Two-time killer took own life after stabbing roommate

Police say John Gearhart died hours after stabbing his roommate to death

Edmonton police have confirmed that a man found not criminally responsible in 2008 for beating his father-in-law to death with a hammer killed an Edmonton woman last year, then took his own life.

Police said Wednesday that John Thomas Gearhart, 37, killed his roommate Patricia Roach in October by stabbing her to death at her house on 130th Avenue near 123rd Street. Police say Roach, 54, is believed to have been murdered late on Oct. 21 or the following day.

Gearhart killed himself on Oct. 22. He drove his Chevy Malibu onto train tracks in front of a moving locomotive on Township Road 531 and Range Road 262, outside Edmonton.

Roach’s body was found at her house two days later, on the afternoon of Oct. 24.

Gearhart had been found not criminally responsible for killing his former father-in-law, Gordon Medland, 60, and for attacking Medland’s wife, Barbara, 54, with a hammer July 5, 2006.

Experts for the Crown and defence testified that Gearhart, who was then 29, was suffering from a mental disorder due to childhood sexual trauma when he attacked his in-laws, after mistakenly jumping to the conclusion that his fatherin-law had been sexually assaulting Gearhart’s children.

After Gearhart was found not criminally responsible in January 2008, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Dennis Hart ruled he should appear before the Alberta Mental Health Review Board within 45 days.

Hart said Gearhart would likely spend at least several years at the secure Alberta Hospital Edmonton for extensive treatment.

Defence lawyer Noel O’Brien previously told the Journal he lost contact with Gearhart after the trial.

“I just know he was obviously deeply troubled,” O’Brien said, speaking last fall after Roach’s death. “These things, they’re lifelong demons, so I think that in these circumstances, it’s not that unusual.

“I’ve seen this before where people have been found (not criminally responsible) and they still have to live with the consequences. It’s not that unusual. I’ve seen suicides in these cases before.”

Steve Critchley, the Medland family spokesman during the trial, expressed disgust in the fall about the possibility that Gearhart had killed again.

“The whole thing was just a complete incompetence on the whole legal system. It was just a complete, absolute farce,” he said. “This is a very ugly, ugly, ugly situation that could have been prevented with proper due diligence.”

Roach was Edmonton’s 18th homicide of 2015. The file is now considered closed by police.

I’ve seen this before where people have been found (not criminally responsible) and they still have to live with the consequences.