Csi Alberta: The Secrets of Skulls and Skeletons

by Peter B. Smith

Ten gripping tales of murder and missing persons show how skulls and skeletons reveal their secrets to forensic investigators. A skull is found on a scree slope high above the mirror-calm waters of Spray Lakes. Bones rumoured for years to be buried in a Medicine Hat backyard are finally dug up. The trussed and tortured skeletal remains of an unknown man are found in a septic tank near Tofield. These baffling Alberta cases show how dogged, old-fashioned detective work combines with modern forensic techniques in the search for the truth.

Genres: Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2009

Reviews

[Clued-in With A Book (Elvina Ulrich) · Rating 3 out of 5]

CSI Alberta explores ten gripping tales of murders and missing persons in Alberta and how forensic techniques were used to solve these baffling cases. These cases are mostly from late the 1970s to early 2000. I am not familiar with all of them, except for The Septic Tank Sam case which was solved in June 2021 (since this book was published in 2009, it was considered as unsolved in the book).

This book was fast-paced and reads like a novel. Although I enjoyed reading about the works done by the forensic scientists in solving these cases - facial reconstruction, DNA analysis, and so forth - they did feel a little too short for me. I was craving for more!

Overall, I am glad that I've read this book and learned about these not well-known cases. Some of these cases happened at where I live now and that just gives me the chills. Eeek!

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book. I Had only ever heard of one of these cases. You could tell the author did a lot of research, and presents all these stories in a well written manner.

[Stephanie Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What happened to him that night no one knows, but by morning he was dead. No one missed him. No one found his body.” - Peter B. Smith 💜💜💜 CSI Alberta was a quick little read I recently picked up at a gift shop downtown Calgary. Having lived here my whole life it was intriguing to me to read up on the 10 cases covered within. All are decades old and none I had head of in the past but it was a fun little dive into some local cold cases and true crime. A lot of what I read reinforced in me the importance of trauma therapy and mental health support. Many of the victims and perpetrators were suffering themselves from addictions and PTSD, from being Concentration Camp survivors, WWII veterans and Sixties Scoop survivors it seems the lack of support here in Alberta hasn’t really changed that much over the years. But an interesting read nonetheless.