Lady in the Well: Unraveling Canada’s Oldest Cold Case

By [Your Name] | Special Report

Chapter One: Discovery in the Mist

There is one crime so serious that time cannot erase its urgency. Murder. No matter how many years pass, the case stays open. In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, police are treating a recent discovery as the oldest cold case in Canadian history—a mystery buried for a century, now unearthed by accident.

Saskatoon is shrouded in mist, enduring one of the coldest days of the year. Yet, the city is wrapped in the heat of an investigation that began on a hot summer day, June 29th, 2006. At a convenience store in the suburb of Sutherland, workers digging out old gas tanks struck something unexpected: an abandoned wooden well.

Calroyan, the excavation crew leader, recalls the moment. “Once we broke through the wooden cribbing, some water and sloughs came out, and we noticed a roundish rock-type thing. It seemed unusual. We picked it up—it turned out to be a human skull.”

Police were called. Major crime section Sergeant Russ Fzen and homicide detective Russ Fzen arrived on scene. Was it a murder? At first, Fzen suspected the skull might belong to an ancient First Nations burial ground. But a niggling feeling told him otherwise.

“I couldn’t tell if it was old or not. So, you have to err on the side of caution—it could be a fairly new artifact,” Fzen explains. “I’m a homicide investigator. I have to view it as a potential homicide until I can prove otherwise.”

The excavation was ordered shut down, and the area secured. Fzen and a special team led by a forensic archaeologist spent three days meticulously digging, carefully unearthing evidence: fragments of clothes, pieces of a broken barrel and bottles, and chillingly, a lump of decayed flesh—the remains of a woman.

Chapter Two: The Evidence in the Well

As investigators combed through the remains, questions mounted. What was this woman’s story? How did she end up inside a well? The key evidence: dirt, bones, and flesh found in a mixture of gasoline and water—highly toxic, so much so that police set up a temporary morgue to conduct the autopsy.

But the toxic mixture also preserved the body, giving forensic archaeologist Ernest Walker clues that should have vanished long ago.

“In this particular instance, I had to be very cautious,” Walker says. “The immersion in gasoline and water made the bones very soft. I had to get it to the point of a relatively clean skeleton to make measurements and do the examinations I needed. One has to be careful not to damage the remains further.”

After three days, Walker had a starting point. “It was very clear after my analysis: this is a Caucasian female, likely European. She had a filling—a dental filling—which was pretty early for the period, but could have been done in Europe or Eastern Canada.”

A healthy brunette, 5’1″, anywhere from 25 to 35 years old, possibly European. But who was she? How long had she been in the well?

Chapter Three: Clues from Clothing and Bottles

One answer lay in the clothing found with the body. Police turned to Carol Wakabayashi, an expert in historic costumes and textiles.

“I’ve taken a yarn and separated it into its individual fibers,” Wakabayashi explains. “They were all natural fibers. So, it had the possibility of being old—certainly pre-1920s or pre-1930s, before synthetics became prevalent.”

Other important clues were dredged from the well: an 18-karat gold necklace, European in origin. “We don’t have 18-karat gold as a rule in this country—it’s either 14 or 10,” Wakabayashi notes. She believes the woman was wearing these items at the time of her murder: shoes, silk blouse, jewelry. The chain might have held a locket, perhaps with a family photo now lost. The warm clothing suggested she was killed during colder months.

Police turned to bottles found in the well, calling in Margaret Kennedy, a glass expert with the University of Saskatchewan.

“These bottles are important—they give us an idea about time,” Kennedy says. Of particular interest: a Gordon’s gin bottle. “I contacted the company, and their archivist compared bottles in their collection for me. She felt it had similarities to bottles dating 1908, 1912, but probably late teens.”

The bottles and clothing narrowed the timeline: the lady in the well was murdered sometime between 1908 and 1920.

Chapter Four: Life on the Prairies

What was life like in Saskatchewan back then? Joan Champ, a historian with the Western Development Museum, explains.

“Thousands of people were pouring into Western Canada in the early years of settlement. Most were men—two to one,” Champ says.

Back then, Sutherland, population 102, was a hub for the Canadian Pacific Railway, where trains were marshaled and serviced. It was a rough and tumble place. “There would have been hotels, pool rooms, brothels, watering holes, transients, cheap drinks, gambling, and easy women—a recipe for crime and violence,” Champ notes.

One of the town’s hotels, the Shore, stood on the very site where the woman was found in the well. With so many people passing through Saskatoon and Sutherland at the time, just who this mystery woman was—and how she ended up dead, dumped in a well—is anyone’s guess.

Chapter Five: Theories and Scenarios

Detective Fzen considers several scenarios.

Was she a prostitute, working at the hotel, meeting foul play at the hands of a client? “That’s definitely a possibility,” Fzen says. “As far as prostitution in Saskatchewan at that time, there’s little data, but I have absolutely no evidence pointing in that direction.”

Another scenario: Sutherland had some dirty, dark secrets. One was that the town was home to an abortionist. It was illegal back then. Did the mystery woman find herself pregnant? Facing scandal, needing an abortion—a botched procedure left her dead, and in panic, the abortionist disposed of the body.

“Through the autopsy conducted by Dr. Walker and the forensic pathologist, no signs of trauma to the body were observed. Internal trauma may not have shown up,” Fzen says. Local historian Joan Champ notes that Sutherland’s first doctor had several violent encounters with the abortionist, including an assault in the local drugstore.

But the theory Fzen puts the most stock in is as prevalent today as it was then: domestic violence. She was more likely murdered by her husband than a stranger. Maybe married to a railway worker, a hard-drinking gambler. One night, a fight erupts—no food on the table. In a fit of rage, he kills his wife. To explain her disappearance, he claims she ran off.

“If I had to lean one way or another, my gut would tell me this is probably associated with a domestic violence situation,” Fzen says.

Chapter Six: The Public Plea and DNA

Police made a public plea, asking for any information that could identify the victim. DNA, they hoped, would be the key to unlocking the truth.

Detective Fzen goes public—an appeal in newspapers and on local news. They ask those who think the mystery woman could be a long-lost family member to call in. Almost immediately, calls come from across Canada.

In Calgary, 61-year-old Peggy Franco calls. Her family has a long unsolved mystery. “It mentioned this skeleton in a well, and a shiver went up and down my spine. Maybe I’m going to find out what happened to my grandmother.”

A grandmother who disappeared a century ago. For decades, Peggy has poured over family documents, searched genealogy websites. “Doing family research on my grandmother’s side, Harriet Dyson Kelver, I can go back to the early 1700s, but I don’t know what happened to her. She’s the one missing link.”

Peggy knows her grandmother hailed from Haworth, Yorkshire, England. Harriet Calvert immigrated to Saskatoon in 1910 with her two small children, joining her husband George, who had gone ahead to homestead the farm. Far from the hustle and bustle of England, Harriet became depressed and despondent. She couldn’t handle living in a little shack on the bald prairie, with nobody around, no family. The nearest neighbors were miles away. She tried to run away twice. The second time, she almost made it.

“My grandfather knew that if he waited at the railway station, they’d find him—that’s the only way out of Saskatoon. That’s what happened. He told her to leave, took the children, and they never saw their mother again.”

That’s been the family version of events since 1912. But for 95 years, Harriet’s disappearance haunted two generations.

Chapter Seven: Family Secrets and Whispers

Peggy’s search for her grandmother is not unique. The hunt for relatives of the lady in the well also led to Vancouver and 82-year-old May Saunders. For May and her daughter Sylvia, finding out if the murdered woman was May’s long-lost grandmother would put an end to family whispers.

“Years ago, my grandmother went back east to sell a farm, came back to Saskatoon to transfer onto the train to go to her farm—and she disappeared. We couldn’t find her at all. It’s been a curiosity all these years within the family to find out what happened to her,” May says.

Family rumors abound. “One is that my grandfather killed her. Another is that my uncle killed her. Another is that she ran off with the hired man. Sort of one of those dark secrets in the family. If she had run off with the hired man, they weren’t going to announce it at all—you keep that dirty little story to yourself,” May laughs.

But what if May’s grandmother didn’t run away and was murdered? “It would put to rest any stories. As far as changing my life, my life is nonchangeable. But it would be kind of nice.”

For Peggy Franco and her sister Irene, it would mean rethinking their family tree—and their grandfather. “It would be terrible to find out that Harriet was the woman in the well. Nobody wants a murder in their family, but I will take it in stride. Then give your grandmother a proper and dignified burial with my mother.”

Chapter Eight: The Science and Perseverance

The search for her identity continues. More than a dozen families have called in. Police have ruled out two, but are compiling DNA samples from Peggy and May. Testing will begin soon. For now, forensic archaeologist Ernest Walker hopes science and perseverance will solve the mystery.

“As a forensic investigator, I’d like to be able to say we can solve cases—even cold case files that are 100 years old. Don’t worry about the 40- and 50-year-old ones—we can do this. We’ve got the technology,” Walker says.

Detective Russ Fzen is equally determined. “We still consider a murder—whether it happened 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 30 years ago, or yesterday—important to solve. We’re going to work it, take it down every road we can, and just work it until we can’t do anything more on it. I’m positive we are going to be able to solve this case. We will never give up.”

Chapter Nine: A Murder, a Mystery, and a Mission

On a blistery winter night in Saskatchewan almost a century ago, in forbidding shadows, a vicious attack: a woman is murdered, stuffed into a barrel, and dumped into a well. The killer gets away with it—the perfect crime. Almost a hundred years later, her remains are unearthed, and the investigative team uses new forensic science techniques to solve this glacial cold case.

For Ernest Walker, the forensic archaeologist, this is the most difficult case he’s ever encountered. “You look at cold cases—this is glacial, and I realize it’s a needle in a haystack. There’s no question about it. This might not be a solvable case, but I want to persevere a little longer.”

Saskatoon homicide detective Russ Fzen won’t give up either. “We’re talking about 100 years ago. The likelihood of a criminal conviction is zero or close to it. For me, it’s about something much deeper. This poor woman has been stuck in the ground for 100 years, and literally whoever did it got away with murder. I think it’s my duty and the right thing to do to try and do as much for her as I can—and for her family.”

Chapter Ten: The Road Ahead

If we are going to identify who this individual is, it will likely be through DNA evidence. What we need is now a modern individual to compare this to. DNA is the key, but they need a match to a living relative. Maybe family still lives in Saskatoon, or maybe they’ve moved on.

Detective Fzen’s public appeal has led to hope, heartbreak, and the possibility of closure for families across Canada. As DNA testing begins, the mystery of the lady in the well may finally be solved. For now, the investigation continues, driven by technology, perseverance, and a sense of duty to a woman lost to history.

Epilogue: The Mystery Remains

The lady in the well is more than a cold case. She is a symbol of the enduring power of justice, family, and memory. Her story is a reminder that even after a hundred years, murder cannot be forgotten, and the search for truth never ends.

As police and scientists dig deeper, the next clue could come from a family tree, a strand of DNA, or a memory passed down through generations. The search for her name—and her killer—has only just begun.

We will never give up.