US sex offender killed four girls, women in Calgary in 1970s, mountains say

EDMONTON — An American sex offender who died in prison more than a decade ago killed four women and a girl in Calgary in the 1970s — and there may be more victims, RCMP said Friday.

Gary Allen Srery was sentenced to life in prison for sexual assault when he died of natural causes in an Idaho prison in 2011.

Mounties said he had an extensive criminal record in the United States when he crossed illegally into Canada in the mid-1970s.

The bodies of 14-year-old Eva Dvorak and Patsy McQueen were found under an overpass west of Calgary in February 1976.

That spring, 20-year-old Melissa Rehorek was found dead in a ditch on a gravel road outside the city.

The following year, the body of 19-year-old Barbara McLean was found outside Calgary's then-city limits.

A break in the four murders came when police began matching the killer's DNA with profiles on ancestry websites, which eventually led them to a match with Sreeri.

“At the end of the day, whether there's a charge or not, we're not fixing anything,” said RCMP Supt. Dave Hall answered a question at a press conference about whether the families of the victims knew that the killer had been found.

“For the police it's a solution and for the families it's just an answer.”

RCMP said little is known about Sreri's life or whereabouts from the time he was denied bail in the U.S. in the mid-1970s until his arrest and conviction for sexual assault and detention in New Westminster in the 1990s.

He worked as a cook and salesman, police said. He often changed his appearance, car and name.

“We're still continuing to put together a timeline and try to understand where it happened because that may help us look at other unsolved files, whether it's in Alberta, British Columbia or somewhere we don't know at this stage,” Hall said.

Eva and Patsy were both pupils at Jan Bazalgette High School. They left school together on February 12, 1976, and spent the next two days together visiting various friends' homes.

On February 15, 1976, their bodies were found on the road. They were fully clothed, even though police believed they had been sexually assaulted.

The cause of death has not been determined, RCMP said, and DNA technology is not yet available.

That spring, Rehorek moved to Calgary from Windsor, Ont.

Police said she worked as a hotel maid at the YWCA. He was last seen on September 15, 1976, when he said he planned to hitchhike out of town for the weekend. A transit driver remembers dropping him off on the Trans-Canada Highway.

His body was found the next day, with evidence of a struggle.

Police said the long black hairs on her arms came from her killer. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled to death.

McLean, who moved to Calgary from Nova Scotia, worked at a bank. He went to a bar with friends and was last seen alone on February 26, 1977, around 2 a.m.

His body was found that morning. He was also strangled to death. There was evidence of a struggle, and his jacket was worn inside out.

Police said they provided hair samples from more than 600 men and interviewed hundreds of taxi drivers during the investigation into McLean's death. A witness said he saw McLean get into a taxi.

The investigators are deadlocked.

“The original investigations went back to the 1980s. And in the 1990s, at least four task forces were formed to re-examine the evidence, tips from the public and any leads that had not been followed,” Hall said.

The murder is finally solved by DNA.

The killer's DNA was compared to genetic profiles, including those on ancestry websites. Investigators found people they believed to be related to the killer, and those relatives agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Last year, police matched a genetic profile to a DNA sample on file for Sreri.

Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1942, Sreri moved with his family to California in the mid-1950s. He married, had children, and divorced in 1969.

In the 1960s, he was convicted of rape and kidnapping. At one point, he was classified as a “mentally disturbed sex offender” and ordered to serve his sentence in a mental health institution.

In 1974, when he was released on bail pending trial on rape charges in Los Angeles, he failed to appear in court and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was not seen or heard of until his arrest in B.C

After serving his sentence in Canada in 2003, he was deported to the United States and convicted of rape in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Police are asking anyone with tips or information about Sreri's whereabouts to contact the Alberta RCMP Historic Crimes Unit.

This Canadian Press report was first published on May 17, 2024.

Rob Drinkwater, The Canadian Press