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
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