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New Hope in 70-year Old Cold Case — Vancouver’s Babes in the Woods

The 1953 unsolved Stanley Park murders of two young boys.

Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi
4 min readMay 19, 2021

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The Vancouver Police Museum Replica of the crime scene courtesy The Globe and Mail

On January 14, 1953, a groundskeeper at Stanley Park in Vancouver would make a chilling discovery that would leave the Vancouver Police Department (VPD)and the whole world puzzled for nearly seven decades as one of the most mysterious cold cases.

On a cold day, the groundskeeper while on his usual rounds suddenly felt a peculiar sounding ruffle from the leaves under his feet, which made him suspect that the leaves had something hidden underneath.

After a bit of digging around, he discovered the remains of a woman’s fur coat that had probably been decaying there for some time. However, under the fur coat lay the real shock — the rotten bodies and the skeletal remains of two children along with more items — a woman’s shoes as well as a picnic basket among them.

When the VPD were brought in for investigating the case, little did they know that it would become a case that would haunt them for many decades to come.

Forensic examination revealed that the skeletons belonged to two boys with their skulls bludgeoned by a hatchet — one of them showing wounds from the hatchet blade, while the other from…

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Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi
Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi

Written by Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi

Stay-at-home-dad who "retired" from a 12-year career in finance at the age of 35. Curious thinker with an opinion on nearly everything and is here to share it.

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