Criminology - Gary Allen Srery

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Gary Allen Srery was a Canadian serial killer who is known to have murdered at least four people. Unfortunately, it took the authorities many years to catch him, and they wonder just how many people he could have actually killed over those many years. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Gary Allen Srery. Srery was born and lived in the United States before he illegally entered Canada. He had a long criminal history that involved both countries but he never spent much time in prison for his convictions. Just how prolific might have Srery been as a serial killer and did he kill in the United States as well as Canada? You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital production

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So everyone and welcome to episode 323 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good. I'm still getting over my COVID, but fighting it off and feeling a little bit better. How you don't?

Yeah, I'm doing well. We're heading into, well, by the time this episode comes out, it will be Labor Day weekend. And you know, for me every year, that signifies a lot of things. My wife is getting ready to go back to teaching. So it's kind of, I don't want to say it's the end of summer, but for her it definitely is. And a lot of things around the house change for sure. Yeah, everybody's schedule changes kids going back to school and they want to get their last vacation time.

And so hectic. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Jimmy Nicks and Bart and Stephanie Smith. So great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you to everyone that takes the time to support the show. If you want to help, you can go to patreon.com slash criminology to get started.

All right. It's time to jump into this episode. And this week, we're covering one of those kinds of cases that is bound to make a lot of people angry. Angry because there were many chances to stop a killer and save lives. We're not talking about some unknown predator here who slipped. through the cracks, we know who committed these crimes. And his actions hurt a lot of families. But we really don't know ultimately how many lives were lost or affected at the hands of this killer or just how many victims he had. We're talking about serial rapist and murderer,

Gary Allen Swearer. It was almost 50 years ago that Gary Allen Sury's murders, at least the ones we know about, began. Friends Eva Dvorak and Patsy McQueen were both four years. 14 years old on the day before Valentine's Day, 1976. They were both students at Ian Basilgat Jr. High in Dover, a neighborhood in the southeast part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Patsy was in ninth grade, one year ahead of Eva. The 13th was a Friday, and apparently they decided to start the weekend together a little bit early. According to a 2016 CBC article, the girls were caught drinking on campus around noon that day and were sent home due to the seriousness of this behavior. We have to mention, though, that a Calgary Herald article

from February 16th states that the school's principal, R.B. Target, didn't know whether or not they were in classes that day. This may mean that they were ditching classes, but still on campus somewhere, could also be referring to not being at school at all. Being on campus would fit in with a report of them being sent home for drinking, but other sources note that they were asked to leave school on Thursday. So there's a bit of confusion about when the girls last attended class, but the reports of them drinking or smelling of alcohol on campus are consistent. No matter what scenario is correct, neither of the girls would make it home. And I think the first thing that jumps out at me here is two girls being caught drinking at school

and then being, you know, sent home, allowed to essentially walk home. I mean, that's really shocking when you think about it that these two young girls, could be at the very least suspended, maybe even expelled from school, yet allowed to walk out of the school alone. Now, it's not clear what the policies were then, but I think it's pretty safe to say. If this happened today, it's hard not to imagine parents being called into the school to be talked to and to pick up their kids.

Being released early with no cell phone. Remember, this is 1976. means even if you had a ride home from school, they wouldn't know to come pick you up and they might be busy at that time, even if you could get a hold of someone. You'd be pretty vulnerable, left to sit and wait or try and make it home,

even if you were completely sober. Again, we don't know exactly what the protocol was here, but perhaps if these two girls were held in school until their parents came for them, They may be alive today. Although we don't know all the details surrounding Eve and Patsy leaving the school, they did leave the premises. And after that, where they went and what they did remains a mystery.

From what we can gather, their families hadn't seen them since Thursday because they decided to stay at a friend's house after school. But just before 11 a.m. on February 15th, it became clear where they ended up. The discovery of their bodies underneath the Happy Valley Overpass was called in at 10.50 that Sunday morning. There was no sign of obvious trauma on their bodies, but authorities were certain that they had not died of exposure. Temperature seemed pretty low that night.

And one article posted on Valerie Moss.ca. From around the time of the discovery, notes that they were found on a bank of snow and ice under the overpass. This indicates that investigators believed it was more likely that they had been killed somewhere else and then, left where they were found. Their bodies may have even been posed. It was also noted that they had been left arm and arm in fully closed, though investigators believed they had both been sexually assaulted. And this, to me, Morph does sound like they were posed. When you think about that term arm and arm, now they could have huddled together arm and arm against the freezing temperatures, but given everything else that happened, it seems very likely that the killer posed them that way.

Yeah, it had to be a pretty eerie sight to see that, to stumble upon that. Yeah, and we talked about it before, but, you know, individuals who find a scene like this, number one, how horrific is it in the moment? And then I think secondly, you know, is that something that you're ever able to, you know, to fully get rid of out of your mind. And I would say no. I think that would be a site that would linger with you for as long as you live. This area where the girls were found was about a mile west of the city at the time. Now it's the Valley Ridge neighborhood of Calgary.

Authorities work to narrow down the girl's time of death. A neighbor recalled seeing the pair on 9th Avenue southeast near 12th Street and offering them a ride just after midnight on Sunday. This would mean they were killed relatively close to the time their bodies were discovered. They were alive at midnight on Sunday and found before 11 a.m. the same day. That's less than 11 hours. Now, we can go back to the time between being released from school early and being spotted hitchhiking at midnight on Sunday and realized that whatever the girls got up to after leaving school,

it may not be connected to their deaths since they were seen alive and well after leaving school. Ultimately, they rejected the neighbor's offer of a ride and continued on their way. Maybe they weren't heading home. Again, wherever it was, they wanted to go. They didn't make it. Alberta's chief medical examiner, Dr. John Butt, performed the autopsies on Patsy and Eva. At the time, no actual cause of death was able to be determined for either of them,

though there were signs they had been asphyxated. There were no marks on or damage on their necks, which would have indicated strangulation. Because of this, Dr. Butt initially felt that their deaths were a drug-related accident and that strangulation was unlikely. Despite the presence of semen at the scene, authorities first considered the case in investigation into what police deemed in Idaho statesmen, their sudden deaths. Investigators believe that they may have accidentally asphyxated due to smothering from getting too intoxicated and passing out.

But they continued to look for other causes. In an article on Valerie Moss.ca, one investigator, constable Daniel Lyons, was quoted as saying, the only person that's going to be able to tell us that is the person who took them there. Investigators believe that even Patsy, stayed at their friends home overnight on Thursday and didn't leave until Friday evening. They were spotted at a party, drinking with a group of young men. After midnight, they headed to a different house party.

They slept there on Friday night, and on Saturday they split a tab of LSD together and ended up heading back to where they had been partying on Friday evening. Things had apparently calmed down there, but they stayed for a while to play some car. investigators initially believe that something must have happened to the girls at the party on Saturday and that everyone was just keeping quiet, hoping that no one would get in trouble for witnessing an overdose or a tragic accident or something along those lines. According to a March 30th, 1976 article on Valerie Moss.C.A., the investigation would reveal that both girls willingly took LSD, marijuana, and

alcohol one day before they died. The article notes that the only charges the RCMP were currently considering were those regarding disrespect for a human body. Staff Sergeant Harold Metcalf was clear that there's no death on record in the United States or Canada that shows the combination of these three drugs that will kill anybody. Constable Daniel Lyons admitted that lab results gave absolutely nothing to indicate what caused her death. At the time, it clearly seems that police and medical examiners were confused. They didn't know that they had a serial killer on their hands who liked to strangle its victims, and that Patsy and Eva were the first victims of this predator.

And I don't think there's any doubt, more if that authorities here were confused. They had some information, right? These girls were caught drinking at school on Friday. They were partying on Saturday. They drank. They smoked marijuana. they even took some LSD, but they really had no information that was giving them their exact causes of death. And I think the one article was pretty telling when it talked about the only

charges that were being considered were those regarding disrespect for a human body. You know, this really tells me that at the time, they weren't even sure these girls were killed. 20-year-old Melissa Rohorek moved from Windsor, Ontario to Calgary in the spring of 1976. That autumn, she was living at the

YWCA and working as a chamber maid at a hotel. On September 15th, she planned to go out of town to Banff, about an hour and a half away for her two days off. This is something that she did often. She didn't have

her own car. So she regularly got around by hitchhiking. This time should have been no different, except this time she was picked up by a killer. According to a CBC.ca article, her family said Melissa was a positive person who trusted people. She was last seen by friends at the YWCA, around 8.30 p.m. on the 15th, according to an article in the Windsor Star, a transit driver, remember, dropping her off near McMahon Stadium on the Trans-Canada Highway. Her body was found in a ditch next to a gravel road about 12 miles west of the city limits. She had been strangled.

There were signs of a struggle at the scene, leading investigators to believe that Melissa fought back against her attacker. Long black hairs were found in her hand. About 30 feet away from her body, authority spotted a plastic shopping bag with their belongings inside, a toothbrush, makeup, and a wallet with $5.50 in it were inside. Seaman was found on Melissa's fully clothed body, but there were no other signs of sexual assault. We now know that leaving semen on fully clothed bodies of his victims are big parts of one killer's signature, but investigators didn't know it at the time. They didn't immediately link Melissa's murder to the deaths of Eva and Patsy earlier that year. There were multiple serial killers active in the area at the time,

as well as fatal domestic violence and a lot of drug overdoses. There were so many homicides along Canada's Highway 16, dating back to 1970, the year of the highway's completion, that in 2005, the RCMP created a task force called E. Panna, finally figured out exactly how many killers they were even looking for. By 2006, they were also investigating murders along highways 5, 24, and 97. Canada's highways in the 1970s were clearly a dangerous place for young women and girls. 19-year-old Barbara Jean McLean moved from Inverness, Nova Scotia to Calgary in October 1976. She was living with her brothers and quickly found a job working at the Scotch and Sirloin restaurant as a hat-check girl.

before getting hired as a teller at the Palliser Square branch of the World Bank. She also found a boyfriend. According to a CBC.C.C.A. article, her brother Jim said she was full of life and smart as hell and just excited to be away from home for the first time. Despite Barbara being happy in her new situation, it seems that she was also homesick. According to her father, Dr. Jim McClain, Barbara went to her to her husband. to visit home and had even purchased a ticket to Nova Scotia. For a two-week trip, she planned to take in March.

She also planned to move back home to attend college the next year. So it seems like Barbara's living in work arrangements in Calgary were only temporary. On February 26, 1977, Barbara and her boyfriend got into an argument after a night out at the Highlander Hotel Tavern with friends. For some reason, her boyfriend got kicked out of the bar, and Barbara stayed and continued drinking while he waited outside in his car, cooling off, or maybe stewing. It was around 2.30 a.m. after closing, when Barbara returned to the car and they continued fighting. She was at least buzzed, if not drunk. We don't know about the boyfriend, but it seems pretty likely that he was too. Whatever the fight was about is also unknown. But ultimately, she decided to leave without him and figured she would catch a ride to a house party with someone else. She got out of the car and headed down the street.

Her boyfriend drove away. That's the last time Barbara was seen alive. And how many times morphed does this happen, you know, let's say on the weekends, people are going out, they're drinking. There's going to be spats and people are going to get into it. In this scenario, I did think it was strange that Barbara's boyfriend got kicked out of the bar, yet she remained inside drinking until the bar closed. My thought is they must have gotten into it inside as well.

You know, most people would leave when their good friend or significant other is forced out of the bar. But she didn't do that. And then obviously this fight continued once she got into the car to the point where she ultimately accident the vehicle and started walking. Now, we don't know what the fight was about. We don't know, you know, how serious it was. But her boyfriend, you know, drove away in the car, something that I'm sure he later regretted. And you have to think that he would have been someone, the police would have been pretty

interested in talking to once they knew that something happened to her. Yeah, I mean, being the boyfriend, he's going to be talked to, obviously. but then when this story came out, right, they were drinking, they got into a fight, police are going to look at him maybe a little harder. Barbara's body was found around 8 a.m. the next morning by a man walking his dog down a gravel road near 80th Avenue and 6th Street Northeast. She was still fully clothed, but she had been strangled and her jacket was on inside out. There was blood on her left hand and her arm and

neck were bruised. Strands of black hair were found at the scene. Investigators were immediately certain that whoever killed Barbara had also killed Melissa, even though there was no way to prove it at the time. Remember, this was before DNA, but police were pretty confident that their killers were one and the same. Many years later, they would be proven correct. Barbara's brother, Bobby, was saddened and dumbfounded. By her murder, he told the Windsor Star, she didn't have any enemies. I just can't seem to put the pieces of the puzzle together. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved, until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Trying to solve these cases was a large operation.

According to the Globe and Mail, police sifted through more than 800 tips, 500 statements, and the investigation of 853 suspects or persons of interest. Authorities collected hair samples for more than 600 men with black hair, but none matched to hair, at the scene of Melissa or Barbara's murder.

Police were at an impasse. But that was a large operation. I mean, you'd have to say police were putting in the work. You know, just the 853 suspects or persons of interest alone, that's a lot of people. And obviously, this black hair

would have been a very important clue. It was found at both of the scenes collecting samples from more than 600 men. Okay, how are you picking those 600 men? Obviously, they have black hair, but what else goes into it? And then to find out that none of them matched. So you're doing all of this work and there's really no pay off. That has to be very frustrating. And back in the 70s, I'm wondering when they say none of the hair is matched, I wonder if that's microscopically

or did they do some kind of testing to verify that they were definitely not from the killer? Or, you know, because a lot of that stuff from back in the 70s, especially with hairs, wasn't very reliable, the science behind hairs in cases like this. Yeah, my thought is they were probably looked at under a microscope. And then it goes back to what we heard for so many years in cases. were they or were they not microscopically similar? And to that end, we know that

there were a lot of people convicted on maybe not solely hair testimony, but it was a big part of it. And this microscopically similar wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. There was one promising suspect in Barbara's murder. 34-year-old Gary McAstocker took his own life in 1994 by hanging himself hours before he was supposed to be questioned about the murder of 14-year-old Tina McPhee who disappeared in Edmonton on her way to school on June 14th, 1994. By the time of her murder, he already had a history as a convicted sex offender. In 1988, he violated.

parole for a 1982 sexual assault conviction with yet another sexual assault. Just four months before Tina's disappearance, he completed his original 11-year sentence. Investigators believe that he could have killed Barbara McLean. He was working for a moving company in Edmonton, who often had their employees stay at the Highlander Motel, where Barbara was last seen. one article notes that he was a family acquaintance of Tina's. He was the stepdad of one of her friends. Tina's body was never found, but authorities believe she was murdered.

One article notes that Tina was seen getting into a quarter ton pickup, about two blocks from Dan Not Jr. High. And this sticks out because a few sources mention a gray quarter ton pickup truck in the area where Melissa Rohorik was last seen on September 15th, 1976. Now, it's not clear if this is some sort of translation or transcription error, or if there was a quarter-ton truck in both cases. Gary McAstocker's actions in 1988 while on parole are particularly interesting as well. On May 28, 1988, he crashed his car in a third. the car of a 48-year-old woman who was driving alone. He jumped out of his car to check on her

and asked if she was okay before he told her to get out of the car. He began to punch her in the face and head, grabbed her hair, and tried to force her into his car. She fought back, and he ripped her shirt open and started to shout obscene demands before stealing her purse and yelling at her to forget this ever happened. This incident is very similar to the disappearance of 17-year-old Marie Gudro. On August 2nd, 1976, sometime after 10.30 p.m. when she was on her way home from a friend's house. Just before 11 p.m., her car was found on Ellersley Road, still running with the lights on. Witnesses recalled seeing the car there with the lights on for at least an hour. The driver's door was open and the window was halfway down. Marie's purse, shoes, and jacket. still in the car, but she was nowhere to be found for two days until her body was discovered in a ditch full of water in Devon, Alberta. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled, then left nude. For a long time, investigators wondered if Marie could have been murdered by the same person

who killed Melissa and Barbara. But her murder didn't exactly fit with theirs. They all seemed to have been strangled, but Marie was the only one who had a car and was also the only one found without her clothes on. Her murder, or at least her obvious abduction, does match. What happened when Gary McAstocker ran that woman off the road in 1988. There's another case that doesn't quite fit the exact pattern, but since it happened in February, it's worth mentioning. Like Melissa Rohrhic, 19-year-old Ahn Neopah was a chambermaid at a hotel, but she worked in Banff, where Melissa liked to go on her off days. Like Barbara and Melissa, she had recently moved to the area, but she moved from Vietnam to Canada. Her body was found face down in the snow just off

the Trans-Canada Highway on February 28, 1981. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled, but her body was mutilated after her death, which didn't happen in any of the other cases we've discussed. if we assume Melissa was picked up on her way too or somewhere near Banff, maybe her killer regularly traveled from Banff to Calgary and back. It wouldn't be out of the question for a predator like this to pick up a victim at one location, leave their body in another, and repeat the process going in the opposite direction at a later time. You know, we're talking about a number of victims and quite a few suspects here.

And I have this thought more of that, okay, there are, some differences in cases. So how do investigators look at those cases? We know that a lot of serial killers stick to a pretty regular M.O. But, you know, some dabble for the lack of a better term. They try different things out. I know it's strange to say it that way, but it's almost as if they're exploring as they're exploring as they commit.

you know, some of these heinous crimes. So is it inconceivable that there would be differences? And I would say, no. It doesn't necessarily mean that some of these murders couldn't have been committed by the same person, even though there are some pretty stark differences in how they occurred or how the victims were left. Yeah, that could always be because a victim reacted a certain way or didn't. react a certain way and that led to the the attack being slightly different than the other ones.

Also, going back to the gray truck that we talked about earlier, it could be an important clue because there is a serial killer named Brian Peter Art that might be a good suspect in Tina McPhee's disappearance. He was convicted for the murder of 18-year-old Marnie Blanchard in 1989 and 38-year-old year old Teresa Umfrey in 1993. Both women were from Prince George in British Columbia. Barney was last seen getting into a small gray pickup truck thought to be either a Nissan or a Toyota. We mentioned that Canada's highways were a hunting ground for predators and perhaps it caused the backlog of evidence testing in comparison because it wasn't until 2003 that the murders of Melissa Rohorek and Barbara McLean were officially linked through a shared DNA profile of their

killer. Police had long suspected that they were killed by the same person and the DNA confirmed it. But they were shocked when in 2021 the same profile was discovered on evidence in the case of Eva Devorak and Patsy McQueen. For a long time, police and medical experts couldn't even say that Eva and Patsy were murdered, now there was no doubt. One serial killer was responsible for all four deaths. Now they made it their goal to ID the owner of the DNA profile. The Alberta RCMP and the Calgary Police Service worked together to find out who the DNA profile belonged to using investigative genetic genealogy. After a lot of hard work and patients, they found the person they were looking for.

Gary Allen Swearer. Sadly, the suspect would not be held accountable for their deaths, and he wouldn't even be questioned in the murders. It turns out he had already been dead for a decade. Gary Allen Swearie died in an Idaho prison. On April 27, 2011, no one claimed his body, and he was buried on the grounds of the prison. At the time of his death, he was serving a life sentence for a sexual assault he had committed

in June 2008 in Cordeline, Idaho. The victim in this case had been on crutches when Swery met her and was very easy to overpower. He offered her a ride home from the Mousetrap Bar. He attacked her in her own home. And after several hours, the woman's boyfriend arrived and chased him off. After the attack, the victim suffered a debilitating stroke that left her with irreversible damage, causing slurred speech and loss of movement on the left side of her body. Still, she testified against swearing court saying,

You have made me have a stroke because of the stress and the damage that you did to me in that bathroom. Do you understand me? She told the Idaho statesman of her choice. take the stand, I was going to see him convicted to save other women. So morph, a good number of years went by before police were able to identify Gary Allen sweary. The trouble is he was already dead by that point, had been dead for some time. So on the one hand, my thought is a huge win for police to finally, you know, number one, connect these four murders because they weren't even sure that they were connected. They weren't even sure some of them were murders. So that's a big win,

but also it must have been a big left out in some respect to not to get to talk to this guy, to not get this guy in court and convict him for these murders. And then you have this victim of swears who ended up testifying against him in court. Obviously what she went through was a horrific and tragic event. But it did stand out to me. The courage and defiance on her part. There was nothing that was going to stop her from testifying against this man to help put him away and telling him exactly what.

he did to her and how he ultimately, you know, altered her life. It kind of gives you chills a little bit. Yeah, this is a case where it took a long time for all the victims, family members to get answers. And, you know, they weren't able to try him. He's already dead. So we escaped justice in that respect. But I think just having those answers was probably very important for those for those family members. Yeah, I think it was. It definitely would have been. I don't like to use that word closure because I just don't know how accurate it is. But to lose a loved one and to go decades without any answers has to be very, very difficult. So when those answers come, even when that person is dead and they can't be. convicted, there has to be something to that for the family. The life sentence for Gary Allen Schreary was handed down in 2009 when Sriri was 67. He would have been eligible for parole after eight years, but his death came after less

than two full years in prison, making it a true life sentence after all. Now, without being able to question him, investigators in the Canadian cases are left to try and rule in or out other unsolved cold cases that Sperry may have committed. it, according to a statement released by the RCMP, Swery's criminality spanned decades over multiple jurisdictions, under numerous aliases, and the Alberta RCMP believed there may be more victims. According to the Globe and Mail, by 1965, Swery had been charged with rape by force, oral copulation, sodomy, kidnapping, and assault to commit rape. He was in his early 20s the first time he was arrested. He was taken into custody multiple times on charges of sexual assault until he fled

from Los Angeles to Canada while on bail sometime after July 1974. So we're going to dive in to what we know about Gary Allen Swery, but just look at some of what he was charged with early on over the years. Morp and, you know, this is something that we have seen in too many cases. You know, there's a real pattern on the part of some of these guys. You know, racking up charges relating to sexual assaults time and time again. They're arrested, sometimes even convicted, but let out, in my opinion, pretty quickly to then just commit additional sexual assault. And my thought is, and I don't know what else it could be.

that, you know, in the 50s, 60s, even into the 70s, sexual assault was not given the gravity that it deserved, the charge of sexual assault. Because the sentences that a lot of these guys got, they were light. Yeah, when you see a record, as long as this guys, you have to wonder what's he doing out of jail to commit these crimes. So what do we know about this predatory?

Gary Allen Swearie. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 26, 1942. He had two younger siblings. At some point in 1952, his family moved to California. Swery, still living in California, was married in 1960. Just five years after getting married, Swearie's criminal record began. In 1965, he was charged with rape by force, oral copy. population, sodomy, and kidnapping in Los Angeles. He was charged with burglary in 1966, but the charges were dismissed. The same year, he was charged with kidnapping and assault to commit rape, as well as sexual perversion.

He was placed into mental health treatment after the state of California labeled him a mentally disordered sex offender. Swearie was again charged with rape in 1916. But this time he was acquitted. He was charged for a second time with kidnapping and rape in the same state. Yet three years later, he's out to get another identical charge. And again, you know, it's almost as if a person's criminal record didn't follow them the same way that it does today.

That coupled with the justice system. just not putting the weight behind these types of sexual crime that we do today. There's just no way that this guy should have been back on the street after racking up the number of crimes that he committed. Yeah, if you're a family member of one of these girls that he murdered after all this other crap that he did, you have to be, I would think, angry and be asking how was this guy out on the street. Every time we talk about this, it just doesn't make sense. And I think it goes back to what we said in the beginning, right? These are the types of cases

that make people angry. Because you can easily see how it was very possible that some, if not all of these murders, could have been avoided. Had Gary Sweari been imposed longer sentences? Or had been labeled a habitual offender, had that taken into account, and his sentences, you know, got longer and longer. That just didn't happen. Looking for the best place to shop this Mother's Day? Go with the brand that makes it easy to send something thoughtful to everyone on your list. 1-800flowers.com.

Right now at 1-800 flowers, order one dozen roses and get another dozen free. More flowers mean more smiles, all backed by the quality, attention to december. and trusted delivery experience that make 1,800 flowers my top choice to send something beautiful mom will love. Make Mom's Day at 1800flowers.com slash podcast. That's 1,800flowers.com slash podcast. By 1969, Gary Allen, Swery and his wife were divorced, we don't know a lot about their time together or their relationship, but apparently she had seen enough of the disgusting things her husband was capable of. They had one son during their time together. In 1972, Swery was charged with drug possession and spent his biggest chunk of time behind bars at San Quentin State Prison.

He was paroled in 1972 and lived for a short time in Sonoma, California. So I just said he spent his biggest chunk of time behind bars, but how long was it? Less than a year. He's paroled in the same year. in which he was convicted. But is it also worth noting that his biggest chunk of time behind bars up to that point was not for sexual assault,

was not for kidnapping. It was for drug possession. I think that tells you a lot. In 1973, he was charged with kidnapping and sodomy in Florence, Oregon. Once again, though, he was not convicted. Later the same year, he was charged in Los Angeles with violating his parole conditions and sent back to jail. Despite all the prior history and now a parole violation, Swearie was out by 1974.

It was this year that he was charged with rape in Los Angeles. And despite all those things we just mentioned, he was allowed to remain free on bail. And that's when he set his sights on Canada. And I've been talking about, you know, people like sweary not getting long sentences, but I think you also have to talk about the number of times he was not convicted for these charges related to sexual crimes. Because I think that's another component of the time. I don't think that a lot of women were believed when they came forward with their

allegations. That's sad to say, but I think it's true. And a lot of men got off on charges that should have landed them healthy sentences. And I think we see it here a number of times with Swearie. Sometime after July 1974, Swearie illegally entered Canada where he would remain for decades. He lived in multiple places in British Columbia, including Vancouver, Davis, Bay, Half Moon Bay, Gibson's, Abbotsford, Coltis Lake, and Chiliwad, as well as

Calgary and Standard in Alberta. According to the Globe and Mail, Swery used multiple aliases while living in Canada, including Willie Blackman, Travis Blackwell, and Rex Long, Gary,

Peter, Ricky, Michael, David, James, William, and more. He never drove the same car for long and worked a series of odd jobs where he could be paid under the table in cash since he was in the country illegally. Swery was arrested in New Westminster, British Columbia in 1996 on charges of sexual assault. He served a five-year sentence before being deported back to the United States. And in more recent cases, more if we often talk about Canada and in other countries, maybe, you know, being a little more lenient when it comes to sentencing

guidelines. But here you see that Gary Allen Swearie served way more time in Canada than he did in the United States. Yeah, it clearly seems that Canada was ahead of the United States as far as taking sexual related crimes, uh, serious. Gary Allen Swiry's name had never come up in any of the investigations of the four Canadian murder cases we've discussed. He went completely under the radar the whole time, even though he had a long history of contact with law enforcement. Staff Sergeant Travis McKenzie, head of the RCMP's historical homicide unit in Edmonton, told the Globe and Mail.

In the investigation world, we have this saying that your suspect's name is in the file. He was never interviewed. He truly went unnoticed. Mount Royal University Justice Professor Doug King told the Calgary Herald The reason they were able to zero in on this guy in particular is that he was a sex offender in the United States and he had a DNA sample drawn from him in Idaho.

Doug King told the Calgary Herald it would be highly unlikely that he stopped his violent crime spree when he left Calgary. Now we know the name. So now we can start kind of solving some cases that have been on the books for 40, 50 years. Staff Sergeant Travis McKenzie told the Globe and Mail, I hate to use the word chameleon, but he was.

The sergeant was mostly talking about his ability to blend in with people who weren't serial killers since most who knew Swearie were reportedly floored by the news that he was responsible for the murders of Eva, Patsy, Melissa, and Barbara. However, looking at photos of Gary Allen Swery from various points in his adult life, it's easy to see why someone may describe him as a chameleon. His appearance varied quite a bit, and perhaps he did this to make himself harder to ID for his crime. Many of the family members of Swery's victims had begun to give up hope after so many years with no answers. In 2016, Eva DeVorek's sister Martha told CB.

It just seems like nobody cares, you know? And I mean it's 40 years and it still hurts for both of the girls. And Patsy McQueen's older brother Gord said, we don't know what happened. That's the thing. And that kind of eats at you, you know? If you knew, then it probably would add some closure to it. Back in 1977, when the cases were still fresh, Dr. Jim McLean told the Al Burton of his daughter Barbara's murder, it may take two or three years, but I'm confident that the murder will be behind bars. He also said, I know the man will be found. It's just a matter of time.

Sadly, 79-year-old Jim McLean died in 2000 without finding out who murdered his daughter. In fact, the parents of all four of the girls passed before they were any answers in these cases. And I want to go back to Barbara's dad, being confident, saying, well, you know, it might take a couple of years. But they're going to catch this guy and he'll be behind bars. I think you have to have that type of optimism. The problem is we've seen in so many cases, 20, 30, 40 years or even more pass. And the police don't come up with the answers. And sometimes when they do come up with them, as in this case,

the people who have been waiting for those answers for so many years have already passed away. Superintendent David Hall of the Alberta RCMP told CNN, identifying the perpetrator does not bring Eva, Patsy, Melissa, or Barbara back. It's our hope, however, that the families are finally able to have some answers as to what happened to their loved ones all those years ago. Staff Sergeant Travis McKenzie, head of the RCMP's historical homicide unit in Edmonton, said to the Globe and Mail. I'll be honest. I would have loved nothing more than to be standing before you telling you that we just put handcuffs on this guy and now he gets to face Canadian courts. But unfortunately, that's not the way this one ends. Martha DeVorek, Eva's sister, who was just

16 when her younger sister was murdered, told CBC.ca, I'm glad he's dead. He can't hurt anybody else or kill anybody else, and who knows who else is out there, that he's done this to other family. What's frightening is that Canadian authorities believe that Gary Allen Sweary may have other victims in Canada. Staff Sergeant McKenzie told the Globe and Mail, we truly believe the suspect is not involved in only four homicides, but there's a distinct possibility that he's responsible for many more, either in Alberta, British Columbia, or the Western United States. There are almost two decades where Swery had no contact with authorities, and they would desperately like to fill in the blanks and ID other victims if there are any.

And Canadian authorities are still accepting tips or any information you may have regarding Swery's whereabouts and timeline in Canada. A special tip line has been set up. You can email the Alberta RCMP Historical Homicide Unit at k-ideology at rcmp.g.org. DC.CA.ca. Recall 780 509 3306. So morph as we wrap this one up, no doubt that Gary Allen Swery was a very, very bad guy. You know, when you talk about, you know, these four murders that he is known to have committed. Okay. That's on top of this

very long criminal history that he had of sexual assault. assaults and other types of sexually related crime. Now, go back to what Sergeant McKinsey said, it's hard not to think that this guy, Swearie murdered many more people. Think about the number of years this guy was active. Yeah, he spent some time in prison, but he was out for most of it.

And I'm afraid that his number of, of victims is much, much higher than four. I don't think this is a guy who just all of a sudden stopped. I just think, you know, this is an individual who learned early on that even if he was caught, he wasn't going to face much in the way of consequences. And he did get away with these murders for a very long time. So the real number could be mind-boggling. Yeah, especially when you see wherever he went, he committed these crimes.

Just going back, you can just sort of track and plot what he did. So to see how steady it was, it would be kind of foolish to just dismiss the possibility that he had a bunch of downtime or he didn't attack anyone. That seems highly unlikely. Yeah, and I truly believe that when you're talking about, a serial killer. By and large, I don't think most of them just decide to stop. There's that compulsion, that aspect of it that I think drives a lot of them that almost doesn't let them or precludes them from being able to stop. So I almost always think that the true

number of victims is much higher than what they're willing to admit to or what the police have been able to link them to. But because his identification came, you know, so many years later and the fact that when it did, he'd already been dead for a decade, I just don't know how much more will come out. Now, obviously they have his DNA. And so, so it could be possible that as some other older cases are processed, if they have DNA, he could be linked to them as well, but you just never know. But that's it for our episode on Gary Allen Swery, obviously a horrible individual. But if you love the show and haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating.

you can leave a review as well. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group,

Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. So that's it for another episode of criminology. But Morp and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.