s are still here, her father may have passed on recently. After my family moved away I was broken, and would often sit in my room and cry, and there was this song that came out that year, 1972, that I would listen to, and it’s hard to listen to, it was called “Season’s in the Sun” by Terry Jacks, and it reminds me of Tanya every time I hear it. I always think of Tanya as my guardian angel and a guardian angel to other missing children…….I’m crying right now as I write this
I was raped by girlfriend’s uncle in 1957. I was just shy of age 7. He lived on 11th and Clark. He threatened if I ever told he would so the same to my 3 year old sister. I don’t remember his name but his niece is still alive. I think he is involved in these abductions and murders.
Wow, that’s a big statement. I hope this was eventually reported to the Police even decades later. If you send me the name of your girlfriend from 1957 I can most likely find out her Uncle’s name pretty quickly. Send me an email to swocanada@protonmail.com.
Are there records stating why he was in jail to begin with? I’ve been told this story before and know that this same man had kidnapped and a raped one of my family members when she was 5 or 6, she was either let go or got away and I was told he was charged. David Head is all I heard him called. I was always told he was in jail for this rape and possibly others when he was let out on a day pass and this murder happened. So terrible.
I remember Tanya very well, she walked past our house at 16th and Inverness many times to and from school. I’ve thought of her often over the years.