In 1953, a groundskeeper stumbled upon the skeletal remains of two children near Beaver Lake in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. The victim’s skulls had been bludgeoned with what was most likely a hatchet found nearby.. Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-3.47.22-PM-600×578-2Murder weapon. Courtesy VPD .For nearly 70 years the case baffled law enforcement, however, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has identified the victims in the city’s oldest unsolved murder case..“These murders have haunted generations of homicide investigators, and we are relieved to now give these children a name and to bring some closure to this horrific case,” said VPD Major Crime Section Insp. Dale Weidman..“Although significant folklore has surrounded this case for years, we must not forget that these were real children who died a tragic and heartbreaking death.”.The children were confirmed to be brothers Derek and David D’Alton.. Derek-and-David-DAltonDerek and David D’Alton .David was six-years-old and Derek, seven when they were bludgeoned by a hatchet and left dead underneath a woman’s coat, eventually becoming concealed by thick brush that had grown around their bodies, says VPD..It’s thought the bodies had been decomposing for five years..Redgrave Research Forensic Services is where police found answers, much like Toronto police did in the case of Christine Jessop, a nine year old girl from Ontario who was raped and killed in 1984..Redgrave used DNA from the crime scene to build a family tree of a suspect who was then identified by Toronto police as Calvin Hoover, a “friend” of the girls’ family who committed suicide in 2015..In the case of David and Derek, Redgrave was able to identify the maternal grandparents of one of the boys, thus building a family tree by comparing the victim’s DNA to people who had submitted their own DNA to private companies..Redgrave will study DNA for any matches among public DNA databases such as Family Tree DNA and GEDmatch, both of which have been used to solve other cases; most notably when GEDmatch was used by law enforcement in California to identify a suspect in the Golden State Killer case..“We knew there were good odds of finding a living family member out there somewhere,” said Det.-Const. Aida Rodriguez, VPD’s lead investigator..“But once we discovered that DNA match, we still had a significant amount of work to do to locate family members, check school records, and confirm specific details about the victims so we could be absolutely certain about their identities.”.VPD located a distant relative living in a Vancouver suburb, informing them of the findings. At that time, VPD says investigators gathered additional information about the boys — revealing that Derek and David were likely the descendants of Russian immigrants who arrived in Canada roughly 120 years ago..Investigators “theorize” the person who killed the boys was a family member who lived near the entrance of Stanley Park. The suspect died roughly 25 years ago..“After seven decades as a cold case, we presumed that the person who killed Derek and David had likely passed away,” said Weidman..“But at this stage in the investigation, it was never about seeing someone charged for these crimes. It was always about giving these boys a name and finally telling their story. I’m proud to be part of the team that has done that.”.Reid Small is a BC-based reporter for the Western Standard.,rsmall@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/reidsmall
