Septic Tank Sam

To kick off this blog, my first post will be covering the unsolved murder of “Septic Tank Sam”, an unidentified homicide victim whose remains were found inside of a septic tank, giving him the nickname.

“Sam’s” body was discovered on April 13, 1977 by a local resident of Tofield, Alberta, Canada. The resident was looking for a septic tank to replace a pump on the one he had, so he chose to use a spare one that was located behind a vacant barn on part of his property. When the resident took the cover off of the spare septic tank, he was shocked to find a human foot sticking out of the water of the tank.

The resident called the RCMP to the scene. While at the scene, the officers used empty ice cream pails to scoop the water out of the septic tank, which took about an hour. After all the scooping, the body was discovered.

The body of Septic Tank Sam was found wrapped in a yellow bed sheet and tied up with a nylon rope. He was last wearing a blue Levi shirt with buttons, a gray t-shirt, blue jeans, and imitation Wallabee shoes.

During the autopsy, the medical examiner found that Sam was a male of Causcasian or Native descent and was estimated to be about 28 years old. His bones and teeth showed that he possibly suffered from some type of illness as a young child. He was also believed to possibly worked as a laborer or some type of transient. Sam’s cause of death was determined to be two gunshot wounds to the head and chest. However, before his death, Sam was tortured so horribly in unimaginable ways.

Warning ⚠️ graphic details below

First, Sam was beaten and tied up. He was burned with both cigarettes and a butane torch. His genitalia was mutilated with farm shears. It was determined that Sam’s body had been in the septic tank for months, quite possibly even a year. After his death, Sam was covered in quicklime, which is a chemical compound of calcium oxide that is known to speed up decomposition of remains, which is what Sam’s killer(s) were more than likely trying to do.

Because of the level of decomposition and the mutilation inflicted on the body, it took months for the medical examiner to even determine Sam’s gender!

Because of the lack of evidence at the location, the RCMP determined that Sam was murdered elsewhere and his remains were just dumped at the septic tank. They also determined that the murder(s) were local of the area where Sam’s body was found in because how else would they know that there was an abandoned barn with an empty septic tank that they could hide a body in?? They had to be familiar with the area. The RCMP also believe that the killer(s) knew the victim because of the brutality of the murder.

Sam’s body was exhumed twice in the years of 1979 and again in 2000. However, these led to no further information regarding Sam’s murder or the person(s) that killed him.

After hearing of the murder, the town of Tofield, which had about 1,200 residents at the time of Sam’s murder, were terrified. Even other farmers began checking their own septic tanks to make sure there weren’t any unknown bodies stored inside. Because this was such a small town, everyone was paranoid that the murder(s) could be anyone around them, even people they were close to. Some people suspected that Sam was possibly murdered for committing a sex crime or being unfaithful in a relationship. However, we don’t even know who Sam is, so we cannot make these assumptions at this moment.

To this day, we do not know who Sam is. Someone out there knows who he really is and the truth will be brought to light. Although the RCMP do not believe that Sam’s murder will ever be solved unless someone with information comes forward, I believe that there is still a chance. Now we have advanced technology and so many cold cases are being solved and families are getting closure. We have to remember that Sam was a human too, not just some murder victim. There’s someone out there that cares about him and they deserve to get closure. Sam also deserves justice for what was done to him and eventually, that day will come.

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