Hirsch-Creek Park:
On Saturday July 14, 1997, at around 9:30 pm, campers at Hirsch-Creek Park and campground just north of Kitimat, BC, heard eight gunshots. They called police.
The officer who arrived at the scene found three young male residents lying dead in and beside a car in the campground parking lot, covered in blood. A fourth young man was found clinging to life in the trees a few feet from the car. He had lost 60 percent of his blood and was rushed first to Kitimat General hospital and then airlifted to Vancouver.
The names of the dead are Michael Mauro, David Nunes and Mark Teves, all aged twenty. Twenty-one-year-old Donny Oliveira survived.
Kevin Vermette:
Kevin Vermette and his red chevy pickup were well known around town and witnesses passed along the number plate to police who quickly verified that the truck belonged to Vermette. When they reached the motel where he lived, they found Vermette’s truck parked in its usual spot outside room #5. Vermette had returned to the motel, taken his dog and his shotgun and headed into the bush. By the time police entered his motel room, he already had a 10-hour head start.
Vermette was an experienced hiker and knew how to survive in the heavily forested area and back country trails and logging roads that surrounded the town.
By the end of 2000 police were no closer to catching him.
Posters had been splashed all across Canada with Vermette’s image and offers of a $17,500 reward.
Two extensive police searchers had turned up only animal bones.
America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries did segments on the case.
More than 900 tips and sightings had come in from the public but whenever police responded to a tip, they found nothing. The tracking dogs never picked up a scent. The helicopter equipped with an infra red heat seeking radar never got a hit.
Last May 2024 the RCMP sent out an up-to-date composite drawing of Vermette, and he remains on the RCMP’s most wanted list.
Is Kevin Vermette dhttps://bit.ly/3XuKu2Cad? Maybe. But what I did learn while researching this story and talking to people of Kitimat, nothing was really as it seemed. Listen to the podcast and see what you think.
Copies of my new book, Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck, are available through my publisher Arsenal Pulp Press, or preorder from any independent bookstore across Canada
Show Notes:
Sponsor: Erin Hakin Jewellery
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro: Mark Dunn
Related:
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
22 comments on “The Kitimat Murders”
Remember when it all happened. It was so weird. It is unusual to not find anything but it does happen. Now I’ll figure out how to find podcasts to listen to it.
Thank you for writing about this case.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! You can listen to the podcast on this page (just go to the top) or on Apple, Spotify, Podbean etc.
I recently had a very scary encounter with Kevin on a logging road on Vancouver Island.
There has been 2 confirmed sightings and I was able to figure out who he was (after we got away from him) by googling the info he shared and found he was wanted.
It’s been reported to rcmp, indigenous policing, crime stoppers, canadas most wanted and global news.
Nobody has even followed up.
Scariest encounter of my life.
He is alive and thriving
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I’m really sorry that you have been ignored.
Do you mind if I ask where exactly on Vancouver Island?
Wow. What happened?
Curious if you were able to have a conversation with the survivor about what happened that night to caused Kevin to follow them and attack them? What was his story of what happened? It’s so unfortunate no one wanted to talk about the victims. Not even their friends. Very strange.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to connect with any of the friends or families of the victims. But I do cover a couple of theories of why Vermette was at the campground in the podcast.
Why was he there
Something seems to have set this guy off; were the victims simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? I’m also reminded of the Agassiz murders where four teens were killed by a local nut who were simply out having a day out in the woods.
There is much more to it than that. If you have time, have a listen to the podcast and it goes through some of the scenerios
I wish i could listen to the podcast, I am deaf, is there an transcript that i can read based on what was said in the podcast?
Both Apple and Spotify generate transcripts of the podcasts – here’s a link to Apple https://podcasters.apple.com/support/5316-transcripts-on-apple-podcasts You’re looking for episode 46 The Kitimat Murders. I haven’t read the transcript but I hope it understands my accent!
So sad for everyone involved. I am looking forward to the podcast. I have spent a lifetime searching for the missing , BC is a great place to disappear. Keep safe and thanks for the research.
Thank you for all your work!
Do you see a huge resemblance to the Green River Serial Killer?
Gary Ridgway – The Green River Serial Killer looks just like this suspect
I remember this really well, as a matter of fact I wondered about this disappearance a few days ago, thank you for the update, now I have a question about a similar crime in 1964, I believe the killing happened around allouette park area or such, three young men and one killer, does this ring any bells with anyone?
Also the family killed in Vancouver in 1959 that was never solved, the babes in the woods was finally brought to a conclusion I’m wondering if these might also, thank you Eve for these interesting articles.
A more complex tragedy than it appears at first. Thanks for giving us a fuller picture in the podcast. I am so sorry for the mothers, including of course Vermette’s mother.
This story is new to me. I believe there is definitely much more to this story concerning the victims. As reported by you thus far I feel no sympathy for their death or their family. The victims at age 20 were hardly children. They were bullies harassing a guy that couldn’t even get protection from RCMP. The families were equally guilty by brushing off what their sons were doing to make a person’s life miserable. Whatever the rest of the story is I think the cover-up will not be revealed. The real victim here is Vermette’s mother wondering what happened to her son and being bullied by the families that lost their son. I hope that one day the truth will come out. Good luck Eve. Enjoy your stories.
He had a tattoo of a Black Jaguars on his forearm from what I recall.
His tattoos are on display on his Interpol Most Wanted page: https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/Red-Notices/View-Red-Notices#1999-24742
I just spotted him at mucho Burrito on the can with the shits