By Kellah Lavoie

Police look into historic case

Nov 5, 2010 | 4:25 PM

paNOW Staff

Members of Prince Albert police spent the majority of Thursday searching an empty field.
They were looking for clues in the August, 1979 disappearance of June Anne Johnson.
Const. Susan Snell, who heads up the historical case unit, said the last time Johnson was seen, she was getting dropped off at the Marlboro Hotel by her daughter.
“We don’t know who she was meeting, we don’t know why she was going to the Marlboro, we know she was going there. There was a pub in the Marlboro she was possibly going to attend. From there the daughter reported her missing a few days later because she didn’t return,” she said.
The woman who was a nurse at the Victoria Hospital has two daughters and a son. She was 34 when she went missing, and now would be 65-years-old.
Staff Sgt. Tim Settee, with the Prince Albert police criminal investigation division, said the some area, north of the city near Little Red River Park, was searched about two years. The difference is last time they only did a ground search, this time they digging deeper.
“In 1979 there used to be a couple of residences on this location – a couple of houses, a couple of out buildings,” he said explaining there was something in the file that lead Snell back to the location.
Snell explained this time they were digging out the basement. One of the suspects in the case used to live there. The home had a basement – it is something the police had not explored in the past.
She said the man who used to live there was on day parole and was assisting at the Victoria Hospital. He was questioned by investigators at the time and admitted to going for a drink that night with Johnson.
“I was hoping for sure any evidence of where June Johnson may be or maybe even possibly human remains,” she said explaining what they we looking for. She added there are anywhere from six to 12 suspects.
“In any historical case the possibility of death is reality, the possibility of foul play is a reality… all we are doing is just investigating pieces of information we have received over the years,” said Settee.
He said the point of the search was to either find new information or rule out the area as a source of evidence.
Settee said they were done on the site for the day, but were not sure how many times they would still be coming back.
He said the need to do more ground preparation before they can continue digging.
“We have to be careful on how we removed the dirt, how we level the ground off so we don’t disturb anything that we could find,” he said.
With it already being November, at any time the weather could turn and the search could be put off until next spring.
klavoie@panow.com