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A rural Alberta community was shocked when a beloved senior was found beaten to death in his own home. Despite exhaustive efforts by investigators, the murderer eluded arrest. Then, more than a year later, a Calgary senior disappeared. There was a note left on his table, suggesting he’d gone fishing, but a subsequent search of the home revealed a violent scene. Join Global News Senior Crime reporter Nancy Hixt as she shares how two seemingly unrelated murders intersected in Golden Years Gone.
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00:00This program is rated 14-plus and contains scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
00:08Viewer discretion is advised.
00:15Opened the kitchen door and there he was.
00:17Blood everywhere.
00:18It wasn't an accident.
00:20You could tell.
00:22There wasn't a hell of a lot of forensic evidence to be found.
00:26There was a lot of restless nights.
00:28Dad was supposed to go meet my brother.
00:32He didn't show up.
00:34I didn't know whether he was taken, whether he was still alive.
00:38The guy just phones and asks, listen, I hear there was a murder out in Langdon.
00:44Was the guy shot?
00:46Even though I didn't see the guy do it in my heart, I'm convinced he did it.
00:50And I have no mercy for someone who would break into someone's house and kill someone.
00:55In my eyes, you'll be the coldest, bloodiest son of a bitch I've ever met.
00:59Welcome to Crime Beat.
01:04I'm Anthony Robart.
01:06Tonight, a beloved senior was found beaten to death in his own home.
01:11This left a community shaken and detectives puzzled.
01:15Who would commit such a violent act and why?
01:19Now, despite an exhaustive investigation, the case went cold.
01:23And that is when another senior vanished.
01:29Here now is Nancy Hickst with Golden Years Gone.
01:34Out in the country, away from the hustle and bustle of the city in rural Alberta,
01:47neighbors can become like family.
01:49And you keep an eye out for each other.
01:53That's why what happened back in the spring of 1994
01:57will stay with Len Moore for the rest of his life.
02:01It was such a shock.
02:15I can picture everything just clear as day.
02:19It was just horrible.
02:21Len passed by his good friend Artie Turner's place
02:25every day on his way to work.
02:27But on April 30th, 1994, Len remembers that something seemed off.
02:34Get to work and, I don't know, 9 o'clock or so, I tried phone on him.
02:40I tried phone on him a couple of times.
02:44Anyways, he didn't answer.
02:46So on the way home, I worked an extra hour.
02:49So it was, you know, probably 7.30, 8 o'clock when I was going by.
02:56And his car was still not there.
03:01Len decided to stop in and see if Artie left him a note.
03:06So I'm pulling into Artie's yard.
03:10And, you know, the house was sitting right here.
03:12And his car sat right here.
03:16And it's gone.
03:19Get under my truck.
03:25Walk around to the house.
03:27And the porch door was closed.
03:30Very, you know, not good.
03:33Because he had a cat in there that just had a kitten.
03:36And he never closed that door.
03:39There was no note.
03:41Len decided to take a look inside.
03:44Len decided to take a look inside.
03:44Walked inside the porch.
03:46And the inside plywood door was closed.
03:51And it was never closed, you know.
03:53The only door that was ever closed was the kitchen door,
03:56which had glass panes in it.
03:59So I opened that one.
04:00And then I opened the kitchen door.
04:02And there he was, laying there on the kitchen floor.
04:06I leaned in.
04:07And I knew he was gone.
04:09So it was panic.
04:13Blood everywhere.
04:16And it was, I ran past him through his living room
04:19and through his bedroom.
04:21And that's where the phone was.
04:22It was a rotary phone.
04:23So I don't know what I did.
04:24I finally got a hold of the police.
04:27And I couldn't talk.
04:29I dropped the phone 16 times.
04:31Anyways, the lady said, hang on, stay on the phone, stay on the phone.
04:36I said, I've got to get out of here.
04:38Within just minutes, first responders from the RCMP arrived at the property.
04:43And he said, you sure, Artie just didn't fall down and bang his head?
04:50I said, no, it wasn't an accident.
04:53You could tell.
04:54Like, the way he was laying, you know, and the blood everywhere.
05:01Like, you know, it wasn't just a drop or two.
05:03There was blood running down the floor.
05:06There was pools.
05:08Yeah, it was not just an accident.
05:13When we arrive, our forensic unit is arriving at the same time.
05:18Now, this would be on April the 30th.
05:21There was obviously a situation that happened in the kitchen.
05:24And Mr. Turner was struck several times and basically went down face first and then was hit again and then subsequently bled out there in the kitchen.
05:36So he was in the process of going to bed when the perpetrator showed up, struck him, and committed the murder.
05:49Investigators videotaped the scene and gathered evidence from Artie's property.
05:55His vehicle, which is a very distinctive, it was basically a GMC El Camino.
06:03And that's, in the old days, he used to make these cars, you know, you'd see the odd one around.
06:10It was a passenger car on a passenger frame.
06:14But the back of the frame was basically open and you could haul materials.
06:19So it was kind of like a miniature pickup, but only in a car chassis.
06:25So, and it was apparently mustard colored and brown.
06:28So it would be very distinct, especially in those days because there weren't many of those vehicles around.
06:34We see the vehicle as sighted a couple of times, one on Glenmore Trail.
06:40So a farmer's out working his fields while he's seating.
06:42And then looks and sees this vehicle, which is Artie's, and said, holy Christ, look at that thing go.
06:51As investigators followed the trail of Artie's missing car, an autopsy revealed he had died from head injuries.
06:59Artie had been struck on the head at least 14 times with a rod-shaped implement.
07:06Well, it was a blunt force, you know, I mean, just what he was struck with.
07:11And then there was a couple of marks on the glass door, the third door.
07:16There was a couple from swinging.
07:18He had obviously hit the door a couple of times with this weapon.
07:22Police never recovered a murder weapon.
07:27They asked me to go and take a look to see if I knew what was missing.
07:32And all of Artie's prescription pills were gone.
07:38And, you know, there was a few things that I remembered that were gone.
07:43You know, he didn't have a hell of a lot of stuff.
07:46And so we went through and then we found Artie's wallet.
07:49And it had his driver's license and I think Alberta Health may have had his birth certificate as well.
07:59But it was just laying empty, just the wallet.
08:02And that was found in, I think, on one of the cabinets in the dining room.
08:08You know, robbery would be the motive.
08:10You know, basically a financial motive to steal his money, knowing full well it was the end of the month and he would have cash.
08:19It's been more than 30 years since Len Moore stopped in to see Artie Turner, only to discover his friend had been murdered.
08:43The side door would have been right here on the east side.
08:49As soon as I opened that door, I saw him laying on the floor in the kitchen.
08:55Memories of that day continue to haunt him.
08:58He knew Artie as a kind, grandfatherly figure who loved to visit with friends.
09:04He just liked socializing, you know, he liked gardening, he liked socializing, BS and once in a while.
09:15Artie Turner wasn't a wealthy man.
09:19He had worked for both Canadian National Rail and Canadian Pacific Rail, then retired.
09:25Well, he probably lived like a lot of people today, from check to check, you know, from payday to payday.
09:32I think his pension from the railway was around maybe $1,200.
09:38And then he would have got Canada Pension, of course, and CPP.
09:43And probably, you know, on a monthly basis, if it amounted to $2,000, you know, that would be pretty well it.
09:52So his rent for that residence, originally I was told it was $150, and then I was later told it was, I think, $200 he was paying a month for this place.
10:04And basically, he was there by himself.
10:06He was a single person.
10:09Artie Turner's murder topped local news headlines.
10:14The RCMP asked for the public's help to find his missing El Camino.
10:20It was later located in the parking lot of a Calgary shopping mall.
10:25Police believe it had been wiped down clean.
10:29With no forensic evidence to point to a suspect, police turned to Len Moore for help.
10:36He was interviewing me in his police car.
10:40He was asking me a bunch of questions.
10:42Who did I think could have done it?
10:44I said, I have no idea.
10:47Like, Artie never had any enemies.
10:49You know, he was a friendly guy.
10:51And I was sitting in the car and I had this, this is no word of a lie, I had the worst shiver.
10:55Right from the top of my neck, right through my spine, blurted out, Raymond Tudor.
11:05And Bob, the cop, looked at me and went, what?
11:08I said, I don't know why I said that.
11:10It was just like Artie was, you know, he always liked to poke you, you know, I just, that's what it felt like.
11:16Artie had said that Raymond was a bad actor.
11:24Like, he got into trouble with the law.
11:29You know, he wasn't a fan favourite by any means, but he was a, I guess he was a sketchy person.
11:36Is that okay to say?
11:37The RCMP dug into Raymond Tudor's background and learned he lived at Aylith Lodge, a Southeast Calgary apartment complex.
11:48He had recently finished a jail term for convictions of forcible confinement and firearms offences.
11:56Everybody was leery of Raymond John Tudor.
11:59He was one of those guys that you grew up with and didn't really want to know.
12:03So we ended up bringing him into the office very early, I think, probably about the 3rd or 4th of May, and interviewed him there.
12:12Any leads in the case?
12:15Raymond, I tell you, we're assembled.
12:18You don't have anything at all to help us.
12:23Well, I can't believe somebody's doing that.
12:25It's a fictional scenario.
12:29How come you're questioning me?
12:30I can't believe somebody's doing that.
12:32Who's, uh, Raymond, Lee, and, uh, Tom, to help you?
12:34I think he's got a good question.
12:36First time I've told him to met him was, my dad used to work in the CBR.
12:40I used to stop him and see him once in a while, and he was going to work, I think.
12:46And I've had him over my hope, to name his time, to stop him.
12:50When's the last time he's been involved with you?
12:53Well, it'd be...
12:56It's probably just been here about a month, a month and a half ago.
13:00So, right now, I have no idea whether or not you killed Mr. Ajax, and I did not kill him.
13:07And I didn't think that happened.
13:09Yeah.
13:09So, I have nothing behind the party.
13:12There was a second time he died.
13:14And, of course, he gave us a denial statement saying, no, that he had gone up to the Blackfoot truck stop, had dinner there, and did some laundry there, and then came back.
13:26And he was at the Aleth Lodge the rest of the evening, so he wasn't responsible for this.
13:36Weeks went by, and investigators struggled to push the case forward.
13:40It does slow down, because now we've interviewed everybody that we know that's attached to that file.
13:47We don't have any DNA evidence.
13:49We don't have the weapon that was used to kill Artie.
13:54Then, out of the blue, Len Moore received a strange phone call from an unidentified man.
14:01He asked me all the information about how Artie was murdered, was he stabbed, or was he, you know, shot, or, and he said, if you can give me any of that information, he said, I might have, I might know the person that did it.
14:18I thought it was totally crazy.
14:21I mean, why would somebody phone you at work and ask you?
14:24And if you knew the person that did the murdering, turn them in.
14:28The RCMP received a similar anonymous tip.
14:34The guy just phones and asks, listen, I hear there was a murder out in Langdon.
14:39Was the guy shot?
14:42Artie Turner had been bludgeoned to death, but the RCMP had never made that information public.
14:50We know that there's somebody out there that wants to talk to us, but probably scared for himself.
14:58And we just got to find that guy.
15:02But more than a year passed with no arrests.
15:06And then another senior was targeted, and the case seemed eerily similar.
15:13Welcome back to Crime Beat.
15:28In the spring of 1994, a 75-year-old man was found murdered in his rural home east of Calgary.
15:36Without forensic evidence, the case went cold.
15:38Then, 16 months later, another senior vanished under suspicious circumstances.
15:47Here again is Nancy Hicks with Golden Years Gone.
15:52That was us when we were a little older, Jim and I and mom and dad.
16:04Bill Vamastic was a hardworking man who wanted to spend his golden years with his wife, Lee, only to lose the love of his life to cancer.
16:14And he was devastated.
16:17You know, he'd say to me, I can handle daytime, but he said, nighttime, I can't cope.
16:25It had been a rough year, but the 67-year-old was finally feeling like himself again.
16:33And in the summer of 1995, Bill had joined a group of friends on an expedition to Alaska.
16:40Dad caught this 153-pound halibut, this huge, and he was so excited.
16:50Bill was a devout family man who visited his kids and grandson almost every day and would frequently call to catch up when they were apart.
17:03Three or four times a day, easy, yeah.
17:07And he would usually be waiting for me when I got home from work.
17:10On the evening of August 24, 1995, Bill called his daughter.
17:20He phoned quarter to nine, and I said, what's wrong?
17:24And I could hear people talking in the background.
17:28He sounded a little off, and I said, are you okay, dad?
17:34I said, do you want me to come down?
17:35And he goes, no, no, it's fine.
17:37He said, your brother's here, and I said, well, okay.
17:43I don't know, it was just like he wanted me to know what was going on.
17:49And I said, well, if you decide you want me to come down, I can drive over.
17:53I said, just take me a minute, you know.
17:56And he goes, no, no, everything's okay.
17:58And we hung up.
18:01The next day, Bill had planned to meet his son at a Calgary tire shop.
18:06Jim went there, and dad didn't show up.
18:11And so Jim started phoning the house, going, well, where's dad?
18:16Where's dad?
18:16And I said, well, I don't know if he said he was going to be there.
18:19He'll be there.
18:21But he didn't show.
18:23And so Jim said, well, I'm going to go up to dad's and see if he's home.
18:30He wasn't answering the phone either.
18:32But when Jim arrived at the house, his dad wasn't there.
18:38There was a note on the table that said, gone fishing to Montana, dad.
18:46Sharon immediately went to meet her brother at her dad's home and saw the note.
18:52It was written in big, big letters.
18:56Well, dad didn't print.
18:58He wrote.
18:58And it was kind of tiny writing that he had.
19:02So I knew it wasn't dad that had written it.
19:06You don't know what to think.
19:07You don't want to believe that something's wrong.
19:12But there were things that I knew were wrong.
19:17Well, the first thing I did was look up in the cupboard.
19:20He kept a roll of American money for when he did go down to the States.
19:26And it was still there.
19:28And then I went in the closet.
19:30His suitcases were all still there.
19:34His jacket and hat were in the kitchen, the ones that he always wore.
19:39And there was one shoe by the back doorway.
19:44Just one.
19:45And I couldn't figure that out.
19:48I looked in the liquor cabinet.
19:50It was empty.
19:51He always had a good selection.
19:54And it was all gone.
19:57Guns were missing.
19:59He had a lot of black powder guns.
20:01But he also had a lot of collector rifles and pistols.
20:07The last room that I looked in was kind of a study room that he had.
20:15And he had a record player set up in there.
20:18And he'd like to go sit in there on the couch and listen to music.
20:23That couch had been moved to the middle of the floor.
20:26And it was covered with a bedspread.
20:28And I guess when it's not your house, it's your parents' house.
20:33You don't want to be touching things or I don't know.
20:36I just sort of had that mentality.
20:39So I went home.
20:42But Sharon couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
20:46We went back the next morning and I brought my son along.
20:52I headed for that room.
20:53By then, that bedspread had started to seep and you could see blood coming up.
21:01So I said, move the couch.
21:03And it was just this big, huge pool of blood.
21:10So I grabbed my son and ran out of the house.
21:19I just tried to collect my thoughts.
21:22I didn't know whether he was taken, whether he was still alive,
21:28whether he was laying somewhere injured.
21:31You don't, you know, don't know, right?
21:35Bill's family reported him missing to police.
21:38They were able to provide the investigators at the time
21:42with some information, some timelines.
21:44And certainly it looked suspicious.
21:48One of the things that the family noticed
21:49is that their dad's Ford Victoria vehicle was missing.
21:54And so one of the first things that we did
21:56was push out an alert with the vehicle description
22:00so that if it's spotted, that we would know.
22:02And again, we're still not sure what we have here.
22:05It's very possible that their dad is in the vehicle.
22:09We don't know.
22:11Just hours later, at about 10 p.m.
22:14on August 26, 1995, the vehicle was spotted
22:19by Calgary police officers.
22:22They see a vehicle driving on a flat tire.
22:24They run the license plate and they see that it has been flagged
22:27by our investigators as belonging to a missing person.
22:31So the vehicle does pull over and then right away the driver gets out
22:35and flees on foot.
22:37And so there's a foot chase between the police officers
22:39and that driver of the vehicle.
22:41Within a block, the driver of that vehicle is arrested.
22:45Police confirmed the driver was not Bill the Mastic.
22:50Upon search, they find the car keys for that vehicle
22:54and they also find Bill the Mastic's wallet on that driver.
22:59One of the other things that they noted
23:01is that he was wearing cowboy boots.
23:04They noticed in the stitching,
23:05there appeared to be some blood in that stitching.
23:07That driver was transported to our headquarters.
23:10Again, we don't know what we have yet.
23:11So we know we have what looks like a crime scene,
23:15but again, is it a crime scene
23:16of somebody being assaulted and bleeding?
23:19Is it a murder scene?
23:20Like, we're not sure what we have yet.
23:33In September of 1995, Bill the Mastic's family
23:37should have been celebrating his 68th birthday.
23:42Instead, they searched.
23:43He hadn't been seen since August 24th.
23:48It was a really unpleasant time.
23:51It really was.
23:52Bill's kids told police about an incident
23:55that occurred earlier that summer
23:57when he attended a friend's funeral.
24:00Apparently, one of their adult children named Raymond
24:04had approached him.
24:06And I guess he was outside of the church
24:10having a cigarette after the service.
24:14Raymond came up to him
24:16and I guess started talking with him,
24:19told him he was having a hard time,
24:21borrowed $40 off of Dad
24:24and asked for Dad's address
24:28to drop the money back off the following week.
24:33So Dad gave him the money, apparently,
24:37and never thought anything more of it.
24:40But it turned out that same man showed up at Bill's home
24:46the last night he was seen alive.
24:49Dad and my brother Jim had supper together
24:52and there was a knock at the door
24:55and it was Raymond.
24:58Raymond was drinking and borrowing smokes off Dad
25:03and I think my brother just felt a bit agitated maybe
25:08and left.
25:08Sharon and her brother told police
25:12they felt this fellow Raymond
25:14was the last person to see their father.
25:17So when police recovered Bill's vehicle
25:20and it turned out to be a man named Raymond driving it,
25:25investigators were extremely suspicious.
25:27I understand you're Raymond Tudor?
25:30Mm-hmm.
25:31Okay.
25:32There's a connection between you
25:34and a vehicle that belongs to this fellow
25:36that we're looking into his disappearance.
25:38His name is Bill.
25:39Mm-hmm.
25:40Volmastic, I think is that how you pronounce it, I think.
25:43Mm-hmm.
25:44At the current time, you're under arrest
25:47because you fled from Mr. Volmastic's car.
25:52Mm-hmm.
25:53And the circumstances surrounding Mr. Volmastic's disappearance
25:56are suspicious, and we have reason to believe
25:59there may be violence involved.
26:01Mm-hmm.
26:02So at the current time, you're under arrest
26:04because in our eyes, you're a suspect
26:06in the violence that we believe happened to Mr. Volmastic.
26:12We're not sure what.
26:13Bill went fishing as far as I know.
26:15Can you help us out at all with where Bill Volmastic might be
26:20or what happened?
26:22Last I talked to him, he was going fishing.
26:25And he lent me his car, and he said he was going fishing
26:27down in Montana or Idaho or something.
26:32When did you borrow Bill's car?
26:35Well, that same night he was over there.
26:38So he gave you the car that same night?
26:39Mm-hmm.
26:40After the same night.
26:41And when are you to return it?
26:43When he gets back.
26:47When he gets back.
26:48Mm-hmm.
26:49Did he lend you anything else?
26:51Mm-hmm.
26:52What else did he lend you?
26:53Yeah, he gave me his wallet with his credit cards in it
26:55because I don't have any money to put gas in the car.
26:57So he gave me his wallet to put gas in his car.
27:04So he lent you his wallet?
27:05Mm-hmm.
27:05And his credit cards?
27:07Yeah.
27:07All right.
27:08Well, we're friends.
27:09The investigators were suspicious initially
27:12that he's not telling the full story.
27:14Don't know what the story is,
27:15but certainly not telling the full story.
27:17The detectives left the room and Tudor slept.
27:22At the same time, a forensic examination
27:25of Bill Vamastic's home was taking place.
27:28So when the blood spatter expert arrived at the scene
27:33and took a look at the scene,
27:35it was their expert opinion that somebody had tried to cover up,
27:39that somebody had tried to clean up the scene.
27:41They found what appeared to be a boot print
27:45that had, you know, from blood essentially.
27:49And so the boot print looked like it had a pointier toe,
27:52similar to a cowboy boot.
27:54They noticed what appeared to be drag marks.
27:58The drag marks were from essentially the garage to the door
28:02or perhaps from the door to the garage.
28:05Difficult to tell.
28:07Police also examined Bill Vamastic's vehicle
28:10and found a large amount of blood.
28:14Raymond.
28:15Raymond.
28:16Mm-hmm.
28:17Wake up.
28:17Mm-hmm.
28:19It would appear that
28:24someone bleeding very badly
28:29was placed in the trunk of that car.
28:33I didn't even have a trunk before.
28:35I don't know.
28:37Well, there appears to be a large quantity of blood
28:39in the trunk of that car.
28:41There's blood in there.
28:42I don't know how the hell it got there.
28:44It's not my car.
28:46It's a friend of mine's car.
28:48Who's missing?
28:52Well, I don't know.
28:53Did you check down in Montana?
28:54Because I'm pretty sure that's where he said he was going.
28:57But the note that was written
28:58has been shown to Bill's daughter.
29:01Mm-hmm.
29:02And it's not Bill's handwriting.
29:04What note are you talking about?
29:06The one that says gone fishing.
29:09I didn't even know he left the note.
29:10All he told me is he was gone fishing.
29:13Why is there blood on your cowboy boots then?
29:16I have no idea.
29:18Whose blood would that be?
29:20I have no idea.
29:24Would that be Bill's blood?
29:25I didn't even know there was blood on my collar.
29:29It appears to me that you've killed Bill.
29:32Yeah.
29:32Good friend of mine.
29:33Yeah.
29:33Right.
29:34Well, that's the way it's looking.
29:37And if you put him in the trunk of his car
29:39and have moved his body somewhere.
29:44That's when investigators brought up another unsolved homicide.
29:49You know what bothers me is we did a little check-in' tonight.
29:59Mm-hmm.
30:01There's an old fellow that lived out of Langdon.
30:04Mm-hmm.
30:04That you were friends with.
30:07Mm-hmm.
30:08You know who I'm referring to?
30:10Yeah, I know.
30:10That's who they're talking to.
30:11Who am I talking about?
30:13I'm talking about Artie.
30:14I'm talking about Artie.
30:16What's Artie's last name?
30:18I don't know.
30:18And no, I didn't have anything to do with that either.
30:23But the circumstances are so similar, aren't they?
30:27I have no idea.
30:28You look me in the eye and you tell me again that you didn't kill Bill.
30:31I didn't kill Bill.
30:33When's this nonsense going to stop?
30:35There's two men dead.
30:37What nonsense?
30:38You killing people.
30:40That's what nonsense.
30:41There's two men dead.
30:42Yeah, right.
30:42You can help the family by putting Bill's body to rest and letting them have a service.
30:48Now, you can sit here stubborn.
30:50I'm still locking you up.
30:51You are being locked up.
30:53No joke.
30:53Tonight.
30:55You can sit here and you can make us look and we'll look for a day.
30:58We'll look for three years.
31:00But we'll find them.
31:02And then at that point in time,
31:07in my eyes, you'll be the coldest, bloodiest son of a bitch I've ever met.
31:11I'm telling you that you're probably going to jail for murder here.
31:13I don't think I'm going to jail for murder because I haven't murdered anybody.
31:17I'm telling you this.
31:18You will be locked up tonight and charged with the murder of Bill.
31:22Tonight.
31:22I think I better phone my lawyer.
31:25Anytime you want.
31:26Because that's bull****.
31:28Police believed Raymond Tudor was responsible for the disappearance of Bill Vamastic.
31:34And they charged him with second degree murder.
31:37He refused to disclose anything.
31:43Refused to admit doing anything.
31:48Said he'd been and left and that dad was fine when he left.
31:56And he knew nothing about it.
31:58Yet he was wearing dad's gold retirement watch when he was apprehended that night.
32:06You know, driving dad's car.
32:09I think it was one of the first cases in Canada where charges were laid without a body being recovered.
32:22Just the amount of blood that was found.
32:26In the meantime, the search for Bill's body continued.
32:31I had posters made up that we distributed all throughout southern Alberta with pictures of things that were missing from the house.
32:41There was a couch cushion.
32:43There was a bedspread that was missing off another bed.
32:47Pictures of his car.
32:49The television coverage died down.
32:52And I wanted to keep it alive.
32:54I wanted people to keep looking for him.
32:58Because I wasn't going to rest until he was found.
33:01Welcome back.
33:14After one senior had been found murdered and another was missing and presumed dead, police discovered an eerie connection.
33:23They believed the same person killed both men.
33:26The problem was finding the evidence to prove it.
33:30Here now is Nancy Hickst with a conclusion of Golden Years Gone.
33:44Yeah, that was a smile.
33:46For more than a year, Artie Turner's killer had eluded arrest.
33:55The RCMP knew someone had information about the homicide.
33:59And finally, that witness came forward.
34:04Okay, my name is Nolan Dodd.
34:07I'm giving information voluntarily here because I believe I know something about a murder that happened out at Langdon.
34:17The witness told police he was watching the news and learned Raymond Tudor was a suspect in the death of Bill Vamastic.
34:27Um, I believe the same guy is responsible for the murder out at Langdon.
34:33The night of the murder out at Langdon, the pal's name that I drove out there was also Raymond Tudor.
34:41See, because I was just afraid that it was going to be my word against his word.
34:46Right.
34:46And, you know, I'm like, I don't have an alibi for that night.
34:50I drove the guy out, dropped him off alongside the road.
34:53Then I went back to Langdon.
34:55The man said he had no idea Tudor was going to kill Artie Turner.
35:01Even though I didn't see the guy do it in my heart, I'm convinced he did it.
35:05And I have no mercy for someone who would break into someone's house and kill someone.
35:12Days later, the witness provided a videotaped statement to RCMP Corporal Doug Morrison.
35:20This is the golden witness, yeah.
35:23You know, because we could never figure out how would Tudor get out there.
35:29I could not see him walking alongside the road or in either ditch.
35:33Okay.
35:33Now, when you dropped him off and pulled away and you used your rearview mirror,
35:37did you see which way he went from there?
35:39No.
35:40So this is the area where you made your turnaround and then continued north.
35:44Yeah, I turned around right here.
35:46And as I was facing this house over here that's been told to me that it's Artie Turner's,
35:53I noticed there were no lights on at that house.
35:55Okay.
35:55As the RCMP finalized their case against Tudor for the murder of Artie Turner,
36:02there was a development in the investigation into Bill Vamastic's homicide.
36:08We had a break on September 2nd and that's when somebody that lives just east of Calgary,
36:15just outside city limits, located what appeared to be some blood-stained shower curtain and a rod
36:21and called the RCMP.
36:23There was, in fact, a shower curtain and a shower rod that was missing from the victim's house and this description matched.
36:31Then, on September 22nd, 1995, four weeks after Bill Vamastic disappeared,
36:42two pheasant hunters on a rural property south of Karsland discovered a body near an old abandoned barn.
36:51When Calgary homicide detectives arrived at the scene, located about an hour's drive southeast of Bill's home,
36:59they confirmed it was, in fact, the missing senior.
37:03The investigators took the time to take a really beautiful sunset photograph from the place that Bill was located.
37:14And, you know, it's, like, it's heartfelt, it's the investigators trying to provide closure to the family.
37:25And, yeah, I just thought it was very kind what they did and super impactful.
37:30And they said, this is, you know, your dad's view every day, and it was, it was actually beautiful, but, yeah.
37:39But any sense of peace the family felt was short-lived.
37:46The autopsy report gave me answers, you know, seven stab wounds into the back, violent wounds which busted rib bones,
37:56and they figured that dad was bent over, I think, putting a record on or something when Tudor came up behind him
38:06and just started stabbing him.
38:09The extreme violence, all for a few hundred dollars.
38:14Well, and I think he figured that he'd got away with Artie's, so do it again, right?
38:21That was easy.
38:26In December of 1995, about a year and a half after Artie Turner was killed,
38:32the RCMP paid Raymond Tudor a visit at the Calgary Remand Centre.
38:38Actually, just this morning, I received a call from a fellow by the name of Mr. Dodd.
38:44He told me that he had, in fact, dropped you off at Artie Turner's place or very close to Artie Turner's place
38:53on the evening of Clark's death.
39:00Now, that's contrary to what the U.S., they don't even know the guy, they don't know Mr. Dodd.
39:06Tudor was charged with the second-degree murder of Artie Turner,
39:11which was later upgraded to first-degree murder.
39:14Because our case went so long, our investigation went so long,
39:18I think he figured that he was smart enough to beat the system.
39:22Raymond Tudor faced a series of trials.
39:27In June of 1997, a jury convicted him of the first-degree murder of Artie Turner.
39:34But he appealed that conviction, and Alberta's top court found there was an error
39:39in the original instructions to the jury.
39:42A retrial was ordered.
39:46Months later, in December of 1997,
39:50Tudor was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Bill Vamastic and sentenced to life in prison
39:56with no chance of parole for 20 years.
40:01Then, in June of 2000, following a retrial for the death of Artie Turner,
40:07a judge found him guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder.
40:13Tudor was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years.
40:20He figured that he was smart and he would pick on pensioners and people that were older and weaker.
40:28He would wait till the end of the month to murder them once they had their pension checks, right?
40:36But less than two years into his prison sentence,
40:40there was an unexpected and very high-profile development.
40:45On March 26, 2002, Raymond Tudor disappeared from Drumheller Institution.
40:53Raymond Tudor shouldn't be hard to spot unless he has shaved off his beard and hair.
40:58This is the first escape from the medium security part of the institution since 1994,
41:03and prison officials still aren't sure how he got out.
41:06A Canada-wide warrant was issued and the convicted double murderer
41:12was even featured on America's Most Wanted.
41:16There's been a lot of speculation about, you know, like, did he walk out the front gate or
41:21or did he climb a fence? We don't really know. We do know that the fence alarms were working at that time.
41:27I was MP in Strathmore, came down to my work,
41:31called me up to the office to the front and they said,
41:40yes, we have some bad news. Raymond Tudor escaped Drumheller jail and we don't know where he is.
41:50So this is just a word of caution to you and your family and your friends to be alert.
41:58There's a lot of restless nights over there.
42:04Well, he did apparently have a hit list that he left in his jail cell.
42:11The prosecutor was on it. I was on it.
42:17It was quite a lengthy list of people that he was going to get rid of.
42:21So I phoned the detectives and they sent police cars to circle the house.
42:29They told me to go and take a different route to and from work.
42:35And even with my son, you know, I tell him when you get home from school, you lock the door,
42:40you don't answer the door, anybody comes, just don't.
42:44Tudor had disappeared for seven weeks. But it turned out he hadn't gone far. The 48-year-old had
42:53been hiding in the prison's duct system and the walls of the institution's workshop.
43:00This is a hole he created in the wall. You see from the size of it. It's not a very large hole,
43:07approximately 12 inches square to something to that extent. He was able to slide through there.
43:14Officials believed other inmates helped him, as he had a box of cookies with him when he was found.
43:21But by then, Tudor had lost 40 pounds.
43:24Decades later, family and friends of the victims still struggle with the senseless murders.
43:38And why? For nothing.
43:43Car ride and murder. 200 bucks, 400 bucks, whatever.
43:47I think he's an animal, and I think he should stay locked up. I really do. Regardless of how old he is
43:55now, I don't care. Don't let him out.
44:01In Sharon's home, there are a lot of her father's treasures, mementos she holds onto,
44:08because she didn't have the chance to hold onto him.
44:12We became very, very close in later years, you know, when he had retired and he had a wicked sense
44:22of humor. He was a funny, funny guy. And I'm glad that we can focus on dad and who he was. I think it's important.
44:38Raymond Tudor remains in prison.
44:40In 2021, he was denied day parole. He's scheduled to have another hearing in 2026.
44:47Both the victim's families and Tudor's own family have expressed fear for their safety
44:54and the public's if he is ever released.
45:00Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat. I'm Anthony Robart.
45:04Want more episodes of Crime Beat? Listen to the Crime Beat Podcast now for free on Apple Podcasts,
45:12Spotify, or wherever you find your favourite podcast. And for past episodes of Crime Beat,
45:18go to the Global TV app, visit GlobalTV.com, or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.
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