Could new national DNA database provide a break in one of Alberta's most gruesome cold cases?

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Septic Tank Sam lies in an unmarked grave in an Edmonton cemetery, his identity no less a mystery then when his tortured body was pulled from a rural septic tank on a spring day in 1977. 

But 40 years after Sam met his grisly end, cold case investigators hope a new national DNA database will give fresh leads on who he was — and who killed him. 

Set to launch in 2018, the RCMP’s national children and missing persons unidentified remains database will allow investigators to compare DNA from unidentified human remains to DNA from living relatives who offer a sample in hopes of finding answers about a missing loved one.  

Staff Sgt. Jason Zazulak, with the Alberta RCMP’s historical homicide unit, said the chances the database will yield a break in the case are slim. But the prospect is still exciting. 

“We knew about DNA technology from our friends in the lab,” he said. “What (law enforcement) had to do was build the proper legal framework so those (samples) could be used and compared. It’s very exciting to be on the brink of that happening.”   

A brutal death

Septic Tank Sam’s remains were discovered on April 13, 1977, in a septic tank on an abandoned farm near the small town of Tofield, around 70 km east of Edmonton.

Charlie McLeod, a farmer in the area, found a brown shoe attached to a leg sticking out of the muck while searching for a pump in the tank, a Journal article said. Officers arrived on scene and used ice cream pails to scoop the gooey liquid from the tank, uncovering remains that were so decomposed it took medical examiners months to determine whether they were looking at a man or a woman. Eventually, police gave him his alliterative nickname. 

An autopsy later revealed horrific details of the man’s death. The victim had been beaten, tortured, burned, sexually mutilated and shot before being dumped head-first into the tank and covered with lime. Investigators initially believed he was around 28 years old and had been in the tank for as long as a year.

The case, which has generated thousands of tips but few breakthroughs, continues to captivate Albertans. This summer, a thread on the social media site Reddit spawned more than 150 comments and dozens of theories. Some suggested the victim could have been killed in retribution for a horrible crime, such as child molestation. Others said the killer must have been local to know the location of the abandoned tank.   

Previous advances in DNA tech haven’t yielded much 

DNA samples weren’t taken from the remains until “significantly down the road,” said Zazulak, after the advent of DNA fingerprinting. 

“Fortunately, DNA is pretty robust — if they’re taking it out of an ancient woolly mammoth, under certain conditions DNA is still there,” he said. 

In 2014, the federal government passed legislation allowing RCMP to create a DNA-based missing persons index. The legislation was named Lindsey’s Law in honour of Lindsey Nicholls, a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in British Columbia in 1993. The database was supposed to launch this year, but was delayed. 

Zazulak said when the database comes online, investigators will be able to solicit DNA from people who have lost a loved one and match it against unidentified human remains.

“What we’ll be able to do is check that against a database of people who were giving voluntary samples, knowing that they have a missing loved one or family member,” Zazulak said, adding the DNA can only be used to test against unidentified remains. “The technicians and scientists involved with this can give you a probability that the people were related.”

Still, the likelihood a curious family member would offer up DNA after 40 years is low. And each advance in DNA technology has been met with similar hopes — in 2001, the Edmonton Sun ran a story under the headline “Police closing in on Septic Tank Sam’s ID.”   

Retired RCMP Sgt. Ed Lammerts, one of the first Mounties on the scene after the body was discovered, is doubtful Septic Tank Sam will ever be identified.  

Now 76, Lammerts said the force has probably spent $1 million on the case, including sending Sam’s dental records to dentists across Canada.

He said the last best hope Septic Tank Sam will be identified is a guilty conscience. 

“Assuming the guilty people were in their early 20s, the only thing we can hope for is that just before they pass away they tell a priest or something,” he said.  

jwakefield@postmedia.com