THE PAULS FAMILY MURDER MYSTERY
In the 1950s, Vancouver, British Columbia was a bustling small town just starting on its way to becoming the metropolis it is today. There were no skyscrapers. People knew their neighbors. Parents assumed the streets were safe and many left their children to wander and play outside for as long as they liked. For many, Vancouver was like a small paradise in the northwest—that is, until a triple murder shocked and terrified adults and children alike. Things would never be the same, mostly because we still don’t know who committed this crime. This week on Out of the Past: The Pauls Family murder.
The Pauls were an energetic family of three. Dorothy Pauls was an only child who was in the sixth grade at Walter Moberly School. Her father, David, like her mother, Helen, had both immigrated from Russia to Canada as teenagers. Once they settled in Vancouver, David found work in the downtown warehouse for Woodwards. Helen worked in a sausage shop on East Hastings Street.
The Pauls’ social interactions mostly came from the community of their Mennonite Church. They were devout members, attending every event. Many of the other members of their church were immigrants or came from immigrant families.
David Pauls would leave his home at 11:30p.m. on days when Helen worked her late shift so he could arrive in time to meet her as she got off her bus. This was what he planned on doing on June 10, 1958. He opened the door to begin his short walk. Out of nowhere, a man appeared before him, shot him in the head, and took his keys. The assailant left David for dead and entered the house. The house was only occupied by one person now: little Dorothy Pauls.
Dorothy was upstairs in her bed, asleep. Nobody knows exactly what transpired between Dorothy and her assailant. All we know is that by the time her mother Helen arrived, Dorothy had been murdered. She had been bludgeoned to death. The murder weapon was never found.
After Dorothy was dead, the assailant went downstairs and moved David Pauls’ body to the basement, where he shot him twice more. It is assumed that David was only injured by the first gunshot up on the front porch. The killer brought him inside to finish the murder, perhaps because he was making noise.
It is said that the killer then went back upstairs where he removed Dorothy’s pajama bottoms. He took them off her and laid them beside the bed where she lay bleeding.
Helen Pauls arrived a few minutes later. Witnesses had seen her running in the rain from the bus stop. She was undoubtedly upset that David never made it to pick her up. It is unknown how much Helen learned about the fates of her daughter and husband before she was attacked in the front hallway. The assailant attacked her with presumably the same instrument he’d used on Dorothy, and also shot her with the .22 caliber pistol he’d used on David.
The police looked into every angle they could imagine. They discussed robbery as a motive, seeing that things were stolen, including David’s wallet, keys, and car.
A far more popular theory was that the assailant was a pedophile whose real target was Dorothy.
Another theory people gossiped about was the idea that their murder was somehow tied to their Russian roots.
I’ll address this theory first. I find it highly unlikely. These were people who had defected from the Soviet Union years earlier. They anglicized their names. They tried very hard to fit into Canadian culture. None of the sources I’ve read who’ve spoken about this theory actually talk about the theory coherently: what side the Pauls were supposedly on, who their enemies were, etc. To me, it doesn’t fit. They were assimilated immigrants. Stalin had been dead for five years and the madness of his regime had calmed. I don’t really know what people are proposing, but if they’re suggesting that the CCCP had these people murdered, it think that’s a very far-fetched theory. I don’t know what interest Khrushchev could have had in eliminating people who immigrated to Canada decades before. Many people saw the lack of cooperation with church members during the investigation as a bad sign, but you have to remember, a lot of these people were immigrants, many from countries where the police are very dangerous. Someone who’s dealt with the KGB all their life isn’t likely to cooperate with any sort of law enforcement. They feel like their safety is at risk.
The robbery theory isn’t a terrible one, especially since David Pauls’ automobile was stolen. What happened there exactly? Were authorities never able to recover the car? How far could the assailant have possibly made it between the time of the murders and the time police began looking for a car? Could police departments in Canada work together to put up roadblocks and APBs to find this vehicle? It seems like that’s definitely what would have happened today, but I’m not sure what procedure was like in the 1950s, especially in Canada. I’ve read in old articles that a stolen vehicle that was not the Pauls’ was recovered just a few blocks away. Police determined this had nothing to do with the case, however.
Since things were stolen, we can obviously say that the assailant took advantage of his position as predator and made off with some valuables. I really doubt that robbery was the motive. If it was, more things would have been taken. Not to mention that most people who are breaking into a home to rob it are not willing to kill children in order to get what they want.
I think the pedophile theory is the most plausible. It seems very clear to me that the killer knew exactly who was inside of the house. He’d probably been following them or stalking them for some time. He knew that if he got rid of David the moment he got there, he could spend a good while with Dorothy before Ellen returned from work. Something had to have gone wrong, though: he had to move David. We’ll never know exactly why unless we’re actually able to speak to the perpetrator, and even if he was in his twenties at the time of the crime, he would be in his eighties today.
Some insist that it wasn’t a pedophile attack, as there was no evidence of sexual assault. To this, I would remind you that there are many, many ways a person can be sexually abused and even assaulted that don’t leave marks—ways that don’t involve any penetration. One of the biggest pieces of evidence supporting this theory was that a neighbor had spotted a young man around the house earlier in the day. In some articles, I’ve seen this person referred to as a possible “peeping tom.” In the original article in the Province, they describe the person as “a young boy,” and this confuses me a bit. Was it a possible perpetrator? Or was some kid playing in their yard? It makes a huge difference, but unfortunately so much time has passed that it’s difficult to verify eye-witness testimony, which is often flawed anyway.
Many things are said with certainty about this case, but there are plenty of areas where certainty eludes us. A big question that I have is: how do we know that the assailant removed Dorothy’s pants post mortem? And even more, why do articles insist that he killed Dorothy, went down and moved David, then came back up to remove her pajama bottoms? I can’t actually find anything online about how law enforcement deduced this. What if things happened in a different order? What if the assailant ordered Dorothy to remove her pants before she was even murdered, and he returned to her room to stage them later? I can only assume that police came to their conclusion through analyzing footprints and blood transfer: maybe her father’s blood was transferred to her pajama bottoms, and that’s why they made the call, but I think there are a number of imaginable timelines in which he could have transferred the blood to clothing at any other time during the attack.
This is an unspeakable tragedy. Dorothy was only in the sixth grade. Her teachers and classmates were devastated by the event. They spoke about how she seemed so happy the day she was murdered. The children at Walter Moberly school described her as quiet and smart. This tragedy disturbed the citizens of Vancouver to their very cores. Support from the community was plentiful, but it didn’t make a difference in bringing the assailant to justice.
This is a cold case, but Vancouver hasn’t entirely given up. They've reviewed the case as recently as 2015. If you have any information, their tip line is always open. If you want to submit an anonymous tip, you can always call Crime Stoppers. They take your tip and keep your identity 100% anonymous. I hope this case is solved someday. I am unclear on whether they have any biological evidence they can move forward with, but seeing as how the Vancouver PD hasn’t abandoned it entirely, I hope they have something that’s keeping hope alive.
If you want to make a charitable donation to an organization that helps the people affected by the kinds of tragedies we talk about on this channel, follow the link to my website, where there is a list of charities where your dollar can really make a difference.
We retell these stories so these lives are not forgotten, and also, to move people to action. The same things go on today that went on fifty or 100 years ago. I urge you to do what you can to make a difference.
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