38 days after a family’s life was changed forever, and a southern Alberta community was put on edge, RCMP had the answer it had been hoping for.
“Today, just after 1 pm, members of the Alberta major crimes unit successfully and safely arrested 28-year-old Elijah Blake Strawberry at a residence in O’Chiese First Nation,” Alberta RCMP Chief Superintendent, Roberta McKale, told reporters at a news conference in Edmonton late Friday.
It’s a conclusion police had been working towards since Aug. 6, when Colin Hough, a Rocky View County employee, was shot and killed north of Chestermere, and a FortisAlberta employee, was also injured.
The search also involved officers in Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge, and provincial sheriffs, eventually ending in the First Nation north of Rocky Mountain House – some 250 km north-west of where it started.
“I don’t know of many members that when we were stopped fueling up our vehicles, that we weren’t keeping an eye out looking for him,” McKale explained.
“Sitting down with friends and family for dinner, you always had an eye open for this individual.”
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Five days after the shooting, Strawberry’s alleged accomplice – Arthur Wayne Penner – was arrested on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
But it took another 33 days, and the involvement of hundreds of officers, before Strawberry was found.
Crime isn’t what you see on Law and Order and all of the movies that we go to,” Doug King, a Criminal Justice professor at Mount Royal University, told Global News Friday.
“Things don’t get wrapped up in an hour.”
RCMP had offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information that would lead their officers to Strawberry.
But McKale wouldn’t if say it was a public tip that led her officers to O’Chiese First Nation Friday afternoon.
“The Major Crimes Unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in another residence.”
While the length of time Strawberry was able to evade police isn’t unprecedented, King says investigations like this showcase the connectivity of all the agencies involved – and the cost of doing so.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the total cost of the investigation from start to end to the point of bringing the individuals into a court of law would have been in excess of a million dollars.”
Mounties are still asking for more tips on the shootings.
Anyone with information is asked to call Strathmore RCMP at 403-934-3535. Anonymous information can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
