Roddy Moore, 7 was killed on the way to his East Vancouver school in 1947. Why were his step-fathers suspects?
Begbie Annex:
On Friday October 17, 1947, seven-year-old Roddy Moore waved goodbye to his mother and left for his grade one class at Begbie Annex school in Vancouver’s Renfrew area. It usually took him 10 minutes to walk along East 8th Avenue to Rupert Street. There were only four houses on the west side of Rupert, while across the road the land was still undeveloped and mostly bush skirted what is now Thunderbird Elementary school.
This podcast is from a chapter in Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders and includes interviews with Roddy Moore’s two half-sisters Leona Moore and Patty Turner.
He never arrived.
Body Found:
The search for Roddy continued for two days. Roddy’s body was eventually found at the bottom of a trench near in bush just three blocks from his house. His head had been smashed in with an axe.
- Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck by Eve Lazarus, coming April 2025. Preorder through Arsenal Pulp Press, online retailers or your your favourite indie bookstore
Roddy was a slight, dark-haired friendly little boy. He had grey eyes and long lashes and a small, but prominent scar over his right eye. He stood just four-feet-tall and weighed sixty pounds. His mother said he was scared of the dark and wary of strangers.
Roddy’s mother, Nettie was 18 when Leona was born and 31 when she had her eighth child. At the time of Roddy’s murder she was eight months pregnant. As police started investigating Roddy’s murder and his background, suspicion fell on his two step-fathers.
Family Secret:
Patty Turner was born in 1950, three years after Roddy died. Like her four brothers and sisters she grew up not knowing that she had a murdered half-brother, or that she had seven half-sisters and brothers still in Saskatchewan.
“Roddy was never spoken about in our house,” says Patty.
While more than sixty years have passed without resolution for the family, and against all evidence to the contrary, Patty Turner believes she knows the name of Roddy’s killer. “Deep in my heart, I still believe my father had something to do with it,” she says.
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
The Moore/Turner family:
John Roderick Moore (Roddy) 1939-1947
Mother: Natalie Melissa Moore/Turner 1914-1973
Step-father #1 – Lemuel Edward Moore 1890-1978
Step-father #2 – John Harvie Turner 1912-1980
Alice Williams Hooper (mother of John Turner) 1887-1961
Leona Moore – half sister & oldest of Nettie’s 13 children 1932 –
Patricia (Patty) Turner – half sister 1950 –
Music: Identity Crisis and You by: thedarkpiano.com
Intro: Mark Dunn
Promo: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: the story of Inspector Vance, a true crime podcast with Eve LazarusWith special thanks to Roddy’s half sisters Leona and Patty for contributing to this podcast.
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, content copyright Eve Lazarus.