Canada! Crown seeks 18-year sentence for Bruce Escott for decades of sexual abuse, Man charged with 1st-degree murder in 1998 killing of pregnant woman in Toronto, Calgary man found guilty of raping 90-year-old woman, Winnipeg police charge woman in first homicide of 2025, These 4 people have been missing for years, The Manitoba bank robbery spree of 1921-1922 2025.2.6-2.9

The Roaring ’20s was a time of upheaval. The First World War left deep scars, and prohibition fuelled a new wave of crime. Liquor smuggling created opportunities for criminals, turning some into millionaires.

While major cities in the United States and eastern Canada saw rampant bootlegging, western Canada had its own problems. The vast, unpatrolled border between the United States and Manitoba and Saskatchewan became a highway for criminals. With few police officers and poor roads, criminals took advantage of the isolation.

The Manitoba Provincial Police had been reorganized in 1920 to enforce liquor and traffic laws. Before that, law enforcement in the province consisted of a small group of officers assisting local town police. The new Commissioner, Colonel J.G. Rattray, was a retired army officer from Pipestone, Man. Despite efforts to modernize, the force struggled with low pay, outdated weapons and limited resources. Officers patrolled vast territories on motorcycles or in underpowered Fords and Chevrolets.

Cooperation between police forces was lacking. Provincial and federal forces often refused to share information, and American authorities dismissed concerns about criminals crossing the border. Some U.S. officials blamed Canada for allowing liquor to be smuggled south, arguing it led to crime in their own communities.

A crime wave begins

Between 1921 and 1922, a series of bank robberies escalated tensions. The spree began on Oct. 12, 1921, when robbers hit the Bank of Hochelaga in Elie, stealing $1,200. In November, thieves raided a liquor warehouse in Carnduff, Sask., making off with 60 cases of liquor. Over the winter, crime slowed due to heavy snow, but in the summer, the gang struck again.

On Aug. 21, 1922, an attempt to rob the Union Bank in Melita failed. A week later, they successfully blew open the safe at the Bank of Hamilton in Killarney, escaping with $11,000. The next night, they returned to Elie but failed to break into the Bank of Hochelaga.

In September, the gang returned to Melita. This time, they were prepared. In the early hours of Sept. 23, they cut phone and telegraph wires to isolate the town. Several men overpowered a night watchman and tied him up before heading to the bank. They forced two employees from their apartments above the bank and made them stand outside in their pajamas under guard.

The robbers drilled into the safe and used eight charges of dynamite to force it open. The explosions woke residents and one man rang the fire bell in alarm. The editor of the Melita Enterprise approached the scene, only to be warned away at gunpoint. Ignoring the warning, he continued forward. The guard fired into the ground before finally shooting the editor in the foot. Inside the bank, the robbers collected $108,189 in cash and securities before fleeing.

Constable John Tullock, stationed in Reston, was called to investigate. Days later, the same gang robbed banks in Ceylon and Moosomin, Sask., collecting another $12,500.

The Bienfait murder

On Oct. 4, 1922, events took a deadly turn in Bienfait, Sask. Paul Mateoff managed a liquor depot where American Lee Dillindge arranged to purchase 100 cases of liquor for $6,000. Dillindge arrived with a truck, paid the money, and as Mateoff counted it, gunshots rang out. Bullets shattered the window, killing Mateoff. A masked bandit entered, took the money from Mateoff’s body and fled.

Dillindge and his driver loaded the liquor onto their truck and left. Nearby, Saskatchewan police had passed through Bienfait shortly before the crime. They spotted a Cadillac speeding past — a stolen vehicle often used by rum-runners. Officers gave chase, but their underpowered police car could not keep up. The criminals stopped at the next town to cut the telephone wires before escaping across the U.S. border.

That same week, in West Hope, N.D., bank robbers killed the town marshal. Authorities believed the crimes were connected.

An embarrassing standoff in Pipestone

On Oct. 24, 1922, police received intelligence that a gang planned to hit the Pipestone bank. Saskatchewan police phoned Winnipeg authorities at 9 p.m., but Colonel Rattray was unavailable. The message was relayed to Inspector James Bain, who notified officers in Melita, Brandon, and other towns. Despite the warning, law enforcement failed to act quickly.

Constable John Tullock, the same officer who investigated the Melita robbery, was dispatched. He recruited only four armed citizens to help him. Instead of spreading out, they positioned themselves in a single building across from the bank, leaving the back door unguarded.

At 3 a.m., the robbers arrived. They cut telephone and telegraph lines before using a telephone pole as a battering ram to break down the bank’s back door. Before they could enter, Tullock and his men opened fire. In the darkness, their shots missed, and the robbers escaped through the back, unchallenged. The gang fled west toward Saskatchewan, leaving authorities embarrassed.

Fallout and reform

The failed Pipestone stakeout led to swift action. On Oct. 27, the Manitoba government suspended Commissioner Rattray, Inspectors Bain and Clarke, and Sergeant Ross. Winnipeg’s chief of detectives, George Smith, was brought in as acting commissioner. He immediately increased patrols along the border, secured new weapons — including a Thompson submachine gun — and purchased two used Cadillacs. Professional chauffeurs were hired as special constables to operate the vehicles.

On Nov. 10, the attorney general demanded Rattray and Bain resign. Bain complied, but Rattray refused. On Nov. 16, 1922, Colonel J.G. Rattray was dismissed.

Colonel H.J. Martin became the last commissioner of the Manitoba Provincial Police on Dec. 18, 1922. The force remained operational until April 1, 1932, when it was absorbed into the RCMP.

The Manitoba bank robbery spree of 1921-1922 exposed the flaws in law enforcement and forced long-overdue reforms. Cooperation between forces improved, and better resources were provided. While crime did not disappear, the criminals who once roamed freely now faced greater resistance.

The oldest case dates back to the mid-1970s and most recent was 2004

Police in Guelph, Ont., have released photos of four people who have been missing for years in the hopes it will spark a memory and lead to information about where they went.

The oldest case dates back to the mid-1970s and the most recent is from 2004.

Scott Tracey, media relations co-ordinator for Guelph Police Service, said missing-person cases leave family and friends “left forever wondering what happened.”

“They’re among the most difficult types of cases for those left behind … they’re here one day and the next day you have no idea where they are, what’s happened to them,” Tracey said.

“So that’s why it’s important for us to continue investigating these cases, continue putting the information out to the public, and try and resolve these cases. And that could be, you know, ideally through locating them or at least learning what happened to them, just to, you know, provide that information and, and that closure for the families.”

Tracey said the four missing-person cases are the only outstanding ones in their major case unit files. The service will also distribute the historic missing-person cases information to other police services across Canada and internationally in the event they are encountered through other investigations.

Below are the people who remain missing. Police hope the public can help them locate them.

John Zuern
Zuern, who was from Guelph, was a 21-year-old patient at a hospital in London, Ont., in June 1975. He had suffered from mental health issues. Zuern left without permission and was declared missing on July 21, 1975.
There was a reported sighting of Zuern in Toronto in 1980. Police say he was spotted in the area of Bloor Street West and Spadina Avenue and appeared to be living on the street.
Zuern was 26 at the time, was 5-foot-11, with a thin build, and weighed around 140 pounds. It was noticed he had a pronounced limp.

David Krueger
A business partner of Krueger’s called police on May 2, 1979, to let them know he hadn’t seen him in about a week. They ran a hot tub business together and there has been some financial issues. It was also around that time that Kreuger’s mother passed.
Police believe he may have been experiencing depression.
The last two clues Guelph police received about the Guelph man’s disappearance was an April 25, 1979, report that he was spoken to by the Waterloo Regional Police Service. There was no indication what police spoke to him about.
In late June 1979, his 1967 brown half-ton pick up truck was found abandoned near the Finch Avenue TTC Station in Toronto.
Before he disappeared, Krueger had also worked in the oilfields of Alberta.
If Krueger were alive, he would be 73. Police say he had a “distinctive port wine” birthmark on his lower right leg.

Anne Matthews
Matthews, 41, left the Homewood Health Centre in Guelph on Dec. 7,1983, on foot and was never seen again.
Matthews was last seen wearing a red felt coat with black embroidery around the bottom and fox fur around the hood, a light-coloured turtleneck sweater, dark slacks and beige boots.
At the time, police conducted an extensive ground search but she was not located and they have never received any information about her since 1983.

Wilfred Bruder
Bruder, 50, used a payphone at Willow West Mall on Feb. 28, 2004, but has not been seen or heard from since.
Bruder, who would now be 70, is described as 5-foot-5 with a medium build. He was partially balding at the time, had short brown hair, a moustache and was missing the ring finger on his left hand. He went by the nickname Wolf.

Donna Oglive, 24, was found dead in a parking lot in Toronto in March 1998

Toronto police have charged a 50-year-old man with first-degree murder in a cold case homicide from 1998.

Donna Oglive, 24, was found dead around 7 a.m. in a parking lot at 130 Carlton St. in March 1998, Toronto police said. She had been strangled, Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith said at a news conference on Friday.

Oglive had a child and was four months pregnant when she was killed, police have said. She was from British Columbia and had only been in Toronto for five weeks.

She was working as a sex worker, and her death may have happened during a “sex trade transaction,” Smith said.

The accused, who is from Gander, Newfoundland, was arrested at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday just after midnight, according to a police news release on Friday.

He was living in Scarborough and working as a truck driver when Oglive died.

At the time of his arrest, he was regularly flying out to northern Alberta from Newfoundland every two weeks to work in the oil fields, Smith said. He had flown into Toronto from Edmonton when he was arrested.

“We need to find out what he’s been doing over the past 25 years and make sure there are no other victims, whether sexually motivated, or homicides that he could be involved in,” Smith said.

The accused is being held in custody, he said. He appeared in bail court virtually on Thursday morning, the release said.

Police have been investigating the case since 1998, the news release said.

Investigators developed a male DNA profile from evidence at the scene but could not find a match in the National DNA Data Bank. In 2022, police used investigative genetic genealogy that led them to the accused’s family, Smith said.

“We were able to collect a DNA sample and prove that [the accused] was the person responsible for the death of Ms. Oglive,” he said.

Police have been in touch with the Sex Workers Alliance of Toronto, who Smith said had been “instrumental in keeping this case at the forefront.”

Oglive’s death was the subject of a YouTube video posted by Toronto police in December 2019, as well as a police podcast in October 2021 about unsolved homicides.

Sex offender apologizes to victims; judge to decide his fate next month

The Crown wants convicted sex offender Bruce Escott sentenced to 18 years for abusing six victims, most of them youths, over a period spanning decades.

The defence, meanwhile, suggested Escott get half that — nine years in total.

The man at the centre of it all said just 10 words when given an opportunity to address the court at his sentencing hearing Thursday.

“I’d just like to apologize to the victims,” Escott said. “That’s it.”

In her submissions, prosecutor Deidre Badcock called Escott “a prolific lifetime offender” despite his lack of a related criminal record, and zeroed in on the impacts of his crimes on those victims. One of them was sitting at the back of the courtroom.

“Bruce Escott sought out and befriended low-income group home kids, kids who had nowhere else to turn. Offered them friendship, money, food, cigarettes, alcohol, rides, and he did this as a means to groom them, to break down their barriers, and once he had them close enough he systematically and gratuitously abused them,” Badcock said.

“He benefitted [from] them, groomed them, all as a means to satiate his sexual deviancies. This is a predator, your honour, and it’s someone who’s deserving of a significant sentence.”

Badcock called Escott someone who “led a double life” for a number of years.

“In one life he’s a respected volunteer fire chief, community volunteer, husband, father, grandfather, brother — while simultaneously in another life, the more sinister aspects of his life, he’s seeking out and targeting the most vulnerable members of society,” Badcock said.

“Young, troubled, runaway teens with nowhere else to go. The kind of victims you wouldn’t expect to be believed, and they didn’t have anyone else to turn to at times.”

Defence cites Mount Cashel cases in submissions
Escott’s lawyer, MacKenzie Hughes, said his client “should not be used as a scapegoat … to inflate future sentences.”

He said it’s “common sense” that 18 years is a “crushing sentence” for someone who is 82 years old.

In arguing for less time behind bars for his client, Hughes cited sentences handed out to Christian Brothers implicated in the Mount Cashel scandal.

“There’s a big differentiation here, where these people were in a position of authority, acting as parents, and their sentences are significantly less than what the Crown is asking here today,” Hughes told the court.

“Our position is that what is happening here is the Crown is attempting to get an inflated sentence in this case … to set a precedent for future cases. Look no further than his co-accused.”

Escott’s co-accused, Tony Humby, has pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges, and is set for trial next month.

Humby and Escott were neighbours in a trailer park near the airport in St. John’s.

According to the agreed statement of facts in Escott’s case, victims described the two men as working together to abuse youths.

The document said conversations between Escott and Humby were found in Escott’s text message history.

The agreed statement of facts cites messages from one day in late 2022 that “show Humby and Escott were acting in concert and often passing the young victims between each other.”

Sentencing decision set for early March
Escott has been in custody since his arrest nearly two years ago. He appeared at Thursday’s sentencing hearing at provincial court in St. John’s by video from the correctional facility in Bishop’s Falls.

His lawyer calculated Escott’s time served to date at more than 1,000 days, with a time-and-a-half credit applied.

Judge Phyllis Harris is expected to give her decision on sentencing on March 4.

That’s the day after Humby’s seven-week trial is scheduled to begin.