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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Arrest made in 1978 murder of Merritt girl By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
A 67-year-old man is facing a charge of firstdegree murder in the 1978 death of a 12-year-old Merritt girl. On Dec. 1, B.C. RCMP officers announced from their Surrey headquarters that Garry Taylor Handlen was charged with the murder of Monica Jack nearly 40 years after her disappearance. Monica disappeared on May 6, 1978 while riding her bicycle along Highway 5A from Merritt to her family’s house on Nicola Lake. When Monica did not return home, her mother reported her missing to police. The next day, her bicycle was discovered about a mile from her home down an embankment between the road and the lake. It would be another 17 years before her remains would be found by pure coincidence. On June 2, 1995, forestry workers cleaning up after a prescribed burn near Swakum Mountain in a rural area a few kilometres from Highway 5A came across possible human bones in a ravine. Later that month, the bones were confirmed to be human. In August of that year, RCMP looked up old missing persons files to help identify the bones. In early February of 1996, police confirmed the bones belonged to Monica. She was 13 days shy of her 13th birthday when she
went missing. While Handlen was a person of interest early in the investigation, police said it took nearly 40 years of evidence gathering to support a charge of firstdegree murder. Handlen is also charged with first-degree murder in the 1975 death of 11-yearold Kathryn-Mary Herbert from Matsqui (which later became part of Abbotsford). Kathryn-Mary was last seen on Sept. 24, 1975 on her way home from a friend’s house after another friend had ‘doubled’ her part-way on his bike. Her partially decomposed body was found on Nov. 17 that year under a sheet of plywood taken from the wall of an old outhouse in an undeveloped area of the Matsqui First Nation. Chief Superintendent of the B.C. RCMP’s Major Crime Section Jim Gresham commended the mothers of both girls on their persistence in finding answers over the years. Both women were present at the announcement from Surrey. “Both Monica and Kathryn were young, vibrant and happy girls last seen travelling on roads not far from their homes,” Gresham said in a statement. “Both children also had incredibly strong mothers — Madeline Lanaro and Shari Greer — who have been amazing advocates for their daughters.” Police also released a photo of Handlen around
Monica Jack
the time of the offences in the hopes it will lead to more information. Anyone with information on the disappearances of Monica Jack and Karthryn-Mary Herbert or on Handlen is asked to call the RCMP’s tip line at 1-877-543-4822. Handlen was recently living in Ontario, but was living in the Lower Mainland at the time of the murders. He is scheduled to appear in Abbotsford provincial court on Dec. 8. The breakthroughs more than 30 years later come as a result of joint effort between the RCMP’s Project E-PANA division and Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit, as well
Kathryn-Mary Herbert
as the Abbotsford Police Department. In 2007, officers with the RCMP’s Project E-PANA division took over the investigation into Monica Jack’s murder. Project E-PANA is dedicated to investigating 18 unsolved cases of missing and murdered women and girls along Highways 5, 16 and 97. Thirteen of the files are for murders, while the other five are for missing persons. All 18 of the women and girls were last seen or found within a mile of those three highways. Because Monica was last seen travelling on Highway 5A, her file was added to the scope of Proj-
ect E-PANA’s work. As part of their investigations, E-PANA officers re-examine past findings, conduct new interviews with witnesses, follow up on new leads and tips, and apply forensic techniques that were not available at the time of some of the disappearances. The cases range in date from 1969 to 2006. “Pana” is an Inuit word describing the spirit goddess who looks after souls just before they go to heaven or are reincarnated. Kathryn-Mary’s case was transferred to the RCMP’s Provincial
Unsolved Homicide Unit in 2005. It had previously been under the Abbotsford Police Department’s jurisdiction, which amalgamated with the Matsqui police when the two municipalities merged in 1995.
Garry Taylor Handlen
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