Keith R. Sutherland

Divisions Served: “E,” “K”

Medals & Honours: Long Service Medal with Silver Bar, Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal

Pillar Location: Pillar X, Row 5, Column F

Story: 

My service in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began in April, 1972 when I was sworn in by the OIC Red Deer Sub/Division in Red Deer, Alberta. Also present at my swearing-in was my uncle, Staff Sergeant Major Bruce Sutherland, a man who played a huge part in my becoming a member of the Force. At that time, I became the seventh member of the T.H. Sutherland family of Mounties that continues to this day. I would join my four uncles and two cousins that were stationed across Canada.

On April 17th, 1972, I arrived in Depot Division, Regina to begin my 6 months of training. My Troop #3 formed up and was comprised of 32 men from nearly every province in Canada. As a young man, I became familiar with firearms and very much enjoyed the firearms training I received. At a point in the middle of training, myself and another recruit from Troop #4 were fortunate to accompany our shooting instructors on a trip to Brandon, Manitoba for the Brandon City Police shooting competition. Police officers from around the area, including North Dakota, were in attendance. So many trophies were won by our instructors we could barely see each other across the table.

In October of 1972, our postings came out. To the chagrin of my driving instructor, I was posted to Kelowna City Detachment in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.

After the RCMP requisite 2 year waiting period, I married Anita Starner of Lethbridge, AB in September, 1974. She began her RN career in Kelowna and presented us with a daughter, Lisa in 1975. In 1977, my first son Jerrad was born. During my 6½ years there in General Duties, I was trained and assigned for two summers as the detachment boat operator. It was a good assignment piloting a marked police jet boat around Okanagan Lake, interacting with tourists and locals.

Early one morning in 1976, I spotted a man in his boat slowing cruising by while drinking a bottle of beer. Too drunk to recognize RCMP markings on my boat, he toasted me with his beer. I tied his boat to a nearby post, took him on board the police boat and returned him to the detachment. I laid the first charge of impaired operation of a motor vessel in Kelowna’s history.

Following a two-month Identification Methods and Techniques Course in 1978 at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa, my future changed to a career with the Identification Section, known today as Forensics or CSI. I was transferred to Prince George, BC in December, 1978 to begin a one-year understudy with the Identification Section there. Anita was none to pleased moving from Kelowna that winter. For me, it was the perfect location to gain experience in processing all types of crime scenes: homicides, serious traffic accidents, airplane crashes, fire scenes and more. Much ground and air travel was required as our area of responsibility was north to the Yukon boarder, Burns Lake to the west, Quesnel south and the Alberta boarder east. After successfully appearing before a board of Forensic Identification examiners, I was promoted to Corporal and in 1980, transferred to the three-man Forensic Identification Section (F.I.S.) in Edson, Alberta. During my posting in Edson, I continued to attend a vast array of crime scenes, searching for, examining and comparing fingerprints and other physical evidence and then presenting it in court.

In 1981, Anita gave me my second son, Steven.

In the winter of 1986, I would be involved in my most memorable case to that point: the Hinton Train Collision. On February 8th, 1986, twenty-three people were killed in a head on collision between a Canadian National Railway freight train and a Via Rail passenger train called the Super Continental. Ninety-five others were injured. It was the deadliest rail disaster in Canada to that date. After eight straight days at that scene, I took some time off to visit friends in Delta, BC.

While I was there, my Sergeant called to advise that I was about to be transferred to Burnaby. That would begin my service in the Lower Mainland of BC. Just in time for Expo ’86, we moved to a home in Langley, BC. I commuted with fellow section members to Burnaby F.I.S. for the next 8 years. Then, following the successful completion of the first NCO exams for promotion in the RCMP, I accepted a transfer as Sergeant in charge of Vancouver Sub-Division F.I.S. In 1997, I found myself back as the NCO i/c of Burnaby F.I.S. A lot of the same staff was still in Burnaby at that time, so I was on familiar ground.

During my final stint in Burnaby, I was called on for some technical advice on the sets of television shows DaVinci’s Inquest and Millennium. The producers and directors wanted to ensure the crime scenes were realistic enough to pass scrutiny.

My reward three years later was finally returning close to the start of my career, thirty miles north of Kelowna, at Vernon, BC. In May of 2002, I was part of a team that instructed a Crime Scene Examination Course for Prosecutors, National and District Police Officers in Guatemala City and Zacapa, Guatemala. That year, I also received the Long Service Metal with Silver Bar for thirty years’ service as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.

After a three-year stint as the NCO i/c Vernon F.I.S, I had seen enough.

My career had spanned 31years, 25years of which were in Forensics. My opinion evidence on fingerprints, footprints, physical comparison and photography had been given and accepted in Provincial and Supreme Courts of British Columbia and Alberta.

I left the Force on April 23, 2003.

Rather than just retire and go fishing, I transitioned into the Force’s Temporary Civilian Employee program and began working with the Missing Women’s Task Force in Port Coquitlam, BC. Serial killer Willy Pickton’s sordid life resulted in a world-famous investigation, demanding a massive number of trained forensic people to process that huge crime scene. I spent almost 3 years there, as well as 3 months assisting the Forensic Identification Section in Prince George, BC. I had gone full circle from the beginning of my career until the end.