Decades of DNA: A Look at How Police Tracked a Calgary Serial Killer

CALGARY — In 1976 and 1977, the bodies of four girls and a woman were found in Calgary. For almost 50 years, their deaths were not solved.

On Friday, RCMP identified American sex offender Gary Allen Sreri as the killer. He died in an Idaho prison in 2011.

Here's a look at the police investigation:

February 12, 1976: Eva Dvorak and Patsy McQueen, both 14, leave Jan Bazalgette High School. They spend the next two days together, visiting various friends' homes. McQueen's family reported her missing.

February 15, 1976: The bodies of two girls were found under an overpass west of Calgary. They were fully clothed, but police believe they were sexually assaulted.

September 15, 1976: Melissa Rehorek, 20, is seen by her roommates at the YWCA in downtown Calgary. She tells people that she plans to hitchhike out of Calgary on the weekends when she works as a hotel maid. The next day, her body was found in a ditch along a gravel road outside the city. His body is also fully clothed, with evidence of struggle. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled.

February 25, 1977: 19-year-old Barbara McLean attends a cabaret with friends. The bank employee was last seen walking alone from the Highlander Bar at around 2am the next day. Later that morning, his body was found just outside Calgary's then-city limits. He was also strangled and there were signs of a fight. His jacket is inside out.

1990s: Over the years, the RCMP formed four teams to re-examine evidence, tips from the public and any leads that were previously missing in the four murders.

March 2003: The lab confirms that the DNA found in the murders of Rehorak and McLean is the same.

2023: The DNA profile for Eva and Patsy's killer has been determined and is identical to the profile of Rehorak and McLean's killer. Later that year, a report determined that the DNA could match Gary Allen Sreri, a serial sex offender who fled the United States to Canada in the mid-1970s.

September 13, 2023: Idaho police confirmed that Sreri's DNA matched the genetic profile of DNA from the Calgary murder.

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

Canadian Press