Carl DeLine

Speculation that three recent slayings in Calgary are the work of a serial killer does more harm than good, says the head of the RCMP’s investigation into the latest death.

In the past 21 months, three teenaged girls have been found dead on the outskirts of Calgary. Each victim was known to have been living on the streets, and investigators believe each was involved in prostitution.

“That’s one of the similarities police have to look at,” said Insp. Don McDermid.

But suggesting the slayings were carried out by the same person, as some local news outlets have done, may cause public panic, he said.

“Until and unless police investigators can say there is no question that this number of homicides was committed by one person and one person alone… then what are you really telling the public? You’re misleading,” McDermid said.

The partially decomposed body of Jennifer Joyes, 17, was found Oct. 6 in a wooded area west of city limits.

The remote spot is about two km from where another body, that of 16-year-old Jennifer Janz, was discovered in a shallow grave in August.

In January 1990, the partially clad body of Joanne Shaver, 17, was found dumped near Calgary’s southeast limits.

Police laid a first degree murder charge in the Shaver case, but the accused was acquitted last November.

RCMP and city police are investigating a dozen slayings of young women whose bodies have been discovered in the Calgary area since 1976.

A ream of police investigators is going back over the older, unsolved cases, looking for common clues and plugging facts into a computer for cross-referencing, McDermid said.

The fact that the three latest victims were street people may prompt police and society in general to take the deaths less seriously than they should, said Augustine Brannigan, a University of Calgary sociology professor.

“If there had been four murders of young nurses, the phones at city hall would be ringing off the hook, said Brannigan.

“They’re already fallen women… people think it’s their own fault they’ve been murdered.”

The people who run local shelters for street kids say the killings have created a lot of fear.

“For the girls that have been on the street a very short period of time, there is a very high level of anxiety,” said Carl DeLine, the director of an agency called the Back Door, which tries to help teens and young adults get away from street life.

DeLine said many street veterans accept the tragedies because “physical violence is a way of life on the street.”

Originally published October 17, 1991 by the Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, AB), credited to Anne Geddes of The Canadian Press. A version of this article was published October 18, 1991 by the Regina Leader-Post (Regina, SK).