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More than a hundred years after her murder, the long-standing mystery of Saskatoon's infamous woman in the well has finally been resolved. In a significant announcement made during a press conference on September 29th of 2025, just last month, the Saskatoon Police Service revealed that they have successfully uncovered the identity of the woman and brought closure to one of the city's oldest and most haunting cold cases.
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Now, let's get back to the regular program. As many of my usual and longtime viewers already know, the main thing that we talk about anymore here on my channel is the method of genetic genealogy. It's the main method of testing that's been used in a lot of these cold cases to help identify Jane and John Doe's and also identify killers. Today though, we discuss the oldest case in Canada that's been solved by using the method of genetic genealogy. It's very interesting and this is a recent update in a very old case. So, let's get into it.
This mystery began on June 29th of 2006 when construction workers were excavating old fuel storage tanks at a former gas station at the west corner of 108th Street and Central Avenue in Sutherland, a neighborhood in the Canadian city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. What began as a standard project soon took a disturbing turn. During this excavation, the crew hit a well, and when they hit this well, a highly decomposed human skull rolled out. The Saskatoon Police Service quickly responded to the scene and launched a full-scale investigation into the shocking discovery.
In this well, they would locate a barrel. And as ABC15 described it, this barrel was like a time capsule. And everything looked to be roughly a hundred years old. Inside this barrel, they found a burlap sack. And in the sack, they located the rust of the human remains looked to be dismembered, a broken gold necklace, bottles, and a man's vest and trousers.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Ernest Walker was also called to the scene and said that due to the mix of water and gasoline in the ground, the body was well preserved. He went on to say, "My colleagues and I used heavy equipment, did some excavation around the well, and took it apart board by board. Unknown to the individual that dropped it, a piece of cribbing of the well had broken loose and blocked the barrel from going all the way down to the bottom. Uh once I got there, um we could see this was a work site. This was a construction site, a large pit, heavy equipment. They in their excavations had hit an old well with wood cribbing and the way it was described to me is a human cranium uh came out of that well rolled down an embankment and that started the whole process."
The remains were believed to have belonged to a woman and the remains of this woman were still dressed and had been wearing a high-collared blouse, a tight-fitted tailored jacket, a very long skirt and square-toed boots. Authorities called in a clothing and textile historian named Carol Wakabayashi to help them see how old the clothing could be. And this historian stated they believe the clothing dated back to sometime between 1910 to 1920. We will eventually find out in this video that they were correct with this assumption.
There was no form of identification on this woman or any clues found in this barrel or in the sack or down in the well that gave investigators an idea of who she could have been in life. Like I said, there were also bottles found with the remains. And an expert claimed that these bottles dated back to somewhere between 1916 to 1918.
Dr. Ernie Walker performed a forensic analysis on the recovered hair, tissue samples, and remaining body parts of the woman. This provided investigators with their first real clues about the identity of the victim. Dr. Walker concluded that the remains belonged to a Caucasian woman, approximately 5'1" in tall, and between 25 to 35 years old at the time of her death. Her hair, which ranged in color from light brown to reddish tones, along with certain genetic markers, indicated that she was likely of Irish descent. Though the analysis offered valuable information, it still left authorities without a name. Only a profile of a woman whose story remained hidden beneath the surface for nearly a century.
Now, based on the condition and quality of the woman's clothing, jewelry, and dental work, investigators believed she likely came from a middle-class or possibly upper-class background. Her attire appeared to be well-made and not something typically worn by someone of limited means. And the presence of dental work, particularly procedures that would have been expensive or uncommon at the time, further supported the theory that she had access to a certain level of financial stability and care.
Authorities though feared based on how old this case was that they would never identify this unknown woman, a woman who based on the manner in which her body was disposed, like I said before, looked to be a victim of homicide. Her autopsy stated that she died under suspicious circumstances. Yes, this woman was believed to be from the early 1900s, but this was 2006 that they found her remains. We have to remember that. And although it's a slim chance, children of this woman could have still been alive at that time. If she had children out there, they would have been quite older at this time in their 80s or 90s, but they could have gone their entire lives not knowing what happened to their mother. Or possibly there was a grandchild out there somewhere who always heard the story of their grandmother who had mysteriously vanished and they always wanted to know what happened because I don't know about you but for me I am extremely interested in my ancestry and I have about a thousand people or so mapped out on my family tree but I through that have been able to locate some family that I never knew existed and they've shared a lot that they've been able to uncover about my lineage. And there's a lot of tragedy and I'm sure there's a lot of tragedy in a lot of your families as well. And no, we never got to meet these people, but it's still important. Whoever this woman was, she had to have some family out there somewhere, someone related to her, even if they had no idea who she was.
Now, at the time this woman would have been alive and walking this earth, Sutherland was a bustling railroad town situated on the outskirts of the rapidly expanding city of Saskatoon. The well she was found in had been at the site of a boarding house called the Shore Hotel. The Shore Hotel was a well-known local establishment that provided lodging for travelers passing through the area, many of whom were connected to the nearby railway line. This detail added a significant layer of complexity to the investigation, as it meant the unidentified woman could have originated from virtually anywhere in the country. She may have simply been passing through Sutherland when her fate placed her in the wrong place at the wrong time, crossing paths with someone who meant her harm. The transient nature of the town's visitors made it far more difficult for investigators to trace her origins or establish any local connections.
The Shore Hotel was finished in May of 1912 by William W. Shore. About his hotel, Shore told the Saskatoon Daily Star in January of 1914, "I have a good business here, which has been growing by leaps and bounds. Since the advent of the street cars, the receipts have doubled." It seems that the Shore Hotel gained a reputation for being a bit unsafe because on January 14th, 1914, the Sutherland Town Council requested that the city of Saskatoon build a separate shelter. The council stated, quote, "It is not conducive to the morals of the community to have ladies and children awaiting the arrival of cars in the hotel."
According to sasktoday.ca, prior to 1914, when water mains and sewer lines were extended from Saskatoon to Sutherland, water was either delivered by horse-drawn tanks to barrels in the kitchens of the town's homes or hauled from wells. The well on the Shore Hotel site may or may not have been in active use at the time of the woman's murder. The Shore Hotel changed ownership three times during 1914 at a cost of $50,000 for each sale. The hotel's value plummeted when prohibition was declared by the provincial government in 1915. The town of Sutherland took the property in 1919 when the taxes weren't paid. In the fall of 1927, the town advertised in the Star Phoenix that the old shore had been declared a public nuisance. Tenders were sought for the demolition of the hotel in November 1927.
So, the woman we're discussing today was believed to be thrown down the well in the barrel while the Shore Hotel was up and running. It made many wonder who looked into this case, what was her connection to the hotel. Had she been a maid at the hotel? Had she been in a relationship with someone who worked at the hotel and they took her life and decided to use the well nearby as the way to dispose of her remains? Had she possibly been a sex worker who was hired by someone working the railroad who had been staying at the hotel and they were the one who took her life? There were definitely far more questions than answers.
Although this case was about a hundred years old, authorities still cared and they had a clay bust and two reconstruction photos of the woman made up by artists and they spread these images around to see if anyone possibly knew who she was. Maybe she looked like someone in someone's old family photo album. Or possibly someone would look at the images and say, "Hey, that kind of looks like me. Maybe I'm related to her." There were about 30 calls that came into the department, one even as far as France, from people believing this woman could be their mother, grandmother, or aunt. But none of these seemed to get them closer to identifying her. She wasn't related to any of these hopeful people who called in.
Law enforcement even developed a DNA profile for the woman years ago, but at that time, no matches were found. When it comes to her remains, she was laid to rest back in a cemetery in 2009. But still, even after burying her, investigators tried to keep her case alive the best that they could with the passing of time.
Things didn't really start coming together for this case until 2 years ago in 2023 when they decided to partner with a company that specializes in genetic genealogy. That company is Autosomal Inc., a lab based in Woodlands, Texas. For those who are unfamiliar, genetic genealogy is the practice of using DNA testing combined with traditional genealogical methods like historical records and family trees to trace ancestry, identify relatives, and solve family mysteries. By analyzing specific markers in a person's DNA and comparing them to others in large databases, genetic genealogy helps reveal biological connections and lineage that might not be documented otherwise. It's become a powerful tool for both personal family history research and forensic investigations like the one we're talking about today.
Scientists at Autosomal successfully extracted DNA from the remains and created a detailed DNA profile. According to Autosomal, the profile helped generate new investigative leads which were then shared with the police service to aid in the ongoing investigation. Saskatoon Police Service Sergeant Darren Funk during the press conference stated that the main breakthrough in this case came in June of this year of 2025. Funk reached out to the Toronto Police Service and requested their assistance in reviewing the decades-old cold case of the woman in the well. With the information discovered from Autosomal, it was then time for authorities to track down possible living relatives and continue the investigation from there.
Responding to the request, Toronto investigators launched a follow-up inquiry that eventually led them to individuals who could potentially be related to the unidentified woman. To confirm any biological connection, police obtained reference DNA samples from these individuals and compared them to the DNA profile that they had developed from the Jane Doe's remains. In addition to the genetic analysis, investigators also delved into historical records and city archives, piecing together documents, family histories, and contextual information from the time period. This combination of modern forensic science and traditional investigative work played a crucial role in narrowing down the woman's identity and finally bringing clarity to this long-running mystery.
After nearly two decades of investigation and over a century of mystery, the identity of the woman in the well was finally uncovered. Authorities confirmed that her name in life was Alice Spence, born Alice Burke in September of 1881 in the state of Michigan. She was a woman of Irish ancestry, like they believed, and was roughly 35 years old when she was murdered. Unfortunately, there are no current photos of her available at this time to share.
To sum things up, in policing, we often talk about collaboration in investigations, but I can say with certainty that it doesn't get more collaborative than this file. From police to forensic anthropologists and other experts in their field to historians to genealogists to living relatives, this investigation was a collaborative effort that spanned close to two decades to solve. Alice was never forgotten about and against what seemed like impossible odds, investigators continued to scour every avenue of investigation that was available to them at the time. Our perseverance paid off and through many friendships and the advances of technology, our woman in the well was given her name and Alice Spence's family was given the chance to know a little bit more about her. Thank you.
Through records, investigators were able to discover that Alice was one of five children and her family had moved to Duluth, Minnesota in 1902 where she worked as a seamstress and clerk. There she met a man named Charles Spence and they married on August 1st of 1904. The two went on to have a daughter named Idella two years later. According to a 1910 census, Idella was four years old at this time. In 1913, the Spence family relocated to the town of Sutherland. Just a few years after settling there, the family faced a heartbreaking tragedy. On February 13th, 1916, Alice gave birth to their second daughter, who sadly passed away the same day that she was born. The infant was laid to rest in a local cemetery. Her grave is marked simply as baby girl Spence.
After 1916, there are absolutely no records for Alice Spence. The next set of information that we have is from 2 years later in 1918 when the Spence family home burned down. No one at the time was inside of the home, so there were no fatalities. Then in a 1921 census, which was 3 years after the fire and 5 years after we don't know what happened to Alice, it lists Charles, then 37 years old, 15-year-old Idella, the housekeeper, and the housekeeper's son. Then we know that on May 16th of 1923, Charles passed away from a reported heart attack. Idella was 17 years old at this time and was officially an orphan.
Descendants of Alice's were notified of the identification and they were all completely shocked. Three generations of Alice's family though attended the press conference. Alice's great-granddaughter Cindy Camp stated the whole thing was a total shock. We didn't know anything about Alice's circumstances. My grandmother, Idella, who was Alice's daughter, never spoke about her family. She was orphaned at the age of 17. And like so many who have experienced such loss, she chose not to dwell on the past. But for decades, we had no idea of the incredible story that surrounded her mother, Alice. Learning about Alice's life and the way she had been hidden away from history for so long is both surreal and emotional for our family. And while this has been an emotional journey, we are so grateful to the many individuals who have worked tirelessly over the years to give the woman in the well her name back. Cindy said that her grandmother went on to pass away 30 years ago in 1995. Currently, according to ABC15 News, Cindy Camp and her family are working on getting a death certificate so they can secure the permit to properly bury Alice.
Saskatoon police have confirmed that they have identified a suspect in the murder of Alice Spence even over a hundred years later. However, they are not releasing the individual's name or any further details, noting that the suspect has long since passed away with no possibility of prosecution. Authorities have officially closed Alice Spence's case and do not intend to pursue any further legal action. Now, while justice in the traditional sense is no longer possible, police say they are satisfied in having finally uncovered the truth behind one of the city's oldest and like I said at the beginning, truly most haunting mysteries. As DNA solves.com states, this case is a reminder that every piece of forensic evidence has the potential to unlock long-awaited answers.
I want to thank you all for taking a little bit of time out of your day to hear about this incredible update in this case that is over a century old. I do have to give a shout out to a subscriber of mine who left a request in the comment section of my last video for me to cover this case because as soon as I read the comment I kind of stepped back a little bit and I was like wait I have not heard of this identification. So, I looked into it and I knew that I wanted to cover it here in October because as many of you already know, in October I do Oldies October where I cover very, very, very old cases. So, thank you to that subscriber. And like always, leave some love down in the comments below because you never know who may stumble across this video. My heart goes out to Alice's family who are alive today. No, they didn't get to meet her and have a connection with her, but it's still family and Alice did not deserve what happened to her. And I couldn't imagine sitting here and knowing that my great-grandmother was murdered and there's nothing that I can do about it and there's no justice and I just I can't I can't imagine that.
Before I go, I do have to say a huge tremendous thank you to everyone who has been buying some of the merch that I recently released. It means so much. I designed everything. I know they're not the most extravagant, coolest, hippest designs ever, but I designed them all. And there are a few designs that have to do with me and my channel, but overall they are very advocacy based. That's what I wanted them to be is more on the advocacy side and to represent caring about these cases. It's just awesome to know that people are going to be wearing shirts and hoodies and putting pins on their tote bags and wearing hats and stickers on wherever we put stickers. I don't know where we put stickers, but it it just it just means a lot.
With all that being said, I hope you all have an amazing rest of your day wherever you are. Stay safe like always, and I will hopefully see you in the next one. Bye.
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