"On the night of January 30, 1969, 19-year-old Frederick McCallum intruded into the home of the Pederson family, slaying seven people with an axe in the remote Saskatchewan town of Buffalo Narrows. He murdered Mr. and Mrs. Pederson and four of their children, along with a family friend. The only survivor was their 7-year-old son, who was in critical condition after the attack. A psychiatric evaluation revealed he showed signs of schizophrenia, and he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In January 1970, he was moved from a mental institution to Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary when a psychiatrist ruled he was no longer mentally ill and didn’t require treatment.
McCallum contacted several people after the murders, and once he was apprehended, police found him at his home enjoying a cup of tea. When the officer told him he was under arrest for murder, he replied:
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| View of Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan in 1955 (St. Leo the Great R.C. Church and rectory Jeffrey Morin in canoe). |
Forty-eight years ago on January 30,1969 seven people were murdered during the night in Buffalo Narrows. The older generation remembers. They don't talk about it very often. It was a shared community trauma much like La Loche has experienced and is experiencing since January 22, 2016 the day of the school shootings The Phoenix newspaper wrote the following article on the tragic event. .Seven murder counts laid in northern axe deaths
