A Vancouver Police officer in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver on Jan., 9, 2021.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Vancouver police say they have solved a series of cold-case sexual assaults around the downtown core from more than a decade ago and – after arresting a suspect in Saskatchewan last month – are still working with other departments across Western Canada to see if he can be linked to other incidents.
On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Fiona Wilson, head of the Vancouver Police Department’s investigation division, said a trio of cases all involved “blitz-style” attacks on twentysomething women from Canada Day, 2009, to June, 2010. The sexual assaults made headlines as the young women were all returning home after nights out on the Granville strip and led the VPD to devote dozens of investigators to finding a suspect, even creating a website and putting stickers with QR codes in the bathrooms of bars and nightclubs to elicit tips from the partying public.
“It was clear that young women were being targeted by a predator in the downtown core,” Deputy Chief Wilson told reporters Wednesday.
At the time of the attacks, police warned the public that a perpetrator could be following his targets until they walked far enough away from the busy clubbing district and were alone. They also said the three cases could have been linked to a handful of other assaults, but that DNA samples from the scenes did not garner a match to any past criminals in the police database.
The investigation eventually went cold until it was jumpstarted in January when new physical evidence was obtained, tying the first three assaults to another one on Christmas Eve, 2010, Deputy Chief Wilson said. She refused to say what cracked her agency’s case, citing the coming court process, but added that on July 21, her investigators arrested a 45-year-old suspect in Regina with the help of local police there.
“I know none of this will change what happened to these women and I suspect nothing will permanently erase the trauma they’ve lived with,” Deputy Chief Wilson said. “However, I do hope this arrest and these charges begin to provide the answers and accountability that has been missing for so many years.
“I applaud the courage and strength they’ve shown throughout this lengthy investigation, which must still work its way through the court system.”
Now, police are still trying to track where the suspect, Arturo Garcia Gorjon, travelled for work when he was not living at his home in Vancouver, Deputy Chief Wilson said. A LinkedIn profile matching that man’s name states he has been employed as an industrial electrician for the past seven years for a company based in Fort McMurray, Alta.
“We’ll be working with partners across the country – in fact, anywhere that we determine that this person has travelled, to see if there are any linkages between him and other cold cases,” Deputy Chief Wilson said.
The provincial online database of criminal and traffic charges shows he had no previous criminal record other than being found guilty in 2014 for driving in Kamloops, B.C., while prohibited or with a suspended licence.
None of the charges have been proven in court. A voicemail left on a cell number he had recently posted online went unreturned Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Garcia Gorjon appeared in court late last month and was released on bail with a number of conditions. Deputy Chief Wilson said the Crown had asked for him to remain in jail, but she respects the judge’s decision.
“We have a safety plan in place and we are certainly monitoring to make sure that he abides by those conditions,” she added.
The investigation stretches back to 2009 just before dawn on Canada Day, when a 20-year-old woman was sexually assaulted while walking near Granville Island. Months later, a 25-year-old was sexually assaulted while entering the lobby of her apartment building beside the beach in Vancouver’s West End. A third woman was attacked in the Yaletown neighbourhood seven months after that, police said.
With a report from The Canadian Press
Mike Hager