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Spring of 2001 was a challenging time for local police. After seeing only a handful of murder cases in more than a decade, three occurred here in just a few months.
The victims were from different walks of life, they were killed in different places, by different means and, presumably, by different people.
The only thing the three cases have in common is that seven years later, no arrests have been made.
It began on Jan. 11, 2001, when a then unidentified body was discovered on a frozen creek near Township Road 564, just east of Highway 44 in Sturgeon County.
Over time police would learn that the beaten and stabbed body was that of Kenneth Lloyd Pendleton.
Pendleton was a career bank robber with a reputation for elaborate robberies and daring escapes from American prisons, including one through the frigid waters of Puget Sound.
Eventually it emerged that the 59-year-old fugitive had been living in the Calder area of Edmonton setting up a marijuana grow-op with several other men.
Two weeks later, on Jan. 27, Kelly Dawn Riley’s badly beaten body was discovered in the county.
Riley lived a high-risk lifestyle, was known to abuse drugs and worked in Edmonton’s sex-trade.
She had been missing for more than a week when her body was found near two gravel piles on Range Road 264, just off Highway 633.
The last unsolved case that spring came on April 2, when Robin Abialmouna’s father found him in his Perron Street apartment shortly after 10:15 p.m.
Police believe the 22-year-old was associated with illegal activity and that he was shot dead as part of an ongoing gang war that year, a suggestion his family disputes.
Family pain
Pat Riley desperately wants to know what happened to her daughter.
"I still cry. I still miss her and I still have the questions. Why? Why? Why would somebody do this to her?"
She says she has learned to live with the tragedy, but can’t move past it.
"I think you learn to live around it. I don’t think there is any closure because Christmases won’t be the same and my granddaughter’s birthday won’t be the same."
Insp. Bob Williams heads up the Serious Crimes Unit for the RCMP in Northern Alberta and manages many cases in communities across the province.
The force has dozens of unsolved homicides across Alberta, some dating as far back as the 1930s. Williams says all of those cases remain open, but at a certain point the information stops coming in.
"It means we have exhausted everything we have. If something comes in we will pick it up and run with it, but at a certain point you just don’t have anything to do."
He insists no case is ever completely closed, but at a certain point spending resources on a case that is stuck doesn’t make sense.
"When we have no further suspects and no further leads we begin to cut back. It is hard for me to send 20 people out when there is nothing to do."
Williams adds the files are reviewed a few times a year and are also often handed to new investigators to see if they can see something others have missed.
Time essential
In 2001 dozens of investigators from Williams’ unit swarmed each of the crime scenes within hours.
Williams says the first five days of a homicide investigation are the most important, because evidence is fresh and memories are strong.
"We will spend 90 to 100 per cent of our resources in the first 72 hours," he says. "As it gets older obviously it gets more difficult, because the witness recall fades and the evidence dries up."
Time isn’t the only factor in solving a homicide, unco-operative witnesses can also make a case difficult.
In Abialmouna’s death, police said at the time that several potential witnesses were tight-lipped and refused to co-operate.
Williams says this is a common problem in all cases that involve gangs or organized crime and even when people are willing to talk their credibility can be shaky if a case goes to trial.
Lifestyles
Many homicide victims fall into the broad category of people in high-risk lifestyles, which can make their cases more difficult to solve.
Williams says when they interview friends or associates of these types of victims, recollections are often spotty.
"We rely on a lot of the people downtown who are associates and you can get anywhere from 12 hours to 12 days since they saw them last," he says.
Riley admits her daughter’s case would be difficult to solve.
"Kelly never carried I.D. when she was out on the street," she says. "You have to remember this was a person who was a drug addict and she worked in a high risk lifestyle so the people she associated with probably had warrants for their arrests."
In the fall of 2003 the RCMP launched Project KARE, a task force designed to investigate the murders of people living high-risk lifestyles, including several sex-trade workers.
The unit looked at Riley’s case, but ultimately passed it back to the serious crimes unit.
Riley is disappointed the task force isn’t still looking at the file.
"They give the distinction that this is a department for the women who are in a high-risk lifestyle that were missing and murdered, but obviously that is not the case. They only pick and choose the cases."
Cpl. Wayne Oakes with the RCMP says it’s important to remember that just because the case isn’t with the task force doesn’t mean it isn’t being investigated.
"The fact that it is not on the Project KARE mandate does not mean it isn’t being worked on by a skilled investigator."
Closing the loop
Perhaps the biggest challenge for investigators is gathering the evidence to move from suspects and persons of interest to a case before the courts.
"We have persons of interest in most files, but whether we ever get enough to charge them is something else," says Williams.
Williams says investigators double and triple check allegations and run down every lead, because the entire investigation will go under the microscope.
"We take every precaution, every possible step to get the best possible case before the courts," he says. "The police are on trial a lot, their investigation is on trial."
He says when police do have a strong suspect they don’t walk away from it easily.
"The major crime people here are totally committed to this kind of work and they don’t like to give up," he says. "If there is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel we will keep going for it."
Hope fades
Riley holds out little hope of her daughter’s case being solved.
"Unless a miracle happens and somebody gets a conscience." She has theories about her daughter’s death, but her only hope is that a new piece of DNA evidence will come forward and finally identify the killer.
She pleads with anyone who might know anything about what happened to her daughter to come forward.
"If you know anything phone and get this solved and close the case."
Williams says just because the trail has gone cold, doesn’t mean the case has been forgotten.
"All these files, although they are cold, there is still the potential to work on them," he says. "There will always be somebody that has an interest in that file, family or the detachment members out in the area."
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