The family of a 53-year-old woman who was murdered seven years ago while jogging on a sunny afternoon in Pacific Spirit Regional Park is offering a $30,000 reward in an attempt to catch the killer or killers of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry.
Peter Ladner, brother of Ladner-Beaudry, made the announcement Friday at RCMP headquarters in Vancouver. The announcement came two days before the seventh anniversary of Ladner-Beaudry’s death on April 3, 2009.
“This money has been put up by the family, not the police,” said Ladner, who was joined by other family members and Staff Sgt. Wayne Clary, team commander of the homicide investigation. “But all tips must go directly to the police. The reward is held in trust and will only be released when someone has been arrested and charged for this murder, based on information received by the police in the next 12 months.”
Ladner announced the reward after reporters heard from Clary that police have no suspects in the case after investigating more than 300 “persons of interest.” Clary said police have not received any new tips or leads for investigators to follow.
“We still firmly believe that someone out there knows something,” Clary said. “This is a terrible crime and one that must weigh on a person’s mind, whether they know a bit of information or know who may have involvement in the commission of this crime.”
So far, police have treated the murder as a random crime, with Clary clarifying that police won’t know the motivation for the homicide until investigators identify the killer.
“There’s no evidence to support, or to the contrary,” he said. “We’re still kind of in the dark as to who this may be.”
Ladner-Beaudry died while jogging in Pacific Spirit Regional Park, where she would often run 10 kilometres or longer. She lived nearby in a house at the end of Highbury Street, where she and her husband Michel raised daughters Maya and Jenna.
A hiker discovered Ladner-Beaudry’s body in the early afternoon of April 3 on a trail near the intersection of Camosun Street and Southwest Marine Drive. Some two hours later, her husband and one of her daughters rode their bikes to West 41st and Camosun in search of Ladner-Beaudry because she had failed to pick up her daughter at school that day.
“The moment I saw the police tape, I knew Wendy was dead,” Michel told the Courier a few days after the murder. “I knew it right away. I wasn’t sure whether she had been hit by a car or beaten to death, but I knew right away. I knew it was her.”
Michel and his daughters did not attend Friday’s press conference. But Ladner read a statement from Michel, who also urged the murderer or anyone with knowledge of the crime to contact police.
“For the last seven years, my daughters and I have had to deal with the loss of the most generous and outgoing woman one could ever want to meet,” Beaudry said in his statement. “My children’s mother, their mentor, my life partner, my best friend – she’s gone forever. And the toll on our lives has been terrible, for Wendy is no longer here to challenge us, to make us laugh, to help us see the world as a positive happy place she always believed it was.”
Michel said the biggest torment for the family is not having any closure after losing Ladner-Beaudry. He said his sleep is tortured and his dreams are full of questions. Every night before he goes to bed, he said, he wonders what his wife’s killer is doing at that moment.
“Who could have done this to my caring, beautiful, intelligent spouse? Who could have taken her life with such casual disregard? But this issue is bigger than just my family’s pain. The person we’re looking for has killed and they’ll kill again. Unless we work together to bring this brutal murderer to justice, there will be more women’s victim’s names on the front pages of our newspapers.”
Ladner described his sister as a wise mother, a loving wife, a compassionate sister, a loyal friend, a cheerful mentor, a dedicated community member, a healthy living advocate, a strong athlete, a running companion, a lover of the outdoors and a great Scrabble player.
She would have turned 60 Wednesday.
Ladner said the park will not be safe until his sister’s killer is captured.
“People from all over the region who use the park do not feel the same way about it as they once did,” he said. “They too have lost a piece of their lives because of this senseless crime.”
Ladner said the family has made posters advertising the $30,000 reward. Anyone interested in circulating the posters in their neighbourhoods, can send an email to wendyladnerbeaudry@gmail.com. Anyone with information on the homicide can contact the RCMP tip line at 778-290-5291, Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or post a message on the Crimestoppers website at solvecrime.ca
mhowell@vancourier.com
@Howellings
