WARNING: This post contains graphic details regarding murder, mutilation, and torture. Viewer discretion advised!
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| Undated enhanced image of Gordon Edwin "Gordie" Sanderson (1950 - 1977) |
26-year-old Gordon Edwin Sanderson, who often went by "Gordie" to his friends and family never had an easy life. He was an indigenous man born in Canada (First Nations). At the age of 9, he was a victim of the Sixties Scoop, and he was separated from his biological parents and placed into foster care.
By the 1970s, he was living in Edmonton. As a young adult, Gordie struggled with addictions and often found himself with the wrong crowd, leading to frequent police run-ins. However, Gordie still was a pretty fun-loving dude who liked his family. That's likely why sometime in 1976, he was going to visit his brother Arthur.
He would never make it to his brother.
THE SEPTIC TANK DISCOVERY
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| Tofield, Alberta, where Sanderson would later be found |
On April 13th, 1977, a farmer in Tofield was searching the property for a septic tank pump. As he searched through his septic tank, he smelled something strange, and noticed something disturbing. It was a human leg, floating in the septic tank. The farmer and his wife immediately notified the authorities, who arrived to the crime scene.
Two officers arrived and spent an hour emptying the putrid septic tank with an empty ice cream pail. As they cleaned the scene out, they found the badly decomposed body of Gordie Sanderson. The scene was absolutely horrific. It made headlines in the small town.
Now, even though we now know this was Gordie, because the man couldn't be matched with any missing persons records, he remained unidentified for decades. The victim was given the rather undignified and infamous nickname of "Septic Tank Sam". Later on, some Websleuths referred to him as simply "Sam Doe" or "Tofield John Doe" to humanize and respect the victim. Personally, I also find the nickname rather insensitive. Imagine being immortalized as something like "Fecal Tank Frank" or "Toilet Bowl Ben". For most of the rest of his blog post, I'll be referring to him as simply Sam.
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Sam's clothing upon recovery | | Reconstructed shoe |
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Anyway, as you can tell, Sam's clothing was highly deteriorated, but police could still tell it was a blue buttoned Levi shirt, with blue jeans and knock-off Wala bee shoes. Sam was estimated to be around 26 - 40 years old. He was initially thought to be Caucasian, but later investigation suggested he was of aboriginal descent.
He had all his teeth, with a few fillings. He was also likely right-handed and may have suffered a disease around the age of 5. He also had long, dark hair. Coroners then took an autopsy of Sam, with astonishing results.
(I'm about to talk about his death in detail. Be warned, it truly is abhorrent!)
The victim had been dead for at most a year. Sam had been brutally tortured the day of his death. His killers presumably tied his body to a bed (based on marks on his arms), then beat and burned him multiple times, with the use of a butane torch and cigarettes. As if that wasn't enough, Sam's genitalia was then severely mutilated with a small knife, which was a statement if there ever was. The man had been put out of his misery by two gunshot wounds, to his chest and head.
After killing him, the killers went to the septic tank and dumped his body. Police believed he was killed far elsewhere due to the lack of evidence at the scene. The killers then poured quicklime all over his body, likely in an attempt to accelerate decomposition. In reality, the quicklime ironically helped dry out his remains and keep them preserved for longer. Even then, he was so horrifically decayed and mutilated, it took MONTHS for the medical examiners just to find out if he was a male.
WHO'S SAM?!
So, police had a problem. They knew how Sam died, but they didn't know why he died, who killed him, and who he even was. There were many missing clues in solving this case, and barely any leads, ultimate resulting in the case going cold with a long investigation process. Even though he was badly decomposed and maimed, two reconstructions of Sam based off his skull were still able to be produced.
RECONSTRUCTION DISCUSSION
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| Reconstruction by Betty Pat Gatliff |
The first one was created by Betty Pat Gatliff, well known for her reconstructions of JWG's victims. To say it was unnerving and creepy is putting it nicely. They barely even gave him the dignity of eyebrows. The low quality resolution certainly doesn't help. Looks like something out of an analog horror!
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| Reconstruction by Cyril Chan |
This later sculpture was produced by Cyril Chan in 2000. It's also a bit offsetting, but definitely less uncanny. I also like how he put a cap on him and used a clay that resembled that of someone of aboriginal descent.
Both reconstructions do a pretty good job replicating Sanderson, despite how unsettling they kind of are. I think Betty's reconstruction matches this image of Sanderson the most, in which he doesn't have his beard.
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| Gordie Sanderson |
IDENTIFICATION
For 44 years, Sam would only be known as the unfortunate torture victim who was left behind in a septic tank. At least...until Othram came in. Othram is a company dedicated to genetic genealogy, where DNA is compared to people on a database in an attempt to identify unidentified decedents. If you want to know more, search it up.
Anyway, money for DNA testing for Sam was raised, and Othram began working on the case sometime in 2020. Sanderson was finally identified sometime in 2021. The announcement was made on June 2021.
He was no longer Septic Tank Sam. He was Gordie. Gordie Sanderson was home.
THEORIES
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Gordie Sanderson
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Gordie Sanderson may have gotten the dignity of his name back, but his murder remains unsolved. And considering it's been about 50 years, it's likely his killers are elders or possibly dead by now. But that doesn't matter. Future investigation may still be able to uncover his killers. Until now, all we can do is speculate.
With a killing as horrendous and unimaginably painful as this, it's very clear whoever did this to Gordie absolutely HATED him. It's also likely there were multiple people involved. But why did they hate him, and take such extreme efforts to kill him? Did Gordie know his killer(s)?
One of the most popular theories (especially before his identification) was that Sam might've been killed out of vigilantism or sexual revenge. As I mentioned earlier, he was severely sexually mutilated. This is not only cruel, but it's also a sign whoever attacked him felt it would be a statement. People suspected Sam could've been unfaithful to a partner, or even a child molester. Was Sanderson's death a case of vigilante justice?
Now, obviously, we shouldn't demonize poor Gordie. We don't know all that happened in the years before his death, so it isn't fair for us to just assume he was a bad person and that's why he was tortured. He seemed like a pretty nice person in fact. However, as I mentioned earlier, we do know he was involved in criminal behavior and drugs in his early adulthood. Perhaps Gordie had wanted to back out of that type of life and be better...but his associates didn't like that. When one of them happened to encounter Gordie again, it all went downhill from there.
However, something interesting to think about is the fact he was dumped in an abandoned septic tank local to the area. A Reddit user named debrisaway pointed this to me and said "It's unlikely that his criminal confederates from Edmonton would know about an abandoned septic tank in rural Alberta." The killer might've been someone who knew the area well if they did know about that random septic tank. But what did the random local have to hate against Gordie?
The last theory I know of is a short one, but plausible one: perhaps Gordie's murder was a hate crime against Native Americans. I already mentioned he was a victim of the Sixties Scoop. Racial crimes have always been a problem (especially today), so I think it's possible really messed up people wanted Gordie gone just because of his ethnicity.
Right now I'm split on most theories. What do you think the most? His old associates in Edmonton? A vigilante local who wanted revenge? Or the victim of a hate crime? Maybe something else entirely...
AND NOW...
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| Gordie Sanderson |
To this day, the case of Gordie Sanderson remains a tragic, horrific, and cold one. Even if Gordie did have a turbulent early life, I think what happened to him was highly unjustified. If he was still alive today, he would've been turning 75 in a few months.
Rest in piece, Gordie. You did not deserve such a vindictive, horrific death. I hope one day there will be justice for you.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING;
Unidentified Wiki
Wikipedia
Lazy Masquerade (YouTube)
DNA Solves
Medium (premium needed)
