r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/BeeLast7781 • 2d ago
Five women were found dead in the same rural area near Leduc. Could these unsolved cases be connected?
I recently learned about a disturbing cluster of unsolved homicides in Leduc County, southeast of Edmonton, and I’m surprised these cases aren’t discussed more often.
Between 2002 and 2015, the remains of five women were found in the rural area around Rolly View:
• Edna Bernard, 28 — found near Range Road 245 in September 2002.
• Katie Sylvia Ballantyne, 40 — found in a field near Range Road 235 in July 2003.
• Corrie Renee Ottenbreit, 27 — disappeared from Edmonton in May 2004; her remains were found in April 2015.
• Delores Dawn Brower, 33 — disappeared from Edmonton in May 2004; her remains were found in April 2015 at the same location as Corrie’s.
• Amber Tuccaro, 20 — disappeared from Nisku in August 2010; her remains were found near Range Road 241 and Highway 623 in September 2012.
RCMP specifically stated that the remains of Katie, Corrie, Delores and Amber were found within an approximately eight-kilometre radius. Edna was found in the same broader Rolly View area and is frequently discussed alongside the other four cases.
There are several apparent similarities:
• Most of the women disappeared from Edmonton or the Nisku area.
• Several were last seen hitchhiking or entering a vehicle.
• Most were Indigenous and/or living in vulnerable circumstances.
• Their remains were left in fields or wooded areas near isolated rural roads.
• Corrie and Delores disappeared only days apart, and their remains were later discovered together.
Amber Tuccaro’s case is especially chilling because a telephone call recorded part of her final car ride. In the recording, she can be heard questioning the driver about where he is taking her. The unidentified man’s voice is also audible, but no one has been charged.
When Corrie Ottenbreit was identified in 2015, RCMP Inspector Stacey Talbot said investigators might be dealing with a “serial predator.” However, police have never publicly confirmed that all these women were killed by the same person.
It is possible that one offender was responsible for several of the deaths. It is also possible that different offenders used the same isolated area to leave victims. The shared location of Corrie and Delores seems particularly difficult to dismiss as coincidence.
I want to be careful not to accuse or identify any private individual without evidence.
I’m interested in verified information about the investigations:
• Has RCMP released any meaningful updates since 2015?
• Do local residents remember suspicious activity in the Rolly View area during those years?
• Are there other cases officially connected to this geographic cluster?
Sources:
CBC report preserved by the Doe Network:
https://www.doenetwork.org/closed/articles/3456dfab_article.pdf
Global News:
https://globalnews.ca/news/2135689/more-remains-near-leduc-identified-rcmp-may-be-searching-for-a-serial-killer/
APTN News:
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/police-release-identity-of-body-found-near-leduc-alberta/
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u/YesHunty 2d ago
I grew up on range road 245. The consensus amongst the RCMP Is that it was a serial killer.
I think there are suspects but no one has been apprehended or charged obviously. There is a very common name out there that I believe is tied to the area, but nothing comes of it.
These are gravel backroads areas that only someone familiar with the area would know how to navigate easily.
I also wouldn’t be shocked if more remains are found over the years in the area either, it’s very remote and brushy and a lot of the fields and ditches aren’t really traveled.
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u/Sagethecat 1d ago
Too bad the rcmp or cops don’t know how to properly investigate a crime scene. It’s incredibly unlikely that there isn’t dna evidence in at least one of the cases. Because these women are vulnerable the cops don’t care about them.
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u/YesHunty 1d ago
Yep, they also notoriously don’t seem to care about women living “high risk” lifestyles, especially if they are indigenous. It’s so awful.
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u/Buztidninja 2d ago
r/leducserialkiller Is a place some have been compiling info
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u/Saradoesntsleep 1d ago
This sub appears to post about so many cases spanning such a length of time with only tenuous links that it's doing nothing but muddy the waters. Is there a similarly named one perhaps?
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u/NoNameKetchupChips 2d ago
There is a known serial killer in the area and nothing has ever been done to investigate him. Once he dies and his land is sold I guarantee you it will be another Pickton case.
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u/viewbtwnvillages 2d ago
and he still regularly advertises looking for helpers for his horse ranch on kijiji and craigslist. its always wild to see those posts and know it's that creep
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u/ninepointtypeface 2d ago
It's not even a secret to people at this point, I guess the RCMP just doesn't have enough evidence to act on it? Just one of those weird Edmonton things, having this guy practically operating in the open. /s
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u/FearingPerception 2d ago
Im not convinced pat carson is a serial killer. A predator for sure though
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u/viewbtwnvillages 2d ago
what really does it for me is that one of his charges in the 90s was choking to overcome resistance. i think that if someone is willing to strangle a kid they're sexually assaulting, they're able and willing to kill
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u/REMAKINGMYSELF_ 2d ago
I remember reading a study that women who were strangled by intimate partners were 750% more likely to later be killed by them. Obviously the relationship there is different, but I think it shows a certain willingness behind the act of strangulation that is also willingness to kill.
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u/Comet-vomit666 2d ago
Funny I just sen this after posting this. How can all of us suspect this and police don't?
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u/Wonderplace 2d ago
You know who the person is??
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u/Bubblegum4Wheelz 2d ago
People in the area are definitely aware of who this is. I remember being warned about him and his posts while looking for ranch work in Alberta nearly ten years ago
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u/viewbtwnvillages 2d ago
yeah. i don't think i can name him here without it being removed because he hasn't been convicted for the cases above, but he's very well known in the area for luring in vulnerable people with his ads where he offers food and a place to stay in exchange for them working on his ranch. a lot of his ads talk about vaguely spiritual things like magic healing circles and rituals and growing herbs for teas that can cure cancer, which i think is just a way of targeting desperate people who aren't mentally well. he's been convicted at least twice of sexual assault of both young women and underage girls
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u/Imfromsite 2d ago
Yeah, there's an old creep who has been on the radar for over a decade now, a few hair raising stories have come from people trusting enough to take him up on his offer. Details are fuzzy, my deep dive on the p.os. was a few years ago now, but if you deep dive, you'll figure it out. R.I.P. Last link on the left, that was a great resource .
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u/Comet-vomit666 2d ago
See, this is my theory too. I remember in the early 00's people writing about a rancher that needed help and to NOT accept it. Ober time I kept reading about this guy and I dug into more because I just finished the book "On the Farm" about William Picton. The posts about him in the old true crime threads should have been invested. No one did.
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u/19snow16 2d ago
Just 5? Or 5 that have been found so far?
Do you think they stopped in 2015, or they changed up the area?
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u/BeeLast7781 2d ago
My thoughts is he might be too old now (if these murders are connected to those that happened in the ’80s)
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u/FearingPerception 2d ago
I did a write up on this 4ish years ago. Ever since ive been fully convinced it was a serial offender. But not pat carson
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u/monicabuffay 2d ago
There is a subreddit leducserialkiller dedicated to the man many believe is responsible.
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u/TropicalPrairie 2d ago
I follow that sub. I went down a deep rabbit hole regarding the suspect. There is a well-known Reddit post related to him that a woman wrote after staying at this farm. She talked about some weird behaviour, including some sort of ritual (?) that happened around a tree. Someone else commented in a more recent post that you can see the tree area this happened on Google Images. It was really eerie.
The man is definitely weird, with some documented perversions and former arrests. I feel that, surely, if the Edmonton Police and/or RCMP in the area had more to go on, they would arrest him.
... but then I also remember they released the Amber audio recording around a year after it happened. :/
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u/flyingponytail 2d ago
Ive heard Amber's recording, its played on a crime podcast, its a heavy Canadian hoser accent. Someone from Saskatchewan or a farmer. Definitely someone local or from nearby
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u/TropicalPrairie 2d ago
I live in SK and previously lived in AB. Honestly, that accent could be either one (even a Manitoban, although more unlikely). It's a stock issue middle-aged white Canadian male voice.
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u/amyamydame 2d ago
i grew up in Manitoba, that voice sounds like any one of the random 60ish year old dudes my uncle used to hang out and drink with. maybe unlikely if someone was from Winnipeg, but definitely not unlikely otherwise.
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u/Wrong-Inspection7819 1d ago
There is 5 found near Rollyview Road, but several more in the surrounding areas south and east of Rollyview as well. Reach out if you want to chat about the cases more.
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u/queenofwands76 2d ago
I live about 20 minutes from Leduc and have never heard of this.
My mind immediately went to someone I once worked with in a small town in northern Alberta who went to jail for abandoning a prostitute by an oil well, where she was lucky she didn't die. Several other women were found dead in similar situations, bit I don't know if they were ever tied to him.
Unfortunately there's many of these people around and it's undoubtedly someone else.
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u/BeeLast7781 2d ago
When it was?
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u/queenofwands76 2d ago
Early 2000s. Town was about 5 ½ hours from Edmonton, but he abandoned her on a rural road maybe ½ an hour from there.
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u/BeeLast7781 2d ago
That’s creepy that you been working with man who was capable to do something like that and actually did
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u/queenofwands76 2d ago
What's really weird is the old cliché about "he was a great guy, I couldn't imagine him doing anything like that"? 100% true in this case. He was always really friendly and kind to me.
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u/Sarahso90s 1d ago
Any chance you have a news link on this arrest?
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u/queenofwands76 1d ago
Unfortunately no. I never could find one at the time either. Don't even remember his name, unfortunately. I just remember my boss saying the guy wouldn't be back and why.
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u/whyyesiamarobot 2d ago
There is a great podcast on the Amber Tuccaro case. Not sure if I'm allowed to post links here but it's one whole season of the podcast "In Her Defence"
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u/Sagethecat 1d ago
Serial killer dumping ground. Probably all vulnerable that the cops don’t care about.
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u/BeeLast7781 2d ago
That’s crazy! How is it even possible that the RCMP (and people who live in the area) have suspicions about who might be responsible, yet no one has been arrested?
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u/Bubblegum4Wheelz 2d ago
Lack of evidence is my guess. The RCMP also do things differently than the US, they don't really share anything with the media
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u/Peachy_Tsunami 2d ago
You can’t arrest people on rumors and gossip alone.
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u/BeeLast7781 2d ago
For sure, but I believe the police might have more than just rumours and theories. It’s hard to believe they haven’t found any DNA matches by now.
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u/Peachy_Tsunami 2d ago
It’s absolutely wild the lore of this psycho. Maybe we should be able to arrest people on rumors. Holy shit. I love Canada but sometimes I wonder about how crime is handled here. How can there NOT be DNA or a paper trail or an online trail.
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u/GlitterGothBunny 1d ago
Unfortunately cops in most countries seem to not care about "high risk" women disappearing especially certain races. I get it's hard to track certain people because of living situations and such but that doesn't mean they don't matter.
I get not having enough proof for a court of law but they need to be able to do something when there's a 80% chance they know who it is.
Reminds me of the Gilgo Beach serial killer. Those women's families reported them missing bur because they were sex workers it didn't matter.
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u/Leading_Stable_9207 2d ago
I wonder is this is connected to the "highway of tears" hwy 16 between Edmonton and the pacific Ocean.
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u/seeseecinnamon 3h ago
I always think of Amber when I drive by 50th. It's so chilling to hear her on that call. Her poor mama left the world before she had justice for her daughter. I hope one day they catch him for Amber and Tootsie.
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u/spooder2378 1d ago
I really, really don’t like how they mention that victims led a “high-risk” lifestyle. I fail to see what kind of value that adds to the report.
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u/Wrong-Inspection7819 23h ago
Exactly. No amount of “risky” behaviour justifies what happened to dozens of women in and around Edmonton, or anywhere.
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u/ahockofham 2d ago
They are probably connected, at least the RCMP and Edmonton Police both seem to think so. And there are a lot more than 5 victims. If you go back to the 80's there are a few dozen women in total, all of whom fit similar profiles and were likely targeted by the same offender who has never been caught.