Police hope survivor will piece together mystery of Alberta's roadside rampage
Postmedia News
Dec 16, 2011 • Last Updated December 16, 2011 • 5 minute read
Photo courtesy the Guardian
CLARESHOLM, Alta. — Police believe a badly injured woman who survived a roadside shooting in Alberta may be the only person who can provide a first-hand account of the horrific slayings.
The gunman, believed to be the jilted ex-boyfriend of one of the victims, sprayed bullets at two men and two women travelling together on a busy highway just north of Claresholm, Alta. — about 100 km south of Calgary — before turning the weapon on himself in early Thursday morning.
The two men, Mitch Maclean, 20, of Cornwall, P.E.I., and Tanner Craswell, who just turned 22 on Wednesday, of Charlottetown, were on their way to the Calgary airport to return home to Prince Edward Island for the Christmas holidays.Shayna Conway, also in her early 20s, survived the shooting and is recovering in hospital.
RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said Conway, believed to be the girlfriend of one of the victims, could provide missing details on the shootings.
"Our primary concern is she recover from this," said Webb. "We believe she's going to be able to provide us with a large amount of information about what happened and the circumstances."
Webb said authorities are considering domestic violence as a potential motive, but haven't reached any conclusions.
Social media sites identified the dead woman as Tabitha Stepple.
The mass killing stunned the rural Alberta town and devastated friends and families of the victims, all in their 20s.
Montana's Cookhouse, where Stepple worked, wasn't open Thursday night. A note on the door said the business was closed due to a "death in the family."
Claresholm Mayor David Moore said the town of 3,700 residents was completely taken aback by what happened.
"We don't have anything like this happen in Claresholm. It's a pretty huge event for a town our size."
Claresholm resident Brent Chimko said locals chatting at a coffee shop this morning were initially curious if the crime involved anyone from town.
"It's shocking. I've never seen anything like this," he said, eying the crime scene from the side of the highway.
Already, some are saying the incident may have started at a 7-Eleven store in town.
"It's just hearsay," said Chimko, who added he lives near the shop and didn't see or hear anything unusual.
The men, close friends, were infielders with the Lethbridge Bulls in the 2011 season, according to the website roster. They also attended a developmental baseball academy in Lethbridge, Alta.
The Prairie Baseball Academy (PBA) has been the pioneering force behind the formation of a Canadian-based two-year College Level Baseball League. Both were alumni of the program, and Craswell was helping to coach this fall.
Maclean was an infielder and a member of the P.E.I. baseball team in the 2009 Canada Summer Games on the Island. He also played four years with the P.E.I. Youth Selects developmental team. He was scouted for the PBA in Lethbridge from the 2009 Canada Cup in Kindersley, Sask.
Thursday evening, inside the PBA field house in Lethbridge, Coach Hubka spoke of how Craswell and Maclean embodied the baseball academy's values of "Pride, Dedication, Opportunity."
Craswell's former coach at Vauxhall Baseball Academy said the Alberta teammates of the young men are grappling with what happened.
Les McTavish said he first heard news of the shooting while driving to baseball practice in the morning but only learned later who was involved. "You never in your wildest dreams expect it to be someone you know, somebody you're close with. It's extremely sad."
McTavish coached Craswell when the young man moved from P.E.I. in 2008 and continued to mentor the player, considered a rising star in baseball. "He was a super kid. He was an extremely talented baseball player."
"When the umpire said 'play ball,' he was one of the kids you wanted in the lineup or playing shortstop for you, he gave everything he had every day," McTavish said. "It's a tragedy. For our young athletes for our program right now, it hopefully puts life into perspective."
Hubka began phoning players when he heard the news, but said it didn't take long for word to spread among alumni and others affiliated with the team, who began streaming over to the field house.
"The Prairie Baseball Academy's a big family. Baseball's like a big family — we're not big like hockey, so everybody knows everybody in baseball in Canada," he said.
Both players' families are a long way away, but Hubka said they are not being forgotten.
"We love them, and we're with them," he said.
Prairie Baseball Academy president Mel Collier said the current team has many players from P.E.I. and New Brunswick.
"They really looked up to Mitch and Tanner," said Collier, who is also director of the Lethbridge Bulls team, where both players had played summer ball.
Earlier in the day, Claresholm residents awoke to the jarring news, which quickly became the talk of the town
Linda Petryshen, general manager of Motel 6, said her business is just south of the scene and that police cruisers and a Volker Stevin truck were blocking the entire highway going north.
It's disturbing to hear that police are probing multiple deaths, said resident Trudi Alsgard.
"I feel bad for whoever it was. It's so close to Christmas," she said.
Leona Richter said nothing like this has ever happened in town in her 13 years as a resident.
"We've had a few drug busts in the last two years, but nothing like this," she said. "Everybody we've talked to says this is pretty scary."
Craswell played baseball at the College of Southern Idaho, then came back to play ball at Prairie Baseball Academy and for the Lethbridge Bulls. Craswell is the son of longtime senior softball and baseball shortstop Keith 'Crash' Craswell of Charlottetown.
Maclean had just signed a letter of intent with NCAA Div. 2 Arkansas Monticello. Maclean was signed to help the UAM Weevils in playing all infield positions, pitching, and catching.
The PBA coaching staff said that Maclean was scheduled to hit in the heart of the team's lineup.
This past May, Maclean was named to the second all-star team as a second baseman for the 2011 Canadian College Baseball Conference.
Maclean was also a key member of the Charlottetown Gaudet's Auto Body Islanders in their inaugural year in 2010 in the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League. He didn't play this past season because of baseball commitments in Western Canada.
Maclean is also well known as a midget and junior hockey player in Charlottetown.
The deadly scene played out at 3:30 a.m.
Claresholm RCMP were called to the northbound lane of Highway 2 north of the town for reports of gunfire.
They found two vehicles, three bodies and two wounded victims.
The gunman shot to death a man and woman at the scene, before killing himself.
A man was flown to Calgary's Foothills Hospital in critical condition, but later died. A woman was rushed via ground ambulance to the hospital and is recovering from her injuries.
The Guardian and Calgary Herald with files from Jason van Rassel, Clara Ho, Meghan Potkins, Bill McGuire, Jamie Komarnicki and National Post staff