Somebody, a man, battered, raped, and murdered a beautiful young woman and buried her alive in a shallow grave on the riverbank in Saskatoon, in 1962. Catch the murderer or never catch him, this story of evil keeps on touching people, devastating them. I see now that this story, simply, has no end.
Acknowledgements
Over the years I asked questions of so many people that it isn’t possible to name them all, and I have omitted some people because I doubt they would want to be named, but here is a short list: the Wiwcharuk family, Dave Anderson, Frances Bergles, the staff of CBC Television’s the fifth estate, Bill Davenport, Laurine Davidson, Anne Davis, Liz Dittmer, Harry Emson, Dennis Fisher, Warren Goulding, Merv Graham, Maureen Grajczyk, Pat Griffiths, Barry Guenther, Norman Haras, Alvin Harms, Tony Harras, Delia Johnston, Cathy Luciuk, Angela McGaffin, Ruth Millar, Holly Mitzel, Merce Montgomery, Gerry Muir, Wilf Popoff, Linda Pylyshyn, Roy Romanow, Candace Savage, Rick Schneider, Anne Smart, William Tesluk, Bill Waiser, Dave Yanko, Zenon Zemluk. I ask the pardon of anyone whose name I have inadvertently omitted. Your contributions are invaluable.
I thank also some retired Saskatoon police officers, some lawyers, and at least one member of the judiciary, who answered my questions about matters of law, or the specific case, or just mused for my benefit on the early sixties in Saskatoon. I thank also directors of the Provincial Board of Police Commissioners and the Office of Public Prosecutions.
I remain in awe of the many librarians who helped me locate facts or who located them for me at the Chinook Regional, Saskatoon, and Regina public libraries, the City of Saskatoon Archives, and the Legislative Library.
As always, my family, my husband, and my son and his family stood by me through thick and thin. I am eternally grateful to them. I am grateful, too, to my agent, Jackie Kaiser, and to Phyllis Bruce at HarperCollins Canada (especially for her patience), and to all of them for their support and assistance.
Praise for Sharon Butala
“Butala’s magic is such that she breathes life into ink.”
Calgary Herald
“One of this country’s true visionaries.”
Toronto Star
“Butala’s writing…is beautiful and disquieting, all at once.”
Quill & Quire
“A master at evoking the interplay of memory and the present.”
Maclean’s
“Her insights are hard-won, her voice honest and true.”
Books in Canada
Also By Sharon Butala
NON-FICTION
Lilac Moon
Harvest
The Perfection of the Morning
Coyote’s Morning Cry
Wild Stone Heart
Old Man on His Back
NOVELS
Country of the Heart
The Gates of the Sun
Luna
Upstream
The Fourth Archangel
The Garden of Eden
SHORT FICTION
Queen of the Headaches
Fever
Real Life
PLAYS
Sweet Time
Natural Disasters
A Killing Frost
The Element of Fire
Rodeo Life
Copyright
The Girl in Saskatoon
© 2008 by Sharon Butala.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40288-0
A Phyllis Bruce Book, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Originally published in a hardcover edition by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd: 2008 This Harper Perennial trade paperback edition: 2009
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
HARPER PERENNIAL® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Butala, Sharon, 1940–
The girl in Saskatoon : a meditation on friendship, memory, and murder / Sharon Butala.
“A Phyllis Bruce book”.
1. Wiwcharuk,Alexandra. 2. Murder—Saskatchewan—Saskatoon. 3. Murder victims—Saskatchewan—Saskatoon—Biography. I. Title.
HV6535.C33S36 2008 364.152’309712425 C2007-907027-2
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