Police continue search for teen’s killer
There are no suspects in 13-year-old’s slaying, but investigators urge patience
The makeshift shrine of flowers is still there, but the person who killed Marrisa Shen in Burnaby’s Central Park is no closer to being caught as the one-year anniversary of the 13-year-old’s murder dawns.
In fact, the killer may be far away by now, an SFU criminologist and former police officer said.
“Probably long gone from the province and certainly long gone from Metro Vancouver,” Rob Gordon said.
The investigation has likely reached a phase requiring patience, he said.
“The police are always loath to wrap cases up if they haven’t been properly concluded. It means someone walks who doesn’t deserve to walk. (The police) are holding back a large amount of information, for sound reasons.
“From what I can piece together, they’re still very much looking but in a wait-and-watch phase of the investigation. I think they’ve ticked all the boxes, done all they can do for now.
“We don’t know what they discovered from the examination of the body, that usually is a major piece of evidence. We don’t know if it was a sexual assault gone awry, she may have fought back. I don’t know if she would have been killed otherwise.”
Shen’s body was found around 1 a.m. on July 19, 2017, an hour and a half after her mother reported her missing and almost six hours after she’d last been seen on a coffee shop security video.
The girl’s mother released a statement Tuesday thanking the people who have cared about her and helped her through the year.
“(I) hope the police capture the murderer as soon as possible to comfort my daughter and return safety to our community,” she said.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has no suspects, after pouring over 1,000 hours of closed-circuit video looking for clues. IHIT believes the murder was a random attack.
Shen’s last known whereabouts was a Tim Hortons on Central Boulevard. She was seen leaving around 7:30 p.m. on July 18 and appeared to be alone and unconcerned.
“She separates her garbage and puts it in the proper containers, the video shows a young woman aware of her situation, not on drugs,” Gordon said. “She goes for a walk in the park and never comes home.
“It’s tragic.”
In April the RCMP’s behavioural sciences group released a criminal profile of the unknown murderer, saying the person might have lived close to Central Park and behaved strangely after Shen’s body was discovered, by moving away from the neighbourhood or uncharacteristically avoiding Central Park and/or social activities, for instance.
Central Park can still be a dangerous place, especially if you’re on your own. On Sunday night a 73-year-old man was attacked shortly after 9 p.m., receiving what the police described as lifealtering injuries.
“Some friends are concerned and don’t let their kids go to the park,” said Corky Cortusan, who lives nearby. He’s been coming to the park for 20 years with his children and now his granddaughter.
“It’s a horrible thing to have a 13-year-old innocent girl killed,” he said. “It’s not right. What about the parents of that poor little girl?
“It’s been a year past and still nothing?”
A homicide remaining unsolved after a year, however, is not uncommon, the founder and president of the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases said.
“The most important thing is that the detectives never give up,” Kenneth Mains said. “Sometimes when the leads dry up, it is easy to sit and wait for that phone call that changes everything.
“Sometimes that phone call will never come, so you have to get up out of your chair and go talk to people in order to generate those leads.”