Nieces refuse to give up fighting for justice for Canada’s “Girl in Saskatoon,” their beloved aunt, Alexandra Wiwcharuk, murdered 62 years ago

In 1961, Johnny Cash was set to perform in Canada. In the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, specifically. Among the songs he would perform was his recent single “Girl in Saskatoon.” A local radio station sponsored a contest to choose a young woman for Cash to pluck out of the audience and sing the song to on stage.

The winner of the contest was a local beauty queen named Alexandra Wiwcharuk. Dateline spoke with Pearl Cherneske, one of Alexandra’s older sisters, who at 91 still remembers the excitement of that night. “That was so great that Johnny Cash was there and made that song, “Girl in Saskatoon,” she said. “I was there, too. That was so great.”

Just a year later, the Girl in Saskatoon would be dead. Alexandra “Alex” Wiwcharuk was just 23 years old.

According to her family, Alex had won multiple beauty contests by the time she turned 21. She was voted queen of the Kinette Skating Carnival in Yorkton in 1960.

That same year, she was Yorkton’s entrant in the province-wide Saskatchewan Wheat Queen contest. 

Alexandra was quite the “it girl.” Beautiful, outgoing, adored by friends and family. 

“She was a happy girl all the time,” Pearl told Dateline. “She was such a great girl that she just made everybody happy wherever she went. She just made everybody happy and smile and laugh.”

Alex was the youngest of 10 children — 6 boys and 4 girls — who grew up on a farm in Endeavor, outside of Saskatoon. One of those sisters is Ann Alexander. “She always smiled and made everybody happy, especially our parents,” Ann told Dateline about her little sister, Alex. “We were best friends when we were growing up because there was nobody else around by then.”

According to the family, Alex trained at the Yorkton Union Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1961. She started work at City Hospital in Saskatoon that September and lived in a basement apartment with three other nurses. 

Around 8:00 p.m. on May 18, 1962, the 23-year-old went for a walk before her night shift at the hospital.

Alex never showed up for work.

It was unlike Alexandra to miss work, so the hospital called her roommates. They told the hospital they didn’t know where Alex was. 

Ann Alexander said the roommates told the family Alex had said she was going to mail some letters before heading to the hospital for her shift. When she didn’t come back to the apartment, they assumed she had gone straight to work. “But she didn’t come back,” Ann said. “And in the morning, they thought, ‘Well, why isn’t she home?’”

Detective Sergeant Deanne Bakker of the Historical Case Unit of the Saskatoon Police Service told Dateline that one of Alex’s roommates, Pauline, called and reported her missing on May 19, 1962 at 10:15 a.m.

“On May 19th, 1962, police had the missing person report placed over the radio stations CKOM and CFQC and also provided the report to the local RCMP,” Det. Sgt. Bakker said. “As a result of the radio broadcasts, several individuals called or came in to the police station to report possibly seeing her or someone matching Alexandra’s description in or around Saskatoon.” 

Bakker told Dateline that the police took those statements and began interviewing those who had possibly last been seen with her. 

“Police also had a boat out on the river, checking the water and riverbanks,” Det. Sgt. Bakker said, adding that on May 23, 1962, one of their K9 dogs showed interest in two culverts on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River.

Police learned that Alex had been spotted at several locations that night on her walk — one being at a drugstore near her home between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. There were also some unconfirmed sightings afterward of her walking by the riverbank.

The search for Alexandra Wiwcharuk lasted 12 days. “They had everybody looking for her, airports and everything,” sister Ann recalled. “But I think it took two weeks before they could find her. And then they finally found her.”

It was on the evening of May 31, 1962. Around 9 o’clock, two young brothers playing by the river made the ghastly discovery. Alexandra had been buried in the riverbank where those earlier unconfirmed sightings had been reported. She was six blocks from her apartment.

The brothers ran to their father, who was fishing nearby, to tell him what they’d found. He called the police. 

According to a local newspaper article, one of Alexandra’s hands was partially sticking out of what was described as a shallow grave. She was nude from the waist down, and her clothing was ripped. Alexandra’s roommates identified the clothing as hers. The police chief at the time, Jim Kettles, called the crime “one of the most heinous and sadistic offences in Saskatoon for a long time.”

Ann said she got the news from her eldest sister, Marie. “Of course, we were devastated.”

Detective Sergeant Bakker told Dateline that the area where the Saskatoon Police Service K9 had taken interest two weeks earlier, was very close to where Alex’s body was found. She said that the cause of death was believed to be due to a fracture of the skull that caused a brain hemorrhage. “There were multiple injuries, including lacerations of the scalp, face and vulva, and abrasions of the skin,” she noted. “Which were all signs that she was the victim of a vicious sexual assault.”

The community was shaken by the news. According to Alex’s family, when Johnny Cash heard the news about her murder, he was on stage. He reportedly stopped the show, and told the audience they were going to have two minutes of silence in honor of the “Girl in Saskatoon.” It is said Cash never performed the song in concert again.

The police got straight to work investigating the murder. “Throughout the course of the investigation there [have] been over 600 statements taken,” Det. Sgt. Bakker said.

However, there have been no arrests, and Alex’s case has gone cold. 

It has been nearly 62 years since the murder. Only three of Alex’s siblings are still alive: Pearl, Ann, and their brother Daniel. Some of Alex’s nieces have teamed up to try to solve the case that has caused their family so much pain for so long -- to give their aunt’s remaining siblings answers. Dateline spoke with four of them. Patty Storie, Lynn Gratrix and Lorain Phillips are Pearl Cherneske’s daughters. Their cousin Bonnie Parker is the daughter of Alex’s brother Mike.

They were all children when their Aunt Alex was murdered. Patty and Lynn both told Dateline they have memories of crying every time Alex left their house. They remember not ever wanting to let go of her, and that they each had a very special relationship with her. 

“She was totally, totally outgoing. And she always laughed and she always played jokes. She was just an incredible person,” Lorain said. “There was nothing she couldn’t do or say to make things better.” 

“She was beautiful. It was kind of exciting because she was the only one in the family, really, that continued her education,” Bonnie added. 

The nieces remembered how devastating Alex’s murder was for the family.

“Mother just couldn’t believe it, just couldn’t believe that something would ever happen to her. It was very scary,” Lorain told Dateline. “Mother was just devastated, but it was a very terrible, sad time.” 

“[My mother] wouldn’t come out of her bedroom, she wouldn’t eat. My dad just kept on going in there and, you know, trying to console her… My mom was so depressed, so upset,” Lynn said. “She loved her baby sister. She couldn’t understand who would do such a thing. It was just so traumatizing in our household.”

“Myself and my family, we were just so disturbed,” Pearl Cherneske said, echoing her daughters’ recollections of the time following her sister’s death. “I lost 16 pounds in two weeks. I couldn’t eat or sleep or nothing for two weeks.”

Alex’s case going cold did not diminish the family’s desire to get answers and justice.

Detective Sergeant Bakker told Dateline that many potential suspects and persons of interest have been cleared over the years through DNA testing and that they “continue to investigate the file using all investigative tools.” In fact, in 2004, Alex’s body was exhumed to test for “suspect physical evidence,” Bakker said. She stressed that he “cannot comment if anything was found” as authorities “do not want to compromise the integrity of the investigation.”

In May of 2008, Alex’s nieces decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. They unveiled a billboard in downtown Saskatoon asking for tips in their aunt’s murder. 

 “We had to do something. We had to put every little moment that we do have a break from our family, as we’re getting older, to put a little bit of time into Alex’s case. And I think that once we started, and started getting more information and getting more information, it just boomed,” Lynn Gratrix said. “And at first you wouldn’t believe the phone calls we got, the emails we got. It was just incredible.”

 “We were doing this a lot for my mom, my grandmother, my grandfather, but also for us. We want some justice,” Lynn said. “And we wanted to say, ‘You just can’t go out and murder somebody because you had a bad day or something’s wrong,’ you know? Or some vengeance, or you’ve taken a life -- a life. And they don’t -- nobody ever understands what the family goes through. Nobody. Until it happens to you.”

In recent years, Lynn has been spearheading the investigation. She said she’s kept in very close contact with the police, pushing them to find answers. “There’s a lot of people that know [me], even if it’s just by phone call and email all across Canada. They even say, ‘How did you ever find me?’ But I took a few courses, and then I took a private investigators course -- and I passed with very high marks,” she said. “I could find anybody. I’m just very good at it. But my research is the main thing.”

Lynn said that she scoured through the Saskatoon phonebook starting with the year 1959 to find anyone who lived near Alex’s apartment. She also went through old newspapers to find anyone who was charged with rape, murder or assault in the area at the time. “I sent down 160 names after all that research. It took me over a year,” Lynn said. “I did profiles of every one of them to see if they’re still alive.”

“So when [the historical case worker] asked me for this information, it was no problem,” Lynn said. “I had it there.” Detective Sergeant Bakker confirmed that “the family has provided investigators with information they have discovered” and that there is an “open dialogue between the investigator and the family,” she said. “It was, like, a lot of work, but it was something I could try to give just to help Alex’s case,” Lynn said. "It was something that was needed.”

“The amount of work that my cousins had done, it’s beyond belief,” Alex’s niece Bonnie Parker said. 

The team of nieces, none of whom live in Saskatoon, have been making frequent visits there for years to follow up on Aunt Alex’s case. They are devoted to solving it and bringing their family closure, but know that they will eventually have to hand their work over to the next generation.

To that end, the nieces have been working on passing the torch to Chantelle Abanilla, who is Alexandra’s great-niece, the granddaughter of Alex’s oldest sister, Marie. “It’s always been a story, and something that I’ve had to live through my grandma and watch her -- in her dying days -- still not have that answer that she really wanted and to see justice for Alex,” Chantelle told Dateline. 

Patty Storie said Chantelle has been working behind the scenes for the last few years doing research. “I think she’s gonna go full-time with the investigation now, too,” she said. “Because we need the younger gals to help out.” 

Patty’s daughters, Samantha and Jessica Storie, have created a Facebook page and a website called “Justice for Alex” in the hope of spreading awareness and gaining public interest in Alex’s case. 

The Saskatoon Police service also posts to their social media accounts “on the anniversary of Alexandra’s death in hopes of renewing public interest,” Det. Sgt. Bakker said.

 “We appreciate everything anybody can do for us. Anything. And I would like to say to our mom, ‘We are trying our best,’” Lynn said. “I want to try my best to solve this case for her, my grandmother, my grandfather, her friends. And it’s the best gift I can give to my mom — to all of them.”

Detective Sergeant Bakker urges anyone with information about the murder of Alexandra Wiwcharuk, to please contact the Saskatoon Police Service at 306-975-8300.

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