Kate Kading was at the Prince Albert Historical Museum Monday night to sign copies of and discuss her book, On Scene. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Local stories

Sask. author’s new book inspired by Prince Albert area manhunt

Jun 8, 2022 | 8:00 AM

For the past six years, Kate Kading has literally ate, slept and dreamed about the events that led to and followed the shooting deaths of two RCMP officers near MacDowall.

Kading’s book “On Scene” is a fictional story, but is inspired by the real life events that happened in October of 1970. Responding to a domestic disturbance, Sgt. Robert James Schrader and Const. Douglas Bernard Anson were shot and killed at a rural property. The subsequent manhunt for their killer Wilfred Stanley Robertson would end six months later.

When asked how she came upon the story, Kading credited Russell Hanson, the owner of the RCMP museum in Duck Lake. At the time six years ago, Kading was working for Sask Valley News, a small Rosthern-based newspaper.

“He said Kate I have a story for you, you need to write a book about it. And I laughed and said, no,” she said.

However upon learning more about the story, and doing her own research on Google, Kading discovered there was not a whole lot written about the story. However she was still feeling apprehensive.

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“I didn’t want to write about the worst day of somebody’s life. I really didn’t,” she said.

Kading’s display during her book signing event Monday night at the Historical Museum. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

Upon speaking more with her husband, Kading later learned the incident had been completely overshadowed by the FLQ crisis at the time, and upon doing further research at the newspaper archives in Saskatoon and Prince Albert, was shocked to learn no one knew about what would be one of the longest manhunts in Canada’s history and involve numerous RCMP detachments as well as army personnel. Now holding her book in hand, Kading acknowledged all the hard work that went into it.

“When you research something for that long, it really becomes a part of you,” she said.

On Scene is based in Northern Saskatchewan and is too about the search for a killer. The story’s main characters are Sgt. Walter Regitnig and his canine partner Bruce.

With respect to what her personal goal was for the fictional book, Kading, who is also married to an RCMP officer, explained she wanted to humanize the badge.

“I have lived this with my husband for over 20 years and I just want people to know they were regular people and they had families that they left behind and they are really good people,” she said.

Kading’s preparation for the book involved extensive interviews with RCMP as well as the families involved in the MacDowall incident. Commenting on her relationship with the families, Kading acknowledged that at first she did experience feelings of anxiousness about contacting them. However after a short email exchange, she learned quite quickly they were open to talking to her. And now Kading said she thinks of them as family.

A copy of the original WANTED poster for Wilfred Robertson. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Gary and Barry Schrader are the sons of Robert James Schrader and were both present for Kading’s book signing event Monday night in Prince Albert. Gary said the story is very relevant.

“I talk to RCMP officers all the time and they won’t read the book because they live it all the time. So they don’t want to be reminded what could happen,” he said.

Barry Schrader acknowledged that he still has feelings over what happened to his father.

“It’s been 52 years now and time does not heal; time still makes me angry; time still make me hurt and I’m just glad this book is out,” he said.

The books are available for sale at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon, as well as through Chapter’s and Indigo stores across the province.

Schrader and Anson are buried with full honours beside each other at the RCMP Academy, Depot Division in Regina.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell