Eva Dvorak and Patricia "Patsy" McQueen were 14 years old when they died in the Calgary area in February 1976. Melissa Rehorek, who was 20, died in September of the same year. Barbara MacLean, who was 19, died in February 1977. For nearly fifty years the four deaths stayed unsolved. On May 17, 2024, the Alberta RCMP and the Calgary Police Service announced that DNA evidence had led police to name one man, Gary Allen Srery, as responsible for all four.
Srery was never charged. He had died in an Idaho prison in 2011, serving a life sentence for an unrelated offence, so no court has heard or tested the attribution. What courts found against him in other cases is distinct from what police announced about Calgary.
Eva Dvorak and Patricia McQueen were friends, both 14 and both in Calgary in February 1976. Eva's middle name was Violet and Patricia's Marie, and Patricia was known to everyone as Patsy.
Their families described them in statements released on the day of the 2024 announcement. Patsy's family said she was one of 11 children and would have turned 62 on the day the statement was issued. They remembered a typical teenager, full of life, adventurous and curious, who loved sports, music, singing and dancing, who was strong and independent and often made people laugh. She dreamed of traveling the world, and her family wondered whether she would have been a grandmother by now. Eva's family spoke of a bright smile and a bubbly personality that lit up any room. She was always dancing and singing and spent her free time with her sisters and cousins, swimming, roller skating and ice skating.
Eva's sister learned in the fall of 2022, after she called police herself, that the case had been reopened.
Melissa Rehorek was 20 when she died in September 1976. She had come to Calgary from Ontario. Her family described her in 2024 as fun-loving, adventurous and hard-working. She loved nature, had traveled to Banff and was curious to see more of Canada.
Barbara MacLean was 19 when she died in February 1977. She came from Inverness, Nova Scotia, and had been in Calgary about six months. In 2024 her family said the news brought "answers to questions that we've had to live with all these years." They described her as a daughter, sister, aunt, cousin and niece, thanked the police for their "relentless pursuit" of justice, and welcomed the use of scientific advances in policing.
The RCMP and the Calgary Police Service each held files on the deaths. In the years after 1977, investigators came to believe that one person was responsible for the Rehorek and MacLean cases. A list of suspects built by the RCMP over the decades held several hundred names.
Calgary police detectives became aware of a potential link in 2021 and were permitted to work with RCMP investigators, with support from Interpol and from Idaho State Police. In the end DNA evidence led police to name Srery, who by then had been dead for more than a decade. The cases of Eva and Patsy, reopened in 2022, were part of the same effort.
The announcement was made on Friday, May 17, 2024, at a news conference in Edmonton. Supt. David Hall, head of the Alberta RCMP serious crimes branch, said: "We are now announcing that we have linked four previously unsolved homicides from the 1970s." The Calgary Police Service held a separate briefing the same afternoon.
Hall said: "Identifying the perpetrator does not bring Eva, Patsy, Melissa or Barbara back." Insp. Breanne Brown of the Alberta RCMP told reporters: "We know that Srery's criminality spanned decades over multiple jurisdictions and numerous aliases," and said that the RCMP believed there were more victims. Insp. Forsen said the Calgary police review of its own outstanding homicide files found nothing that involved Srery. In the Calgary police account, his time in the city had been inconspicuous to police.
All four families issued statements. The McQueen family said: "Without them, we would still not know today what happened to our sister Patsy (Patricia) and her friend Eva." The Dvorak family said the news brought answers and closure. The MacLean family credited the work of police agencies and advances in science, and offered condolences to the other three families.
Because Srery died without being charged, the attribution stands as a police finding. The announcement did not come from a prosecution, and no court has ruled on it.
Srery was born in 1942 in Illinois, the first of three children. His family moved to California in the mid-1950s. The RCMP described him as a US citizen who had lived in Canada illegally.
His record in the United States began in the 1960s. In 1965 he was convicted of forcible rape in California. His record there also included kidnapping and burglary charges. In 1974 he left the United States after posting bail on a rape charge in California, and he entered Canada illegally.
He lived in Alberta from about 1975 to 1979, working casual jobs and using the names Willy Blackman and Rex Long. He then spent more than two decades in British Columbia, on the Sunshine Coast and in the Fraser Valley. The RCMP said it was still seeking information on his movements from 1979 onward in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Sunshine Coast.
In 1998 he was arrested in New Westminster, British Columbia. He was convicted of sexual assault there that year and served a five-year sentence. He was deported to the United States in 2003.
In Idaho, a jury found him guilty of rape, and on October 15, 2009, Judge Charles Hosack of the Kootenai County First District Court sentenced him, at age 67, to life in prison with parole eligibility after at least eight years. He died in 2011 in an Idaho prison, of natural causes, while serving that sentence.
The Alberta RCMP historical homicide unit asked the public for information. By May 22, 2024, Staff Sgt. Travis McKenzie said it had received seven tips, some about British Columbia files, and was already in contact with the detachments investigating them. By June 18, 2024, he said the unit had received "well over 50 specific tips" from Alberta, British Columbia and the United States, and that the team was "quite optimistic" it could solve at least one or two unsolved homicides.
The RCMP has said it believes there may be more victims. By June 2025, police had attributed no other killing to him.
Srery was never charged, tried or convicted of any of the four killings, and he cannot now be. What the public has is the police attribution of May 17, 2024, the DNA match announced with it, and the families' acceptance of it.
The announcement placed the four deaths in the 1970s, and the exact day of each death in 1976 and 1977 is not on record. The day of Srery's death in 2011 is likewise not on record.
1942: Srery born in Illinois.
Mid-1950s: His family moves to California.
1965: First conviction in California.
1974: Leaves the United States while on bail in California; enters Canada illegally.
About 1975 to 1979: Lives in the Calgary area.
February 1976: Eva Dvorak and Patricia McQueen, both 14, die in the Calgary area.
September 1976: Melissa Rehorek, 20, dies in the Calgary area.
February 1977: Barbara MacLean, 19, dies in the Calgary area.
1998: Arrested and convicted in New Westminster, British Columbia; five-year sentence.
2003: Srery is deported to the United States.
October 15, 2009: Sentenced to life in prison in Kootenai County, Idaho.
2011: Dies in an Idaho prison.
2021: Calgary police and the RCMP begin working together on a possible link.
May 17, 2024: The Alberta RCMP and the Calgary Police Service announce the attribution.
June 18, 2024: The RCMP reports more than 50 tips.