RCMP Watch

Patrick Brethour, Vancouver, B.C. (Globe and Mail) - Any stranger sticks out in tiny Cherryville, B.C., population 900, where the gas station doubles as the local liquor store.

But to the two clerks working at the Cherryville Emporium on Wednesday afternoon, the diminutive slow-speaking man who came in looking to cash in 10 beer cans stuck out more than most. “We noticed there was something odd about him right away,” said Deanna Holland, 44.

The man collected his dollar, bought cigarette rolling papers, and then sat outside the front of the store, where he apparently pilfered an ashtray before disappearing.

It was not until later, when the evening news started, that she realized that the man looked like Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, prime suspect in the stabbing deaths of his three children in Merritt on April 6. “His face came on and I said, ‘Oh my God, that is him,’ ” Ms. Holland said.

She phoned her co-worker, Wendy Mazu, and the two quickly concluded that the man they had seen was Mr. Schoenborn. After some hemming and hawing, Ms. Mazu phoned the RCMP, but didn’t volunteer her name or telephone number, and wasn’t asked, with her call becoming one of 250 that the police have received in the wake of the triple killings.

Ms. Mazu did, however, leave her contact information the next afternoon, when she phoned the Lumby detachment of the RCMP. But it was not until Saturday evening, two hours after CTV News broadcast her story, that police interviewed her in person. According to her, the officer who conducted that interview told her that her information had not been properly flagged. “My report fell through the cracks,” she said.

RCMP Constable Annie Linteau acknowledged the lapse yesterday, but said it was an isolated incident. “We’re not sure at this point how the tip did not get into the hands of Major Crime.”

She said investigators are now following up on the tip. None of the 190 purported sighting tips it has received, including the one in Cherryville, have been confirmed.
But the women’s description of the man does line up with the police description of Mr. Schoenborn: short, gaunt, balding and with a prominent facial scar. Plus, Mr. Schoenborn is a smoker.

The RCMP have already faced questions in the hunt for Mr. Schoenborn, including why they did not immediately launch a search for him after discovering the bodies of Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8, and Cordon, 5. Their mother, Darcie Clarke, had left them in Mr. Schoenborn’s care while she left their mobile home, police said.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, the head of criminal investigations in British Columbia, said on Friday the force’s first priority was to ensure that other people “that clearly were identifiable as being at possible risk” were protected.

Merritt residents have also criticized the force for waiting a day to warn them that Mr. Schoenborn was at large and dangerous.

However, the RCMP officer gave no indication that police believe it was Mr. Schoenborn that day in the store, more than 200 kilometres from Merritt.

Police have said little about where Mr. Schoenborn might be, other than that they believe he headed into the thick bush girding Merritt and that he brought along his dog, Van Gogh.

The man at the Emporium did not have a dog, although both of the clerks noted that it would be easy enough to tie up an animal to one of the trees surrounding the property.

Neither clerk saw a vehicle in the parking lot during the time the man was at the store.

Ms. Mazu, for one, believes that the man she thinks is Mr. Schoenborn is long gone. “I think he’s on his way somewhere.”