Septic Tank Sam

Early life Gordon Edwin Sanderson was an Indigenous man born in Manitoba on October 22, 1950.

In the 1970s, he was living in Edmonton, and had planned to visit his brother, Arthur, in Calgary.

Discovery Sanderson was found wearing a blue Levi's shirt with snap buttons, a grey T-shirt, blue jeans, and imitation Wallabee shoes. His decomposed body was wrapped in a yellow bed sheet and tied up with a nylon rope. Sanderson was found by a local couple scavenging their abandoned property for a septic tank pump. After seeing his leg bobbing in their old septic tank, they alerted the Tofield detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Two officers came to the scene to recover Sanderson's body, where they spent an hour emptying the septic tank with an empty ice cream pail.

Autopsy A medical examiner in Edmonton determined Sanderson to be Caucasian. His bones and teeth suggested he had suffered from an unspecified illness at five years old. Sanderson's cause of death was two gunshots to the head and chest, although it was possible there could have been more if any of the bullets had not reached his skeleton. Before his death, Sanderson had been tortured: he had been beaten, tied up, burned with a small butane torch and cigarettes, and sexually mutilated with a sharp object. The sexual mutilation was so severe that the medical examiner took several months to positively identify him as a male. Based on the burn marks on his shirt sleeves, Sanderson could have been tied to a bed while tortured. The weapon(s) used to mutilate Sanderson could not be conclusively determined due to the condition of the remains, although the medical examiner suspected the use of farm shears. After Sanderson's death, he had been covered in quicklime, most likely in a mistaken attempt to hasten decomposition.

Investigation

Authorities suspected he was not from Alberta, but most likely worked as a migrant worker.

Current investigation Police believe Sanderson was killed by associates of his involved in various criminal acts in Edmonton. They acknowledge that his killer may now be dead. The last time Sanderson had spoken to his family, he had mentioned that he was going to visit his brother in Calgary. Sanderson's older sister's DNA was used to confirm his identity.