Thursday, July 30, 1981 -- Louise Chartrand

Louise Chartrand,victim

After meeting with the police earlier in the day, that evening Olson went to meet his lawyer, Bob Shatz. On the way, he spotted 17-year-old Louise Chartrand, who was described as “very tiny and young-looking for her age.” The youngest of seven children, she had migrated from Quebec with three of her sisters, settling in the Fraser Valley town of Maple Ridge, about 20 miles east of Vancouver.

In reconstructing the events, the police believed that Louise hitchhiked part of the way to her night-shift waitress job with a man. After she was dropped off, she headed for the store in downtown Mission to buy cigarettes. It was only a 10-minute walk from the restaurant where she worked. During this time Olson got her into his car, drugged her, and headed to Whistler. On the way, he even stopped with Chartrand in his car at the Squamish RCMP detachment to pick up a confiscated gun, but was turned away because the officer in charge of court exhibits was not available. Then, Olson headed for the treacherous Killer Highway, named by the locals because of the numerous fatal car crashes that followed the snow. It led to Whistler, another 45 minutes from Squamish.

Olson drove into a gravel pit, north of the ski resort, and then smashed the girl’s skull with repeated hammer blows, burying her in a shallow grave.

Louise’s fellow employees at Bino’s restaurant checked with her family when she did not arrive for her 8 p.m. shift. One of Louise’s sisters telephoned the RCMP detachment the next morning.

The RCMP took action, immediately suspecting foul play: “We know she isn’t a runaway, the fact that she is missing is inconsistent with her normal pattern of behavior,” said Insp. Pat Wilson. And Sgt. George Nussbaumer had declared, “It’s not as if she is running away from an unhappy home.”