a narrow wedge of property between the highway and a creek. The shack consisted of one room with a lean-to extension on the side where he parked his old car. The size and location of the property ensured that no others lived near him. Over the years he had closed the back end of the lean-to and put on a pair of hinged doors at the front, allowing him to get his old car in and out with some difficulty. The shack was heated by a light metal air-tight stove which also served for any cooking that he did. The wood for the stove was piled on the creek side of the shack, where it was handy to the door and kept out of the rain by the overhang of the metal roof. Every piece of wood was fitted into the pile perfectly; each square-sawn end was not more or less than one quarter of an inch different from the next. There was no electrical service to the shack; the only source of artificial light was a glass kerosene lamp. After about twenty years of this frugal living, Petre had saved some money. His bank records showed that he had a balance of nearly seven thousand dollars around the time he first met the three prospectors.
Petre corresponded with a niece in his homeland and occasionally received newspapers or clippings from there, which he stacked neatly on a stand beside his army-cot bed. The letters from his niece indicated that he had a dream of returning to Czechoslovakia for an extended visit. He wanted to entertain her and her friends and travel with them to all the places he remembered as a young man. It seemed the only thing delaying this dream trip was that costs were constantly increasing at a greater rate than his savings. If he could somehow double those savings, he would be able to travel and enjoy himself before old age left him unable to do so.
The three promoters became close friends with Petre almost immediately. One or more of them was always with him when he was not working. They introduced him to prospecting and helped him get a free miner’s license, which entitled him to stake and register a mining claim in the province. No doubt they told him how easy it would be to find the ore vein of all their dreams and become wealthy almost overnight. They helped him locate, stake and register a mineral claim. Petre’s claim lay only a few yards off the main highway just outside Nelson. They took him on their travels around the region, showed him claims they had registered and told him of the great potential of these properties—given the necessary investment for development. Petre was made to feel very fortunate to have met this trio of kindly and generous men.
It was just before the onset of winter that the three con-men made their final pitch to Petre and made off with his savings. The three drifted away for winter as they always had, leaving Petre to brood about his foolish error. Petre sat quietly in his shack by the creek and worried about his loss. His anger grew with each passing day, and he gradually formulated a plan to even the score.
In the early spring of the following year, Petre contacted one of the three promoters. They had an amiable conversation. Petre pretended to be understanding about the money having been used in the business of promoting mining ventures and that things did not always work out in spite of people’s best intentions. He went on to indicate that while things had not gone well with the mining investment, he had been very fortunate and had come into a sizable amount of money. He said he was looking forward to the return of the three to Nelson so that they could work together on some new projects.
During this early spring conversation Petre learned that one of the three promoters had indulged in excessive drinking, as he always did, but that that winter, the booze had killed him. This news was another great disappointment for Petre; he had had some plans for this man and now he had cheated him again. Petre waited for the snow to melt and for the remaining two con-men to return to Nelson. While he waited, he travelled to an area near Nelson and staked another claim. This claim was another part of Petre’s plan to even the score with the promoters.
Claims are often marked by cutting off a small tree at each corner of the selected property. The trees are cut leaving a stump about four feet tall, which is squared at the top with an axe. A soft aluminum tag is attached with a nail, and the claim information is then scratched into the aluminum tag with another nail. A typical claim tag will have the name of the prospector, the date, and the free miner’s license number. Petre had learned the proper procedure to mark his new claim, and applied it correctly.
At last the two surviving promoters returned to Nelson and Petre met them like long lost friends. They talked about their plans for the summer and Petre made it very clear that he wanted to be involved in their activities: he had faith in their knowledge and skills, and he was sure that some day they would be rewarded.
About six weeks after the promoters returned to Nelson, a citizen came to the police with a concern that all was not normal at Petre’s shack. He had been walking along the creek near the shack when he became aware of an overpowering stench. Having served on the battlefields in the Second World War, he could tell us with certainty that what he smelled was a dead body in an advanced stage of decomposition. Before he came to us he had found that the odour was coming from the lean-to garage on the side of the shack. Peering through the crack between the doors, he was able to see a car. He also saw that there was a hose attached to the car’s exhaust pipe.
We drove the few miles to Petre’s place, wondering what was in store for us there. I was new to police work and had not yet encountered a decomposing body. I grew up on a farm and had been in contact with rotting animal carcasses, but that experience did not leave me fully prepared for what we found that day. We parked the police car by the garage doors. It was a bright warm early summer day and our windows were wide open. Before the car had come to a stop we were assaulted by an odour like none I had ever experienced. I suddenly understood how the former soldier was sure that there was a rotting body there.
We were able to see through the crack between the doors that there was an old Buick in the garage and that there was a hose from the exhaust pipe along the side of the car. The building had no windows and no other door. We called for the Identification Section to photograph the area before we moved anything. The delay while we waited for the identification man would give us time to stand well back and formulate some kind of a plan. We very soon found that there was a slight breeze flowing down the creek valley and that the place to be was on the upwind side.
A police car on the side of a road with two uniformed police standing nearby always arouses a little curiosity from passing motorists. Most slow down to see what they can see and many stop to inquire and offer assistance. Almost everyone drove with their car windows open in those days, before air conditioning. While we waited for the second police car to arrive we watched the people in their cars. Those who approached from the downwind side would slow and move to the right and look with interest to learn what we were doing. When they caught wind of why we were there, their change of expression was startling; none stayed to inquire or offer assistance. The upwind vehicles, on the other hand, would stop, and in some cases people would get out before they got the rude message from the air. Then they all made a hasty departure.
The photography expert arrived and recorded the outside of the scene on film. There was no reason to delay any longer. We opened the double doors to reveal the horror inside. The odour in the lean-to garage was beyond description. Fortunately the open doors allowed a change of air and it became just a little thinner. Also fortunate is that the human sense of smell partly shuts down under a severe overload. Once this shutdown had occurred, the task was more manageable.
The car windows were closed, except for the one on the right rear where a vacuum cleaner hose had been placed through and the window turned up to hold the hose in place. The insides of all the windows were black from a carbon deposit left by the exhaust. The car must have been nearly full of fuel, because it had run for a long time after the occupant was dead. The body lay in the front as though the person had been sitting in the driver’s position and then fallen away from the door so that his head was on the passenger’s seat. The entire interior of the car was crawling with maggots, and adult flies filled the air of both the car and the garage. The body was fully clothed in what appeared to be work clothes of the kind worn by men in the construction or labour trades. The maggots were nearly finished their work. The body had been reduced to less than half of its original weight; only
