Although it’s been nearly six decades, it’s possible that someone either knows or saw something on the night of December 25, 1959 that could help solve Lila’s murder. This is an excerpt from Cold Case Vancouver.
Few people will remember Lila Anderson. Her naked body was found in a ravine near Knight and 45th Street by two boys who were out walking their dog. Her black skirt had been wrapped around her head, presumably so her killer wouldn’t have to see the mess he’d made when he smashed her head against a rock.
Lila’s body was found less than a mile from the Pauls house, murdered just 18 months earlier.
Lila came from small town Rock Creek, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a sergeant cook, and moved to Vancouver after her discharge. She was a strong, capable, single woman who lived alone, and the media of the ‘50s didn’t know how to deal with her. Relatives and friends painted a picture of a quiet woman who liked her own company and preferred to live alone. She laughed at funny things, they said, was friendly to small children, and had a nice smile.
In 1950 she bought a property at 30 East 15th (it’s long gone) and drew up her own blueprints for a boarding house. She hired a construction crew, and supervised the work. When it was finished, she moved into the bottom suite and rented out the upstairs. Lila made it clear that her private life was her own business, and she expected her neighbours and friends to respect that. What they did know was that she loved to garden; she love Mikie, her eight-year-old cat, and she was happy to stay at home listening to the radio or watching television.
Lila told her sister and a neighbour that she had plans for Christmas dinner, but she didn’t say who with. No one saw her after she left home Christmas day. An autopsy determined that Lila had eaten about an hour before she was murdered.
“It is a dreadful commentary on a type of city as ours that such a crime could occur,” Chief George Archer told the media. “Someone must have seen her travelling about the city, or at her Christmas dinner. Yet not one single witness had come forward to help with the investigation.”
Check out Cold Case Canada, a new FB page that discusses this and other unsolved murders.