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Evelyn Roche: The Hastings/Sunrise Murder

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Evelyn Roche got off the East Broadway bus and was stabbed to death two blocks from her house on April 3, 1958. This podcast is from a chapter in Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders and includes an interview with Evelyn’s daughter Sharon.

Evelyn Roche and Richard at Mayling Cabaret, 1957

Evelyn’s murder terrorized the city. VPD Chief George Archer warned that a “sex fiend” was on the loose, that he believed that he would murder again, and that women should travel in pairs or be met by a male escort if they were coming home after dark.

Evelyn Roche in her garden. Courtesy Sharon Harder
mother of two:

Evelyn married Richard in 1955 and they moved into their house just days before she was murdered. And in what has happened way too many times, Evelyn was vilified in the press. Reporters said she left her two children alone in the house. The implication was that she went off to party, that some how she had invited her own murder.

2595 East 6th Avenue. Eve Lazarus photo, 2014

In 2014, I tracked down Evelyn’s two children, Sharon who was 16 and Frank, 14 at the time of their mother’s murder. I wanted to know what happened to them, how they had coped with this senseless loss.

Sharon has sadly passed away, but back then we talked at length, and with the permission of her brother Frank, her interview is included in the podcast.

Frank and Sharon Roche on Hornby Street, Vancouver in 1947
Went to the post office:

On the night she was murdered, Evelyn had asked her kids if they wanted to come downtown to the post office with her, but they said no, they wanted to watch a show on television. The last words that Sharon remembers saying to her mother was “Mum, please don’t forget the grapes.”

Evelyn was stabbed in the neck, chest and back, each wound delivered with such force that the blade had entered her body to the hilt. She had been sexually assaulted. Two brown paper bags were found near her body. One contained Sharon’s grapes.

Show notes:

Sponsor: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

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 & voiceovers:  Mark Dunn

Music:                       Lament by DarkPiano.com

Sound effects:         High school ambience by SoundEffectsfactory

Interview:                 Sharon Harder, Evelyn Roche’s daughter

PSAs:

  • Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers
  • Vancouver Police Museum and Archives

Promo:              Blood, Sweat & Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

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20 comments on “Evelyn Roche: The Hastings/Sunrise Murder”

A very sad and tragic story especially since the murderer was never caught. At the very least raging murderers could be caught and put away.

Who knew it was so dangerous here at that time? My mother was a teen then and lived on the East Side too.l

So sad that a number of people heard or saw something and yet did nothing to check out the screams or what they saw. I can understand not wanting to get involved but I cannot for the life of me understand why none of those people had the where with all to call police. Really pathetic!

I can’t get over the brutal violence that occurred many times in Vancouver in the 50’s. So many murders! Mostly women of course & so many not solved & cold. So sad for these families

Bob Price
I was friends with Frank. I lived down the back alley on 5th. I remember Sharon. I was in the VPD and when i was in homicide I found the file regarding the murder. I went thru the file. There were no suspects identified. I would say that the that the person responsible is dead. The detectives at the time came to my house to interview me because Mrs. Roche had my name and phone number in her purse. I was 13 years old.

My mom and dad both went to Tech School then! My dad on 14th & Victoria & 6rh at the time! They were in school and told me the story years ago! They were afraid and my dad made sure to walk my mom back and forth to school everyday!

my aunt Beverly (Leon) Grant died from a gunshot wound to her chest 26March 1957. She was 18 years old and had just gotten married to a Vancouver Police officer.The autopsy verdict was that she shot herself with the revolver. Our family doesnt believe that verdict. Nothing innocent about Vanc even back then

I have 2 ‘VANCOUVER’ books of yours … the one with cold cases and the other one is about haunted houses. I came to Vancouver in 1949 so many stories are familiar. Thank you for your excellent work

I think there were more than a few unsolved murders from the ’50s and early ’60s. We lived near the Paul family who were murdered, I think, in 1958. Eve has written about them. Killer never caught. I was 8 and although I don’t think I was traumatized by it, it’s stayed with me since. There were a few other murders/manslaughters in the neighbourhood, actually.

In the very early ’60s (I was 10 or 11) I believe the naked body of a woman was found one Boxing Day in the vacant lot at 41st and Knight (SW corner, I think, possibly even before the gas station was built). No idea if they ever solved that one. And in my elementary school around then one student’s mom stabbed her husband to death. I recall the nuns taking her out of class. In its own way, violent times. But I guess violent times have always been with us.

I remember that murder. I was about 7 or 8. Every time I go by that park I remember. It was just a huge high grassed area then.

Do you remember the Rees family? They lived close to the Pauls also.
Joan was a school friend of mine & told me how terrified she was at the time.

No, we lived on the eastern side of Knight Road (Knight Street to most now), on Lanark near 49th so that was, for us kids, another part of Vancouver. My brother, 2 yrs older than me, though, rode his bike down and watched them take the bodies away. I never asked how it affected him.

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