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Sate Park is one of the most beautiful
parks in the city of Vancouver. The
blend of ocean, forests, and scenic views
of English Bay, Vancouver Harbour, and
Burrard Inlet make for a picturesque and
breathtaking experience. Many park goers
enjoy picnics and family gatherings while
others walk, run, and ride their bikes along
the seawall.

But 67 years ago, Stanley Park would
become known for a more horrific reason.
It would be the site for one of Vancouver's
most infamous unsolved murder cases:
“Babes in the Woods.” On January 14,
1953, the skeletal remains of two children
(later identified as ages six and ten) would
be discovered near Beaver Lake by a
park employee named Albert Tong. He
was walking in the area when he stepped
on a patch of leaves that made an odd
crunching sound. Later, he returned to
the site and began to dig. He would soon
discover two skeletons. Located near the
remains were the following items: a lunch
box, a decomposed fur coat, deteriorated
pieces of children’s clothing, a woman's
penny loafer shoe (size 7 and a 1/2), two
aviation caps, and a layman's hatchet. Later,
that hatchet was found to be the murder
weapon.

The gruesome murders of two children
in Stanley Park made front page headlines
in the local newspapers. Pictures of the
clothing and other items from the crime
scene were spread across North America.
Missing persons cases were checked for any
matches all through the continent. Plaster
casts were created of the children’s faces
based on their skull shape. In the 1980s, the
bones of the children would end up in an
exhibit at the Vancouver Police Museum.

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» Vancouver's ‘Babes in the Woods’-murder case remains unsolved

Brandon Yip
Senior Columnist

 

Yet seven decades after the discovery
of the two children’s remains, the case
remains unsolved. It was determined that
the children were murdered in 1947. The
children were originally identified by a
medical examiner as a boy anda girl. A
theory was established that the boy and
girl were murdered by their mother.

Yet the identities of the mother,
boy, and girl remain unknown. For
decades, this was the assumption
investigators would rely on.

In 1996, unsolved homicide
unit detective Brian Honeybourn—
of the Vancouver Police
Department—took over the Babes
in the Woods case. Honeybourn
is very familiar with the case. “Well,
| was the first detective sergeant
in the unsolved provincial unsolved
homicide unit from the Vancouver police,”
Honeybourn said in a phone interview
with the Other Press. “| had the luxury
of being able to pick and choose what
cases | would look at because | would be
assisting the detectives in my unit with
their investigations, but | wasn’t carrying a
case load. Now, | was born in 1947, | grew
up in New Westminster, and | remember
every few years the media would resurrect
[stories] about the ‘Babes in the Woods.’ |
remember my parents talking about it. So,
| thought I'd have a look at the case. There
were several viable leads that didn’t go
anywhere, but that’s why | got involved in
it. There had been considerable amount of
work done on the files by others prior to me
looking at it,” said Honeybourn.

In 1998, Honeybourn would make
a remarkable discovery after taking the
children’s remains to Dr. David Sweet, a

. mm |
And-{school records] ‘are sealed for 100 years. Why anybody
- would seal records for 100 years is beyond me.

 

  
    
   
 

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STANLEY PARK
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prominent
and now

retired forensic
dentist at UBC.
After extracting
DNA from the children’s *
teeth, he revealed that the

two children were both boys—

not a boy and a girl. In addition,

the boys were brothers that had the

same mother, yet had different fathers.
Honeybourn said the findings hurt the
investigation. “[It was] very damaging, very
damaging,” Honeybourn said. “Because
the focus was on a boy and girl, pretty well
[at] the onset and they were misidentified

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