Stephanie Stewart | Missing | Hinton AB (August 2006)

[D1]

I too believe the Kleman connection is likely just speculation at this point. Doubt he has been questioned or if he would answer given his present charges and with a lawyer speaking for him. If Kleman's name was found on a visitor log or some such thing though, he would immediately go to the top of the list IMO.

The water pot;
as Dez said,

It would be good to know her routine, but one thing is for sure, she boiled water every morning as her daily supply.

Cape mentions why not throw it at the perp? That didn't happen. Why? It's either too early and water not boiled yet, too heavy, or she wasn't afraid of the perp or was surprised by him. We don't know what locks or security she had.

Des sort of insinuated, the water boiling was a well known part of her routine and associated with a particular time. Could someone, well acquainted with Stephanie, have staged this part to disguise an earlier incident at a time for which they had no alibi for themselves? Then get back home early and it looks like Steph just disappeared in the morning and not over night. Early morning is a strange time to do this in a location where people will be known to be frequenting and where unexpected visitors could arrive at any moment..Especially if there was some preplanning..Now you have a body with you in the morning, it's daylight and have to transport her, physically carry her, then dispose of and conceal her? Sure it's all possible, but if there was planning, it's a little strange... apparently there were thousands of visitors a year coming here.

Suppose she was taken much earlier at night though giving the perp lots of time to "arrange" things. Who would fit the parameters required for that scenario to take place? It would be a short list, I can see at least one possibility but without added info, really just speculation. Something just seems so  "off" with the whole situation that it makes me wonder???

[lostlinganer]

Suppose she was taken much earlier at night though giving the perp lots of time to "arrange" things. Who would fit the parameters required for that scenario to take place? It would be a short list,

D1; this makes so much sense.  It would explain a lot.  ....and it would have to be a fairly close acquaintance or at least somebody who knew her routine well enough to get her out of there and go back and make things appear normal.....maybe too normal!

[CCF]

A few things popped in my mind after reading this thread.

The missing bedsheets: 
Like someone said, may have been used to wrap her body...but I'm thinking more along the lines of DNA (or both).  Did she perhaps have a family member or any friend who came out to visit her as she was elderly?  Someone who may have slept in the same bed, therefore leaving trace evidence behind (hair, clothing fibers,etc.).  The missing bedsheets tell me this person planned to leave with all the DNA he came in with; as there were also no signs of forced entry, I'm convinced this person more than likely spent the night there and knew Stephanie very well. The "last link on the left" article posted earlier in the thread has an interesting statement where an Alberta Sustainable Resources spokesman stated "spotters do not have to be out there alone.  They can have pets, a spouse, friends, family & pets stay with them."

*I am not saying she was raped or had consentual sex with someone, although that is a possibility in regards to the bedsheets* 


The mention of a missing watch:
Very strange to mention this...of all things to note missing, a watch but there is no description to be found of it.  This must be a very strong piece of evidence to note as missing.  Was it that valuable or does it have a certain inscription on it to identify it as hers?  I'm thinking this a ploy by investigators to trick the perp into thinking it's valuable, thereby hoping to trick him into pawning it off.  If she wore jewlery, you'd think there'd be mention of other pieces like rings or a necklace.  There is a key significance to this watch when read between the lines.

Absence of blood or signs of a struggle:
No reported evidence of either as most of the time it is reported if there was a struggle or not.  All that was left was a pot of water on the stove...one report states it was a pot, another a kettle.  Small difference, but significant all the same.  One important question which has not been asked yet is were there any coffee cups left out at the scene?  Just one...or was there two, meaning she had company and planned on sharing her morning coffee.  Call it a force of habit, but when I make coffee at home, I grab my cup out of the cupboard before it's ready.  Most of the guys do the same here at work as well and now that I think of it, I recall my parents doing the same.  Not saying she did the same thing, but it is possible.  She may not have had a chance to get them out though if she was attacked when she turned her back.  This makes me think there was some sort of inhalant used to knock her out, like chloroform or something similar to it.  She may have been 70, but according to those who knew her, she was tough as nails so you'd think there'd be signs of a struggle...unless she was somehow subdued very quickly.

Tangibles:

As her vehicle was left there, the perp had his own method of transportation.  How closely was the employee checking in on her interviewed...not saying he/she should be a suspect, but this person had to have missed the perp by about 10 minutes if the water was still boiling.  There's only one road in and one road out to Highway 40 from the tower (or so it appears) so I wonder if this person recalls seeing any vehicles on Hwy 40 on his/her way out to the tower.  It is known the weather was dry, so there would have been dust and lots of it from the gravel road to the tower (photos show gravel); if this person recalls seeing dust in the air then it did happen minutes prior to his/her arrival.  Lastly, when did she last check in...S.R.D. states their spotters check in 3 times per day.  I'm assuming morning, noon & evening.  All it says is she didn't check in for her morning report, so she had to have checked in the night prior otherwise they would have gone out the night prior.  Two things with this:  The perp was already there and she knew this person well enough to not report she had someone staying with her that night or the perp showed up after her nightly check in, again knowing him well enough not to call back in.  My guess is a family member or someone very close to her is responsible and the RCMP have a very good idea who it is, just not enough proof.

This just dawned on me...perhaps it is totally coincidental, but it wouldn't surprise me if the video holds an important key (indicated in last link on the left site).  Here I go again thinking like a criminal...but if it is a family member responsible, who shot the video?  It has a time stamp, showing the exact times of when she filled her reports, what time she started her day, her morning routine and when she checked in with her supervisors.  It's apparently a video of her daily activities...taken mere weeks before she disappeared.  Something is not adding up with this, or it's just my "everyone is a suspect" mentality.  Her daily events are all on tape to study...it also allowed the perp to be more familiar with the interior of the cabin.  The 44 second video link wouldn't work on that site, but it's stated the video was shown without audio.  There is a reason why the video is without audio...it gives too many details away, like the videographers voice and who else was present.  I'm looking at family alot closer because of this if I was an investigator.

Here's the link again:
http://www.lastlinkontheleft.com/e2006other060826.html

[D1]

Very good CCF, it is quite possible that everyone in the "know" has a good idea who the suspect is..just no body, no DNA, no proof..The video supplies all the info someone would need to set it all up..How many people saw the video before she disappeared?

as you said;

As her vehicle was left there, the perp had his own method of transportation.  How closely was the employee checking in on her interviewed...not saying he/she should be a suspect, but this person had to have missed the perp by about 10 minutes if the water was still boiling.

dependant on the size of pot, temperature setting and a few variables, someone had to have started it sometime. The supervisor, must have lived fairly close by to have arrived when he did..

The story behind the watch and it's origins could be quite telling.

[CCF]

Very good CCF, it is quite possible that everyone in the "know" has a good idea who the suspect is..just no body, no DNA, no proof..The video supplies all the info someone would need to set it all up..How many people saw the video before she disappeared?

as you said;

As her vehicle was left there, the perp had his own method of transportation.  How closely was the employee checking in on her interviewed...not saying he/she should be a suspect, but this person had to have missed the perp by about 10 minutes if the water was still boiling.

dependant on the size of pot, temperature setting and a few variables, someone had to have started it sometime. The supervisor, must have lived fairly close by to have arrived when he did..

The story behind the watch and it's origins could be quite telling.

It says the tower is 25 km northwest of Hinton...so we're looking at about 20 minutes tops?  You're right though, the size of pot is a variable and by the sounds of things her supervisor made his way out there when she didn't report in.  Family also heard from her Friday night according to the report, which raised my suspicions as well.  After my post above, I got to thinking of a few more things and a few more items caught my eye from the "last link" site.  Who stands to benefit from the disappearance/murder of elderly people and for what motive?  Usually, it's family benefits & money is the motive.  To analyze this a bit, the report says she lived in Canmore during the off-season away from the fire tower duties and she's lived there for 20 years.

Let's assume a couple of things:
1) She owned property in Canmore
2) After 20 years, she was probably mortgage free or close to it.

A listing for a house on a lot in Canmore begins around $585,000 and list in excess of $2 million; so low end was probably $500,000 in '06.  Even if her home was a "fixer-upper", it was still worth at least half a million dollars...that is a lot of money.

I wonder how the relationship was with her family.  Was it strained or was it a healthy one?  The statement read by her daughter really has me thinking they are involved more than what is suspected.

"Thank you for coming. I’m Lorie, Stephanie is my mother.

We all love Stephanie very much and are very concerned that she is missing and has been for six days. We ask that anyone with any information about her disappearance to please come forward.

We also encourage you to contact police if you have any information about other individuals who may be involved in Stephanie's disappearance.

We thank every person and there has been so many. Every person who has given so much time and effort to search for Mom. Thank you for your care and energy.

We wish to thank the Hinton RCMP for this and other efforts to obtain information related to Stephanie’s disappearance.

If you have any information, please contact Hinton RCMP or any police agency or Crime Stoppers. Please help to bring her home.

Thank you."

A few things stood out to me in this statement:

1) She doesn't refer to her as "Mom" or "Mother" but as Stephanie, except for one part of the statement.  If they had a normal mother-daughter relationship and she was making a plea for her mother's safe return, one would think she'd call her "Mom" every single time, not by her first name for the majority of the statement.  This makes me think their personal relationship may have been strained.

2) She asks for the public to come forward to give information about "other individuals involved"...how would she know if there is more than just one person involved?

3) "Please help to bring her home".  This is the most precarious of them all.  To me, this sounds like they already know she's dead and it's a body recovery mission, as if to say "Please bring her body home".  Why not make a plea to the abductor and say "please return her safely" or "we are praying you will turn up alive & well".  This is just a bizarre thing to say.

I realize the statement was prepared by family, but it just struck me as an odd & unusual sounding public statement.  I'm not saying the daughter should be the #1 suspect, but someone in that family should be...the video is just too ominous and coincidental.

[D1]

Would add one more thing, Stephanie obviously had a husband or partner somewhere along the line..Haven't heard a single thing about any relationship. Alder mentioned earlier about how Stephanie's strong independant nature could be a contributing factor to whatever occured.

[CCF]

Good point D1...gotta be an ex in there somewhere along the way.  The daughter looks like she's about 45 in the pic...would write more, but am off to play hockey.  No mention of a husband anywhere...perhaps he passed and she never met anyone else afterwards??

[D1]

Or did she meet someone else but it didn't work out all that well for her!! This is the problem with a lot of the unsolved cases on here, with so little information to work with, speculation can become rampant..We look for the smoking gun, the anomalies, that one little piece of evidence or info to point the finger but sometimes it just isn't there. We end up with more possibilities than when we began. Someone removed most of the evidence..the watch could be totally coincidental. Fingerprints on the pot would be interesting..Guess we could explain the presence of Stephanie's and the supervisor's prints. hmmm..

[lostlinganer]

really good points going on here - However, I always alude to one of the main reasons a person might need to be eliminated:  they know something or saw something; and for whatever reason, whether quick decision or  planned act, it could have been decided she was "a risk".
There a all kinds of criminal activities happening - even in monitored areas - sometimes especially in monitored areas (inside corruption) - here's a scenario based on something I saw myself years ago .... I won't get into the long story but:
a large orange or florescent cloth (X marker or cross) is layed out on the ground in a clearing - this is a "drop spot" for a small plane .... or a "pick up/spot" for a small helicopter ..... the scheduled event takes place and the marker cloth is rolled up and tucked away until next time.   ....whose to say certain culprit/s didn't see, suspect, or know of Stepanie witnessing something suspicious.  Perhaps she even reported something and was pushing for answers as to results.  ....Just my suspicious mind here....  some fairly bad corruption on the East Coast! ....even more on the West Coast!

[capeheart]

I am in agreement with the fact that this was thought out and planned. I believe that the theory about the water boiling was a set up, because they knew of her routine. I basically thought that maybe the crime was committed in the wee hours of the morning, before the busy start of the day. I am convinced that whoever committed this crime was well known to Stephanie. I hope that more can be done to find out what really happened to Stephanie. Also, as you say the comments from her daughter calling her Stephanie. The only time I ever heard that comment before is when their mother did not raise the child, that someone else raised her. There is a close relative of mine that was raised by his grandmother and he always called her mom and his real mother, he called her by her given name. And even after his grandmother has passed away, his real mother is living and he still calls her by her given name. So maybeStephanie did not raise her daughter, she may have been raised by a grandmother or a family member.

[Desespere]

Yes, I agree, in August 2006 the real estate market was heating up big time in Canmore, Calgary, Edmonton, all those areas. But Canmore, particularly expensive.

Stephanie's disappearance is being treated as a homicide. I do not know if she has been declared dead because of this. I know nothing of estates and how property would be distributed.

The watch was something the killer wanted, that is for sure. It might have been an afterthought, it might have been a trophy, or it was something the killer had a specific adoration for.

Personally, when a senior goes missing, and many have in the area in the couple of years around Stephanie's disappearance, never to be found, I feel there is some family involvement.

Many older seniors missing, particularly men, were last seen leaving the home they appeared to share with family because of their own illness, alzheimers, that kind of thing. And since they are put somewhere they are never found again, it is a mystery and no one is ever charged with killing their senior relative.

Part of me feels someone other than family knew Stephanie and her routine but that is lessening, the feeling she was killed by a serial offender, like Klemen, is waning and I am moving more toward someone very close to her.

[capeheart]

Des, I have commented on this before and I am definitely going to agree with you. Stephanie was, I believe a victim of homicide. I do believe she was killed by someone that was going to gain something by her death. Be it insurance, property, whatever. It could have been a family member, someone that wanted her property, someone that was going to gain from her death. And I believe if the police investigated in that area, they would find the killer, they can put the pieces of the puzzle together and they will get a surprise when they find the answer to this crime. This is my opinion and I have felt it since I started reading the posts, I do not believe a stranger was responsible for whatever happened in the disappearance of Stephanie.

[Chris]

I got this message today:


i think Kleman killed her ... He was working for Begg construction at the time and Kleman was posted in that area at that time when stephanie stewart went missing ..

[capeheart]

Chris, that is something that should be looked into. But now we have Vader and I had posted it on the site of the McCann's, because is Hinton close to where Vader lived?? It is so sad that Stephanie has never been found and nobody can lay her to rest.

[Carol-Lynn]

"think Kleman killed her".(QUOTE)

When I first heard about the missing couple from St Albert the first thing that popped into my mind was this lady ( Stephanie ) I ran a got out a map to see just how close Ninton was from were she was last posted at the watch tower.

I guess we will have to wait for more news to come out about the case.