Claresholm Alberta highway murder urban legend

Timeline: Claresholm, Alberta highway murder-suicide. 

Yes, this is a true story and urban legend attached to it. 

Thursday, December 15, 2011
Authorities in Claresholm, Alberta, a town about an hour north of Lethbridge, respond to reports of shots being fired on Highway 2, near Township Road, at around 3:30 a.m. RCMP officers close the highway, one of the busiest highways in southern Alberta, and say that there had been a suspicious incident.

Officers on the scene discovered two men and a woman dead and two others suffering from critical injuries. They found two vehicles – a green Pontiac Sunfire and an SUV – in the northbound lanes of the highway.

Police said four of the victims – all in their early 20s – were inside the SUV. The vehicle’s windows had been blown-out.

Investigators determined a man shot the four victims before killing himself. One male and one female passenger were pronounced dead on the scene. Another male died at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, after being transported by air ambulance.
The other female victim – the sole survivor of the shooting – was taken to hospital by ambulance and treated for her injuries.

By that evening the victims had been identified and the story of the day’s tragedy had begun to unfold.

Loved ones identified the two male murder victims as Mitch MacLean, 20, and Tanner Craswell, 22. They were both student baseball players with the Lethbridge Bulls and they were on their way to Calgary International Airport to fly home to Prince Edward Island for the Christmas holidays. 

The female murder victim was 21-year-old Tabitha Stepple of Lethbridge. It was later learned the shooter was her ex-boyfriend Derek Jensen. 
 

The woman who survived the shooting was 21-year-old Shayna Conway, also from the Island and Craswell’s girlfriend. She would be the only one who could tell police how the events unfolded. 

They had all been out celebrating Craswell’s 22nd birthday the night before when Stepple offered to drive them to the airport.  

MacLean’s girlfriend, Kevynn Weibe, spoke to Global News that night. She told reporter Jayme Doll she heard that Jensen followed Stepple’s SUV from Lethbridge. 

Friday, December 16, 2011
Friends of the shooter confirm to Global News he was 21-year-old Derek Jensen. His friends expressed their disbelief on Facebook, saying he had been planning to move to Edmonton to find work or to go to school.

RCMP say they had spoken briefly with Shayna Conway but were exercising patience to allow her to deal with the horror of the day before. 

Her family, who rushed from Prince Edward Island to be with her, spoke to the Calgary Herald about her story.  

Her sister, Courtney Crosby, said “She can just remember screaming and yelling for help and calling for Tanner. She knew that he was dead because he couldn’t come and help her.” 
Jensen had broken up with Tabitha Stepple around Halloween. Meanwhile, Mitch MacLean’s girlfriend said Craswell, MacLean, and Conway did not know their killer. 

In Prince Edward Island, those who knew Mitch Maclean and Tanner Craswell react to the terrible news that the promising young baseball players had been slain.

Saturday, December 17, 2011 

RCMP release a detailed account of Derek Jensen’s shooting rampage on southern Alberta’s Highway 2.

Mounties say Jensen was searching for his ex-girlfriend, Tabitha Stepple, and followed her SUV after spotting it at a 7-11 in Claresholm.

 Shayna Conway, who was driving the vehicle, got out of the car to see who had hit the vehicle.

Jensen shot Conway outside the vehicle. Stepple and Tanner Craswell were murdered where they sat. MacLean tried to escape. Police found him alive in a ditch, but he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

“Derek Jensen and Tabitha Stepple did reside together and had been involved in a domestic relationship. They had separated recently,” police told the Calgary Herald.

“There was no domestic relationship violence reported to either the RCMP or Lethbridge Regional Police Service regarding their separation or domestic relationship.

Neither Derek Jensen nor Tabitha Stepple was known to police.”

Authorities say Jensen gunned down the victims with a 9mm handgun before shooting himself. He also had a loaded 12 gauge shotgun and a loaded Winchester rifle in his Pontiac Sunfire.

Monday, December 19, 2011 

Plans are made to remember the victims of the December 15 shooting rampages. 

In Prince Edward Island, students at Charlottetown’s Colonel Gray High School play a memorial game of catch in honor of Tanner Craswell and Mitch MacLean. Both attended the school before moving to Alberta to play baseball. 
 

The family of the three murder victims announces funeral plans. Tabitha Stepple will be laid to rest in Lethbridge on Wednesday. Memorial services for MacLean and Craswell are to be held Thursday and Friday, respectively.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 

Shayna Conway’s family offers their gratitude to people across Canada who have shown their support, six days after the 21-year-old survived the shooting rampage near Claresholm, Alberta. 

The family says she’s expected to make a full recovery in about three to four weeks. 

“Their prayers are going out not only to the three people who were in the car with Shayna but even with Derek’s parents and all that they’re dealing with and processing right now because of the actions of their son and the grief that they’re feeling,” Rob Dale, a friend of the Conways, said on their behalf.

The urban legend: 

People have said while driving down highway 2 near township road if you pull over you can hear gunshots and a woman screaming. 

A few people have said that they've seen a young woman on the side of the highway with blood covering her chest. It's said that she's been heard crying and screaming, looking for help from passersby. 

I'm not sure if this is true, but I guess I could find out seeing as I live very close to where this happened.