On October 21, 2020, I published my first blog post about the unsolved murder of an unidentified John Doe nicknamed Septic Tank Sam found in Alberta, Canada in 1977. After more investigations, news has been released that Septic Tank Sam was identified as Gordon Edwin Sanderson in June 2021 after being unidentified for 44 years!
Gordon Edwin Sanderson, who went by Gordie, was born in Manitoba, Canada on October 22, 1950. Gordon was an Indigenous child apart of the “Sixties Scoop”, which was a policy released in Canada in the 1960s in which Indigenous children were taken from their families and put into foster homes to later be adopted by white families. He was placed in this system when he was 9 years old. Because of his upbringing, Gordon struggled with drug addictions and had multiple run ins with the police.
At the time of his murder, Gordon was living in Edmonton and was actually planning to go to Calgary to visit his brother Arthur. Gordon’s body was discovered on April 13, 1977 in Alberta, Canada on a farmer’s property. His body was found in a septic tank on the property, which gave the once unidentified Gordon the nickname “Septic Tank Sam”. Due to the state of decomposition and the brutality of the murder, it was difficult to identify Gordon.
Before his death, Gordon was tortured in multiple ways by his killer(s) by being tied up, beaten, burnt with items such as cigarettes and butane torch, as well as being sexually mutilated. It was said that the sexual mutilation was so severe that it took the medical examiner months to even determine if Gordon’s body was male or female. Gordon’s ultimate cause of death was two gunshots wounds, one to the head and one to the chest.
At first, investigators believed that Gordon was either a Caucasian or Indigenous man that was not from Alberta. Due to the lack of evidence at the septic tank, it was also determined that Gordon was not killed there and that his body was just dumped in that area. It was also believed that due to the brutality of the murder, Gordon may have personally known his killer or killers who were familiar to the area that the body was dumped at. It is also believed that his killers may no longer be alive.
Gordon’s body was exhumed many times since he was discovered in hopes to figure out his identify, but over the years, it was not very successful. One of the officers who was originally working or Gordon’s case didn’t think that Gordon would ever be identified. But in January 2021, the once “Septic Tank Sam” was finally identified as 26 year old Gordon Edwin Sanderson after his DNA was submitted to a lab in Texas for testing and was matched to his sister who is still living. On June 30, 2021, police publicly released Gordon’s identification. Gordon’s last remaining family is his older sister and his daughter. He was reported missing in the 1980s by his sister.
Many people doubted that Septic Tank Sam would be identified, but this has been proven wrong. This case shows that despite how long these cases may be unsolved or these victims are unidentified, we must always have faith that it can be solved. Thanks to the advanced technology we have now, so many of these unidentified people will be given their names back and their killers will be brought to justice. The next step to Gordon’s case is to figure out who did this to him. Although it is believed his killers may be dead, that in no way means they cannot be identified. I believe that this revelation is getting closer and this case will finally be solved!
Resources-
Septic Tank Sam
TRUE CRIME REPORT 