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Grande Prairie area farmer, Daniel Lough, makes a grisly discovery in the early morning hours of June 20, 1918.
Blood on the Prairie is a historical true crime podcast unravelling the century-old mystery of Grande Prairie's "Murder of Six," Alberta’s largest unsolved mass murder.
Blood on the Prairie
Episode 1: The Nighttime Habits of Daniel Lough
Cris: We'd like to acknowledge that we are producing this podcast on Treaty 8 territory—the ancestral and traditional territory of the Cree, Dene, as well as the Métis. We honour and acknowledge all of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples who have lived, traveled and gathered on these lands for thousands of years. We recognize the land as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to those whose territory we reside on or are visiting.
Chris: The following is based on a true story that happened in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada in 1918. The story is based on historical primary sources including surviving case files, criminal reports, and other contemporary documents and accounts. The first-person accounts spoken throughout this narrative are taken word-for-word from the surviving transcripts. We have engaged voice actors to read portions of these transcripts, and while these quotes have been at times abridged or slightly rearranged for clarity, every word is based on the historical record.
Cris: Some of the scenes described include details of violent acts. Listener and parental discretion is advised.
Chris: June, 1918. Northern Alberta, Canada.
The First World War is months from ending, and men from communities across Canada are still overseas. Many of course, will never return home.
The Spanish Flu Pandemic, relatively mild in the spring, is a few months from shocking everyone with its deadly second wave.
And in the northern frontier village of Grande Prairie, located several days' travel north of the provincial capitol of Edmonton—a horrific discovery is about to be found.
Cris: The first two bodies were found in a sod-roofed, log farmhouse, 3 miles northwest of town: Joseph Snyder and his nephew Stanley. Seeing the cabin on fire, a neighbour set off to bring the police.
They were too late.
The authorities suspected a murder-suicide, until more bodies were found a few days later, at a second farm.
The 1918 "Murder of Six," would confound the local police, and the investigation would drag out over the next several years, with multiple suspects and theories proposed. Although two suspects would eventually be tried, neither of the trials ended in a conviction.
In season 1 of Blood on the Prairie, we'll be exploring this century*-*old cold case. We'll meet the victims, follow the evidence, and evaluate the key suspects. But we'll also be using the case as a lens to better understand life on one of the last frontiers of North American colonization.
Chris: We've built our story on the surviving archival history of the case. We'll also be hearing from historians and archival experts, locals, and surviving family descendants of the people involved.
Locally, among a certain set of families, this story has been told and retold, fact, rumour, and myth all mixed up in a game of telephone lasting a hundred years. Yet, most people in the now thriving City of Grande Prairie have no idea that Alberta's largest unsolved mass murder happened here only a few generations ago.
Although there is tantalizing evidence that suggests several plausible theories, the 1918 "Murder of Six" has never been solved.
Cris: I’m Cris Seppola.
Chris: I’m Chris Beauchamp.
This is Blood on the Prairie.
Cris: Daniel J. Lough, Jr., 43, was used to waking up in the middle of the night.
Most nights, he'd wake two or three times.
Sometimes, when he couldn't get back to sleep, he'd slip out of bed — perhaps quietly, so as not to wake his wife Ann and their four young children. He'd step to the door of his small farm house and look out. He'd breathe the fresh air. Maybe he took a smoke. Maybe a drink. Maybe nothing at all.
Daniel's farm was on the crest of a long sloping plain, and from his doorway, he could see out across a sea of farmland to the south. He could see where the ground rose again where the farms ended in the forests of the Wapiti River Valley, and the foothills beyond. On a clear day, if he looked at the right spot, between two hills, he could see the tiny jagged teeth of the Rocky Mountains, over 100km to the Southwest.
Chris: On this night, June 19, 1918, Daniel woke up around 2:30am—although he acknowledged later at the inquest that he didn't look at his watch.
He stepped to the door of his farm house, and after a minute or so, he heard "someone holler." It was coming from the Snyder Property, across the road to the south. Daniel thought he heard someone shouting for help, followed by a gruff reply, and a scream which was cut off abruptly.
The east-west road allowance between their two places was little more than a trail in 1918, dead-ending in a slough to the west a short distance from their gates. If there was trouble down at the Snyder place, Daniel was going to find out.
Daniel Lough: I told the Mrs. I heard someone holler for help, and put clothes on and ran down.
Chris: On June 19, the summer solstice is a mere 3 days away, and the sun doesn't actually set in the northern Grande Prairie area until 10:38pm. With the long summer days, and short nights, the sky can hold a bit of dusky light through much of the night, and by 2:30am, the predawn light is already starting to light up the sky. Daniel Lough described it like this while testifying at the criminal inquest a few days later...
Daniel Lough: It was dark below, and light above. Dark out, but when you looked up, you could see the tops of trees light.
Belcher: That is you could see against the skyline but not below it?
Daniel Lough: Yes.
I heard a noise and it seemed like a man hollering for help... Hollering two time for help. and then it seemed to me, I would not swear to it, somebody else said 'I will help you or I will get you, or I will fix you,' or something like that. He had a very gruff voice.
Just an instant after that I heard someone make an a - a - ah, and it was cut right off short. It came from the direction of Snyder's house.
Belcher: Were you looking in that direction?
Daniel Lough: Yes sir, but could see nothing.
Belcher: What did you do then?
Daniel Lough: I stepped in the house. I told the Mrs. I heard someone holler for help. I jumped into my trousers, shoes, coat and hat. I ran to Snyders.
Cris: Daniel made his way down to the Snyders' place the same way he always did. He crossed the road allowance that separated their properties, and ignoring the main gate, stepped over the single strand barbed wire fence that marked out the Snyder property. From there, he ran between the Snyder's garden fence and an old wagon to approach the backside of the house.
He couldn't see the door from where he was standing, but from that direction, he saw a burst of light.
Daniel Lough: I noticed the shack on fire and smoke coming out of the south end of the building... and saw the reflection of the bushes on the south side of the house. I whirled round and went back home.
I got a can of oats and up past the house and told the Mrs. there must be trouble over there and went out to catch my horse.
Belcher: How long were you catching your horse?
Daniel Lough: Could not swear how long it was. I was a long time catching [my] horse. Every bush seemed like a horse and I would run up to it.
Cris: Daniel had a decision to make: should he stop in at the McAuley Place, the nearest neighbour, a little over half a mile away to the east, or head into town to bring the police? Daniel Lough decided to ride hard for the Alberta Provincial Police barracks in the centre of town.
Daniel Lough: I know the building was still on fire when I went to town.
Cris: Lough ran his horse along the eastern trail for about a kilometre, passing the McAuley place. He turned south on the main road and headed into the sleepy village of Grande Prairie, Alberta.
Chris: From the Snyder farm, along the road allowances, the ride to town is approximately 3 miles, or 5 kilometres. If Daniel Lough was riding his horse at close to a full gallop, he may have been doing 30 or 40km/hr, and he could have made that trip in as little as 10 minutes.
It's impossible to know what Daniel was thinking about during those minutes in the wee hours of June 20, 1918.
The Snyder farm was burning. His neighbours were missing. And that voice — the gruff man.
Maybe Daniel was thinking about how he'd just been at the Snyder place, the evening before, helping Joseph and his nephew Stanley tend to a horse.
Daniel had met Joseph Snyder and his nephew Stanley shortly after Daniel bought the old Zimner place and moved in across the road about a month earlier. As their nearest neighbour, he'd been down there a number of times already in the past month.
The Uncle, Joseph Snyder, was 58 years old in 1918. Acquaintances described him as a quiet man who kept to his own business.
He'd settled in the area about eight years earlier. His nephew, Stanley, 27 years old, had moved in with his uncle the previous October, after spending five years working on the railroad.
Stanley seemed to get along well enough with his Uncle Jospeh. Friends described him as a calm young man, who never had any trouble with anyone.
The Snyders were fine enough people. Quiet. Neighbourly. Perhaps Daniel Lough was thinking about the Snyders during his ride to town.
Or maybe Daniel was thinking of more personal concerns as he galloped his horse. Maybe he was thinking that the man behind that gruff voice was still back there somewhere. And he'd left Ann and his four young children alone back at the farm.
Perhaps Daniel Lough was scared for his family.
Perhaps he was scared for himself...
Cris: At around 3:30am, Daniel reached the police barracks and, banging on the door, woke up Corporal William Allen. Allen sent Lough over to a local garage to wake up the proprietor to secure a car for the return trip to the Snyder place.
Later, the driver, AV Thompson, recalled events from that night.
AV Thompson: Just before 4 o'clock I was woke by Mr Lough.... and he said that Cpl. Allen wanted me to take him up to Mr. Snyder's... He was riding horseback. Seemed to be excited. Told me to hurry.... He said that some person was getting murdered.
Cris: As they turned west onto the road which dead-ended at the Snyder and Lough properties, the pre-dawn light would have already been illuminating the view out across the countryside.
AV Thompson: …and when we got to the top of the hill we could see the shack burning.
It was practically daylight, pretty near. Twilight.
Cris: As they crested the hill, they would have seen the Snyder house, with its small yard, garden, barn, and stable. They would have smelled and then seen the black smoke rising from the burning building. Across the road, on their right, the hill rose up toward Daniel Lough's place.
AV Thompson: When we got to the top of the hill we could see Lough standing at the gate. He opened the gate for us."
Cris: Thompson parked the car by the garden, north of the house. Cpl. Allen, A.V. Thompson, and Daniel Lough began to investigate the scene.
AV Thompson: We went over to the building that was burning. It was all ablaze. You couldn't see anything. We came around the other side of the shack to the west and we saw blood marks there. There is a road that goes right along the north side of this shack; or a trail probably, there is a trail goes past the house to the barn. We came along there and to the northwest corner there, there was a log and we seen some blood on the northside of that and there was a rock with some blood on it.
There were two marks that went along the west side of the shack to the door—where the door used to be. And there was blood tracks along this trail.
Cris: As the building burned, the group continued to inspect the ground for tracks or other signs. Thanks to a heavy build-up of dew on the mostly long grass, conditions were favourable for detecting tracks around the property.
AV Thompson: The dew was on when we first went there; there was a quite heavy dew that morning.
Cris: The men followed what appeared to be horse tracks which disappeared around the slough to the south. They found Snyder's horses in the field down there, and Daniel Lough was relatively confident that they were all accounted for.
They also found tracks along the route Lough had taken to approach the house by the garden fence.
AV Thompson: When we first got there we kind of thought that the dew... it kind of looked as though tracks had been made on the west side of the garden.
We tried to follow them up but they seemed to kind of peter out. At that time the dew was lifting a little, you see.
Cris: Despite an extensive search, the men found no other clear tracks leading into the property. A.V. Thompson later acknowledged in his testimony that it would have been difficult to see tracks along the main road and gate into the property since the grass was much shorter on the trails.
Returning to the shack, the men saw that the fire had begun to burn down a bit.
It was Daniel Lough who spotted the first body, face down in the north end of the still-burning building.
Daniel Lough: There is one of them now...
Cris: As AV Thompson later recounted:
AV Thomson: "And the wind seemed to drive the blaze down like and we could see a body sitting up in there. It was up in the north end of the shack. We searched around to see if we could find any other marks in connection with another body in there but the fire was too hot. It was burning more in the inside than on the outside and the ... roof had fallen inside."
Chris: At this point, the men spotted what looked like a revolver near the hand of the burned body.
Corporal Allen fished it out of the smouldering ashes with a stick. It was still hot to the touch, and the handle had melted away. As A.V. Thompson described, the gun was allegedly found on top of the sod roof that had collapsed over that section of the shack.
AV Thomson: The revolver lay on top of the dirt of the roof right back of this body that we could see there. It was back of the right arm. The right arm was gone. And it was about probably a foot and a half, probably two feet, seemed to be, back of his arm.... Right on top of the roof. The sod. Laying there.
Chris: A .38 calibre revolver... On top of the roof? Either these men were mistaken in interpreting the gun's position in the fire, or someone had thrown the weapon onto the roof before the shack burned.
Later, when the gun was inspected by police, they discovered that the fine internal springs had survived the fire intact, supporting the idea that the weapon had been on the roof during the hottest part of the fire.
Several witnesses later testified that neither of the Snyders owned a revolver.
Around 8am, after about 3 and a half hours on the scene, Cpl. Allen sent Albert Villo Thompson back into town with his car to fetch the coroner.
By mid-day, Coroner, Percy H. Belcher, had assessed the scene. He found enough evidence to warrant the creation of an official inquest. He summoned "six good and lawful men" to the scene to form the jury, and these men witnessed the collection of evidence at the Snyder farm. He also sent for Dr. Joseph Herbert Conroy, a physician practicing in Grande Prairie, to act as official medical examiner.
Cris: When Dr. Conroy arrived in the late morning, the fire was still burning.
Dr. Conroy: I went over to the building, and saw the building was still burning, and I saw the dead body [...] I found the body lying stomach down. [...] Head facing south, about the centre of the shack.
Cris: This first body would turn out to be that of Joseph Snyder.
According to Dr. Conroy, Joseph's body had been burned beyond recognition.
Dr. Conroy: The head was raised and was sort of leaning on his hands. The skull was all mutilated and charred from the appearance. [...] there was very little flesh above about one half the way down the back.
Cris: During the autopsy, Dr. Conroy, working with a colleague, would find a bullet in Joseph Snyder's brain.
Dr. Conroy: Bullet channel entered in the right eye and went up into the substance of the brain.
Chris: by late morning, the embers had died down enough for investigators to finally get closer to the house—and it wasn't long before they saw the second body, lying close to the door of the cabin, in the south end of the shack.
The corpse was found partially buried, under earth and ash. It too, was badly burned. There was some indication that wood or posts had been piled on or near the body before it was burned, perhaps as a means to start the fire.
Dr. Conroy: After some little time, another dead body was dug up. I believe there was some wood over or alongside of it. This body was more or less in same condition as the previous body. His flesh all charred and many of the bones burned too. He had a gold tooth in, rather a gold filling on one front tooth, an upper.
Chris: Several witnesses would later identify the body based on this single remaining feature: a gold filling in Stanley E. Snyder's mouth.
Stanley had also been shot. Though unlike his Uncle, the bullet had entered the back of Stanley Snyder's head.
Dr. Conroy: The bullet hole went through the scalp and skull about two inches behind the left ear on a level with the top of the ear. [...] We found no exit and found no bullet, but the bullet could easily have exit at the top of the skull, which was severed. [...] The top of the skull was completely gone."
Chris: Exploring the scene that morning, Dr. Conroy examined the evidence of blood around the cabin.
Dr. Conroy: I found a streak of blood leading from or to what was evidently the door on the South side of the shack, and the streak of blood went North to the block of wood, where there was blood found on the North and South of the said block of wood. There was also blood found to the East of the shack on the grass and ground.
Cris: Due to the charred remains, the six-man jury formally requested that a second doctor be brought in to perform the autopsies alongside Dr. Conroy.
Dr. Martin MacDonald, of the neighbouring community of Lake Saskatoon, was summoned on June 21st.
Dr. MacDonald testified that the slug removed from Jospeh Snyder's brain was consistent with a .38 calibre bullet. In regard to Stanley, MacDonald testified that they found a great deal of blood
Dr. MacDonald: baked on the skin
Cris: the bullet had entered Stanley Snyder's lateral sinus.
Dr. MacDonald: The lateral sinus is a blood channel running around the base of the skull posterior. A bullet penetrating into the sinus would cause severe hemorrhage.
Cris: Asked if they could detect other evidence of violence or signs that the fire was started before they died, both doctors agreed that with the state of the bodies, they just couldn't be sure, but that it was reasonable to assume that the gunshots in both men would have been enough to cause instant death.
Dr. Conroy: The bodies were in too much of a charred condition. They were literally cooked.
Cris: As the fire finally died down by mid-day, the investigation at the Snyder scene grew to include additional physical evidence.
Records on the exact sequence of these discoveries are scant, as the original investigative reports and drawings taken at the scene are lost. But there are several references from the later inquest testimony and criminal trials which point to some tantalizing clues:
Chris: The only money found was a few dollars in a small leather change purse, which apparently belonged to Joseph Snyder.
Cris: A mysterious ring of keys turned up, which did not match any of the locks at the Snyder Place.
Chris: There was some indication that wood and oil had been piled on Stanley Snyder's body before the fire was lit, although some thought later this may have just been debris from the roof collapsing during the fire
Cris: The .38 calibre revolver discovered near Joseph Snyder was later found to contain five spent cartridges
Chris: Two watches were found on the scene, presumably belonging to the victims. Both watches had been burned in the fire. One was damaged beyond telling, but the other still had its watch-face intact, the hands permanently stopped at 2:41am. [referenced in GR1979.0119]
Cris: The case was already complicated. And it was about to get a lot more so.
Chris: On June 25, 1918, five days after the bodies were discovered, the local weekly newspaper, The Grande Prairie Herald, formally broke the story of the Snyder murder case, under the front page headline:
GP Herald: Terrible Tragedy Happens Near Grande Prairie
Chris: The subheading read:
GP Herald: Charred Remains of Joseph Snyder and his nephew Found in Debris of Burnt Building — Foul Play Suspected — Post Mortem Shows That Both Men Met Death by Bullet Wounds
Chris: It's fair to assume that word of the case had already travelled through the region by the time this article went to print. Folks were already starting to flock to the murder scene, people with even minor connections to the victims coming over to have a look around. Rumours and speculation ran rampant. And already a panic had set in. People were locking their doors and arming themselves.
The 100-year old game of telephone that this case would become, was in it's first round. And the local news media was all too happy to play along.
GP Herald: That the two men met their death either by murder or murder and suicide appears certain. Lying near J Snyder's body was a 38 calibre revolver with five empty cartridges still in the chamber, while to the east and west of the house blood is splattered on the ground in several places. Immediately north-west of the house signs are very distinct, proving, whoever had been bleeding had been dragged and thrown into the building. Inside the house had been piled some fence posts and a quantity of wood in order to start the building afire.
The article went on to write about Joseph Snyder's achievements as a settler and even to speculate about his finances.
GP Herald: He was one of the best types of farmers on the Prairie and his crops were considered a great advertisement for the country. [...] It has always been considered that Mr. Snyder carried considerable money either on his person or in his house and whether robbing was the motive is still a mystery.
Chris: There was some evidence found later that Joseph Snyder may have indeed had considerable money, including possibly $5,000 recently wired to him from his brother out east. More on that later, but if Joseph Snyder kept money on his person or in his home, it was never found.
The final sentence in the story noted that following their autopsies, both men were interred in the local cemetery. Though their bodies were later exhumed and moved to a new location, they still rest in the Grande Prairie cemetery, their graves marked by a single headstone.
Cris: As this edition of the Herald went to print on June 25, 1918, the paper was forced to add an addendum to their front page story.
GP Herald: Just as we go to press word has been brought to town that in addition to the above tragedy, four other men have been found dead, presumably murdered, in a shack not more than two miles from the Snyder murder.
Cris: With the discovery of four more dead men at the farm of Ignace Patton, 3 miles from the Snyder farm, the Snyder Murder Case was about to become the "6 Murder Case."
Chris: In the second episode of Blood on the Prairie, we'll explore the grisly details of the Patan murder scene and get to know the other four victims. We'll also learn about some surprising evidence linking the two crimes.
Cris: Blood on the Prairie is produced by Cris Seppola and Chris Beauchamp.
We'd like to thank the South Peace Regional Archives, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Alyssa Curry, Karen Simonson, Dr. David Leonard, Brenda Lacroix, the family of Wallace Tansem, Jason Halwa, Al Peterson, Kasper Townes, Gordie Haakstad, Richard Podsada, and Laura Beauchamp.
Blood on the Prairie was developed thanks to funding provided by TELUS STORYHIVE. Special Thanks to Tara Jean Stevens, Jessica Gibson, and the National Screen Institute.
Music used in this episode by: Unrealsfx, Matt Stewart Evans, Linus Johnson, Brianna Tam, Michael Vignola, and Yehezkel Raz
Our voice actors in this episode included Clint Webb, Scott Maitland, Wade Morrison, Derek Hall, and Cameron Donald.
Blood on the Prairie is available on all major podcast platforms. For show notes and access to archival sources and other documents relating to the case — as well as photographs from both the 1918 era, and the crime scenes in 2021, find us at bloodonthepriaire.com.