“He was known as Gordie to his family and friends,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sgt.
RCMP officials said Sanderson, who was born in Manitoba in October 1950, appeared to have been about 25 years old when he died.
According to multiple accounts of the case, the Mounties used old ice cream pails to scoop the liquid from the tank and begin recovering the body.
Authorities announced Wednesday, June 30, 2021, that a murder victim known as “Septic Tank Sam” has been identified as Gordon, who was about 25 when he was slain.
News reports over the years indicated that Sam, aka Sanderson, had been beaten, tied down and tortured with a butane blowtorch and lit cigarettes.
Sam had also been sexually mutilated, most likely with farming shears.
“They had to be cruel and vindictive,” Lammerts later told author Peter B.
Sam’s body, which had been covered with a massive amount of quicklime, was too decomposed to be identified.
Investigators reported that the man was likely Indigenous, somewhere between 23 and 32 years old and about 5 feet, 10 inches tall.
It was one of those brown shoes that McLeod first spotted when he discovered Sam.
Lammerts agreed, telling author Smith that the killer or killers likely thought no one would ever look for the body on that abandoned farm.
Over the years, authorities interviewed many possible witnesses and tracked down thousands of leads, but got no closer to identifying Sam or determining who took his life, RCMP officials said.
They were able to tell, however, that Sam had suffered a serious illness around the age of 5, an illness that left its mark on his teeth and bones.
DNA cold case: An early skeletal recreation shows the likeness of a murder victim dubbed “Septic Tank Sam.” Canadian authorities announced Wednesday, June 30, 2021, that Sam has been identified as Gordon “Gordie” Sanderson, of Edmonton, who was about 25 when he was slain.
Hope was renewed in 2018 when California cold case investigators used a new DNA technology — forensic genealogy — to identify the notorious Golden State Killer, who killed at least 13 people and committed at least 50 rapes and more than 100 burglaries between 1973 and 1986.
“It was very degraded.
Sanderson’s identity had been restored, and detectives began investigating anew who might have wanted him dead.
The ’60s Scoop was a widespread practice between the 1960s and the 1980s in which thousands of Aboriginal children in Canada were removed from their families and placed in the child welfare system.
Lost children: Flowers and tributes are pictured May 31, 2021, on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, where the bodies of 215 Indigenous children were recently found buried.
Sanderson became part of those statistics.
Sanderson’s family last heard from him as he planned to meet up with his younger brother, Arthur Sanderson, in Calgary.
RCMP officials were finally able to give her that closure this year.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices.