John Martin Crawford was convicted of killing four Indigenous women on the Canadian prairies: one in Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1981, and three near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1992. The first death brought a manslaughter conviction and a 10-year sentence. The three later deaths brought convictions in 1996 for one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder, and a life sentence that he was still serving when he died in the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon on December 16, 2020.
The case drew little notice outside Saskatchewan. A Saskatoon journalist, Warren Goulding, asked why, and the book he published in 2001, Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference, argued that race, geography, incompetence and economics all played a part. A reviewer for the Canadian Book Review Annual, Christine Schmidt, wrote that limited coverage had left Crawford "a virtually anonymous figure."
Mary Jane Serloin was 35 when she died in Lethbridge in 1981. Her family lived in Brocket, Alberta. Crawford was convicted of manslaughter in her death. Windspeaker's review of Goulding's book, published in 2001, reported that he was sentenced on June 16, 1982, to 10 years, and that the sentencing judge described his "callous disregard" for her as one of the most troubling parts of the case.
Her relatives felt shut out of the process. Her sister told Goulding that the family was not kept informed: "They didn't even have the decency to let me know what was going on."
Reports differ on how long Crawford served. Global News, reporting his death in 2020, said he served seven years of the 10-year sentence. The Windspeaker review said he served five, and a 2016 feature by the journalist Laura Robinson in Truthdig said he was released five years after the 1981 conviction. The review placed his release in 1989.
By 1990 Crawford was in Saskatoon, where Truthdig reported he was sentenced that year on a soliciting charge. According to the Windspeaker review's summary of Goulding's research, he often drove around town in his mother's car, sometimes accompanied by a man he had met in prison, who the book says witnessed or took part in some of the crimes. No charge against that man in the deaths was reported.
The same review set out a series of run-ins with police in 1992. In May 1992 a woman reported to police that Crawford had assaulted her, and his mother posted $4,000 bail for him on June 18. In October 1992 he was charged with attempted murder in the beating of a Saskatoon man; how that charge ended has never been reported. He spent most of 1993 in the Saskatoon Correctional Centre for another assault. Two other women later told police of attacks by Crawford and his companion in 1992.
In 1992, three young First Nations women from Saskatchewan communities disappeared.
Calinda Waterhen was 22 and came from Loon Lake, Saskatchewan. Her father went to the RCMP about her absence in May 1993 and again in October 1994. According to the Windspeaker review, he was told that she was somewhere in Saskatchewan and that her health card was still being used.
Eva Taysup was from the Yellow Quill reserve. Windspeaker gave her age as 28 when she was identified in 1995; Global News and 650 CKOM gave it as 30 when they reported Crawford's death in 2020. Her family had reported her missing about two years before she was identified. Her mother and sister were among the relatives who attended a 2003 ceremony honoring Goulding for his book.
Shelley Napope was 16, the youngest of the three. Windspeaker described her in 1995 as being from Duck Lake; her aunts said in 2003 that the family had driven seven hours from Mistawasis First Nation to see Goulding honored. Her family, too, had reported her missing about two years before she was identified. "It took three years before Shelley's body was found," one of her aunts told Alberta Sweetgrass. She said police had given the family "false statements and false hope."
In early October 1994 the first of the three women was found outside Saskatoon, and over about the next two weeks the RCMP found the other two.
The three women could not at first be identified. Police turned to Ernie Walker, an anthropologist at the University of Saskatchewan, and composite sketches of the women's faces were released to the media across the province and nationally, including through Windspeaker. An RCMP corporal, Jerry Walker, credited the anthropologist's work: "He was the catalyst for the identification."
Eva Taysup was identified through dental records after an acquaintance called the RCMP to say she had not been seen in several years. Shelley Napope was identified after the composite drawings were released in November. Calinda Waterhen was the first of the three to be found and the last to be identified. Her father had made his second report to the RCMP the same month her remains were found; the RCMP made her identification public in January 1995.
Windspeaker reported that the investigation took about four months, involved both the RCMP and Saskatoon city police, and drew more than 3,000 tips. "Three months ago we had non-identified remains and no leads," an RCMP crime prevention coordinator, identified as Wilde, told the paper. "Now they're identified and we have a suspect."
Crawford was arrested on January 19, 1995, and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Windspeaker described him as a 32-year-old Saskatoon man and reported that he was in custody.
According to the Windspeaker review of Goulding's book, the RCMP kept Crawford under surveillance for four months in 1994. During that period, the review said, he attacked a woman. Officers gave conflicting evidence at the 1995 preliminary hearing about whether she was hurt, and police later said they had not known she was at risk and had held back a public warning in order to build their case. Nearly six years later she filed a claim against the RCMP alleging negligence.
Crawford was tried in 1996 for the murders of Eva Taysup, Shelley Napope and Calinda Waterhen. He was convicted of first-degree murder on one count and of second-degree murder on the other two. Which of the three deaths was the first-degree count has never been made public. Correctional Service Canada recorded his life sentence for first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder as beginning on May 30, 1996; Global News described it as three concurrent life sentences.
Shelley Napope's aunt later told Alberta Sweetgrass that the family had received no visit from the media in all that time: they "never even once took the time to come and ask us," she said.
The trial judge, David Wright, spoke at length about Crawford when he passed sentence, according to Truthdig. Wright listed the reasons he believed Crawford had picked the three women, beginning with their youth, the fact that they were women and the fact that they were Native. He said Crawford "seemed determined to destroy every vestige of their humanity," and found that "the accused has shown no remorse, absolutely none, no regrets." He also told the court that "we know from the tapes that he laughed about the killings."
In 2001, the Windspeaker review reported, Crawford was serving his sentence at the penitentiary in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Schmidt's review said Goulding's book follows the case from the RCMP investigation through the appeals process. The result of any appeal has not been reported.
The prosecutor, Terry Hinz, told Goulding he saw no reason why the Paul Bernardo case "should have received more publicity than the John Martin Crawford case."
Goulding's book was published in 2001 by Fifth House of Calgary. Reviewing it for Windspeaker, Joan Taillon compared it to Conspiracy of Silence, the account of the killing of Helen Betty Osborne, a 19-year-old student, in The Pas, Manitoba, whose killers took 16 years to reach trial. Goulding wrote that only Clifford Olson had been more deadly among Canadian serial killers, and he blamed the silence around the case on a mix of race, geography, incompetence and economics.
In 2003 the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women gave Goulding a social justice award for the book. Relatives of Eva Taysup and Shelley Napope attended the ceremony in Edmonton. Shelley's aunt said Goulding had been "very respectful to the family." "It's been eight years, but it still hurts," she said. The institute's president and founder, Muriel Stanley Venne, said: "The real awareness will begin when they stop killing our Aboriginal women." Goulding told the paper that his aim "was to make this book a tribute to the women and not in doing a true crime story."
When Crawford died, Goulding told 650 CKOM that his thoughts were "(with) the families of the victims." He also criticized how the women had been portrayed: "The media was quick to lump these girls into a category," he said, describing how the press had grouped them by assumptions about their lives. Of Crawford, he said: "I don't know if there was a good side to this man, at all."
The three women's names became part of the wider movement to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Saskatchewan. At a 2005 walk in Prince Albert to remember victims of violence, Corrine Fiddler told Saskatchewan Sage that few people knew about the case. "To me, it's unbelievable that so many people would not know about a serial killer that was so close to our community," she said.
At a 2006 gathering in Saskatoon for missing and murdered women, one of Shelley Napope's aunts spoke about the pain that rumors circulating in their community had caused the family.
Laura Robinson's 2016 Truthdig feature on missing and murdered Indigenous women returned to the case. She reported that a 2004 report by the Saskatchewan Commission on First Nations and Métis People and Justice Reform did not mention Crawford's victims.
Crawford died on December 16, 2020, while in the custody of Correctional Service Canada as an inmate of the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon. He was 58. The service said his next of kin had been notified, that it would review the circumstances, as it does with every death in custody, and that police and the coroner would be notified. The cause of death was not released.
How many women: 650 CKOM, reporting his death in 2020, described Crawford as responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women between 1985 and 1995. The courts' findings cover one death in 1981 and three in 1992.
Time served for manslaughter: Global News said seven years of 10; the Windspeaker review and Truthdig said five.
Eva Taysup's age: 28 in Windspeaker in 1995; 30 in Global News and 650 CKOM in 2020.
A 1994 death: In March 2008 Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation reported that the RCMP was asking for public help in the unsolved death of an Aboriginal woman found near Saskatoon on October 13, 1994. The report noted that Crawford, though convicted of other murders, was never found guilty of hers, while some believed the signs pointed to him. He was not charged in that death, and it is not one of the killings of which he was convicted.
Other attacks: Goulding's book, as Windspeaker summarized it, describes attacks on several women who survived, and an attempted murder charge in October 1992 involving a Saskatoon man. Their legal outcomes were not reported.
1981: Mary Jane Serloin, 35, dies in Lethbridge, Alberta. Crawford is convicted of manslaughter.
June 16, 1982: Sentenced to 10 years.
1989: Released.
May 1992: A woman reports to police that Crawford assaulted her; his mother posts bail for him on June 18.
1992: Eva Taysup, Shelley Napope and Calinda Waterhen disappear near Saskatoon.
October 1992: Charged with attempted murder in the beating of a Saskatoon man (outcome not reported).
1993: Spends most of the year in the Saskatoon Correctional Centre for an assault. Calinda Waterhen's father reports her absence to the RCMP in May.
1994: RCMP surveillance of Crawford for four months.
Early October 1994: The first of the three women's remains is found outside Saskatoon; the other two follow within about two weeks. Calinda Waterhen's father reports her absence again the same month.
November 1994: Shelley Napope is identified after composite drawings are released.
January 1995: The RCMP announces Calinda Waterhen's identification.
January 19, 1995: Crawford, 32, is arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
1995: Preliminary hearing.
1996: Tried and convicted of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
May 30, 1996: Life sentence begins.
2001: Warren Goulding publishes Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference.
2003: Goulding receives a social justice award from the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women.
March 2008: The RCMP appeals for help in an unsolved 1994 death near Saskatoon; Crawford is not charged.
December 16, 2020: Crawford dies in custody at the Regional Psychiatric Centre, Saskatoon, at 58.