Unsolved. Robert J. Hoshowsky

was found in Lee’s pocket, with four cigarettes missing. They then hitchhiked and were picked up by the person or persons who killed them.

      Within weeks, a $5,000 reward was posted by the Attorney General’s department for information leading to whoever killed Potter and Kirk. Police investigated one hundred tips from people who swore they remembered seeing the girls getting into cars not just in Toronto, but places like Port Perry and Whitby. Neighbours in the area of the gravel pit remembered seeing a later-model car parked with its lights on about a half mile from where the bodies were found. For some reason, their dogs seemed upset at that time, but since it was dark the residents weren’t able to gather any more information about the car.

      At the time of their murders, police had difficulty locating the next of kin for both girls. The policy of the Metro Children’s Aid Society was to advise police — not the biological mother and father — when wards of the society were missing from foster homes. As a result, the biological parents of both girls were not told their daughters failed to return to the group home. Catherine’s mother discovered her daughter was dead when she heard about the murders on the radio. There was no money to pay for her young daughter’s funeral. She applied for and subsequently received $902 under the Compensation for Victims of Crime Act. The money was just more than enough to pay the funeral home, with $804 towards arrangements paid by the girl’s grandfather and $98 for other expenses.

      In 1976, five years after the murders, police were still no closer to finding their killers, despite taking two thousand statements and interviewing 225 Toronto-area, known sexual offenders.

      After almost four decades, the murders of Catherine Edith Potter and Lee Rita Kirk remain unsolved. A number of theories — ranging from the girls being killed as part of a motorcycle gang initiation to them dying at the hands of sexual perverts — don’t hold up. There were no signs of sexual assault on either girl, and motorcycle gangs are extremely unlikely to target two young girls for no reason whatsoever. Today, there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person, or persons responsible for the deaths of these two young girls. Even after all these years, police believe there is still some hope of solving the Gravel Pit Murders.

Chapter 3 Ingrid Bauer (1972)

      THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE GO MISSING across Canada every year.Fortunately, the majority are found safe within a very short time. Some are children who wander off on their own, others are senior citizens, recent immigrants unfamiliar with their surroundings, or physically or mentally impaired people who are unable to find their way back home.Many so-called “disappearances” are deliberate, often the result of someone dodging the police, bill collectors or late alimony payments, leaving town with a lover, or simply fed up with their home life and making a dramatic change by leaving it all behind. It isn’t unheard of for teenagers doing poorly in school to choose to run away from home instead of facing the repercussions from their parents when the report card arrives. However, it is extremely rare for someone to leave without taking any money or personal belongings with them. In cases where police suspect abduction there are often personal belongings left behind, or a witness who can place the individual at a specific location.

      Back in the early seventies, Ingrid Bauer became one of the few persons to disappear in Canada without leaving a single piece of physical evidence behind. When Bauer went missing from the area close to her home in Kleinburg, Ontario, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance were extremely rare: soon after leaving her parents’ home on the evening of August 16, 1972, Bauer vanished without leaving any physical evidence (such as a wallet, purse, makeup, or clothing) behind. There was absolutely nothing that could help police locate the missing fourteen-year-old girl. Many people go missing, but very few evaporate without a trace. In fact, the number of people who vanished without leaving any clues could literally be counted on one hand. Ingrid was one of the few.

      “The police didn’t find one blasted thing,” said Brent Bauer, Ingrid’s older brother, who saw his sister minutes before she vanished. He remembers Ingrid as being a bright girl, a bit straitlaced. She was a lot like her boyfriend, Larry. She didn’t smoke cigarettes and had no interest in alcohol. A solid student, her lowest grade was a “B.” She got along well with her family and was taking modelling courses. Ingrid Bauer was not a girl who had a reason to run away from home.

       When fourteen-year-old Ingrid Bauer vanished shortly after leaving her family home in Kleinburg, Ontario, on August 16, 1972, she became one of the few known people to disappear in Ontario without a trace — no clothing or personal effects have ever been found.

      Prior to Ingrid’s disappearance, there were only two other known similar cases in Ontario, both occurring many years before. The most recent was the case of Mabel Crumback, who was last seen at her parents’ Toronto home on May 28, 1950. A quiet, well-behaved, nineteen-year-old girl who didn’t smoke or drink, Crumback was employed in the office of a steel company, active in her church community, and sang in the choir. Crumback was small, just five foot one inch tall, with dark hair and a fair complexion. The girl’s parents were out of town that May weekend, and her younger brother woke to find Mabel had disappeared from the family’s Willard Avenue home. Police were unable to find any reason for her to simply get up and leave, and there was no sign of a struggle. To police, it appeared Mabel’s bed had been slept in that night, and for some reason her pyjama bottoms were found folded underneath her pillow, but her pyjama top was missing and never recovered. All her personal effects were left in her room, along with her purse and cash. Almost fifty years after she disappeared, when the excavation of a building in the area uncovered a human skull, many long-time residents were convinced it was Mabel. The skull turned out to be several centuries old, and to this day Mabel is still missing.

      Prior to Crumback’s odd disappearance, Toronto was swept up in the missing person case of millionaire Ambrose Small. A tremendously successful theatre owner, Small allegedly left his downtown Toronto office on the evening of December 2, 1919, and was never seen again. A slight man, about five-and-a-half-feet tall and 140 pounds, Small had no reason to disappear of his own accord. Earlier on that cold December day, the mustachioed fifty-six-year-old Small signed a deal to sell his theatre chain for a staggering $1.7 million, an enormous amount of money at the time. Small deposited a cheque for $1 million, with the rest of the money to be paid in installments over the next five years. He would never again have to work a single day in his life.