For over three decades, the family of a missing senior has been left to wonder what happened to the elderly woman who is presumed to have been murdered.

Now, the Edmonton Police Service is asking for farmers and acreage owners north of the city in their help to find the remains of Ruth Clarke.

Family and friends last heard from Ruth Clarke, 83, on Nov. 1, 1990.

On Nov. 12, 1990, police were called to conduct a welfare check at the widow’s home in west Edmonton, which she shared with her 42-year-old son, Ronald Clarke.

Back then, police were tight-lipped about whether any family members were suspects and 35 years later, that remains the case.

“There was a suspect in the original investigation, and we do believe we know who killed Ruth. Unfortunately, because criminal charges have not been laid, we cannot release that name to the public,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Harrison with the EPS historical crimes section.

Police would say, however, that investigators do not believe it was a random homicide.

In the years following Ruth’s disappearance, EPS said its homicide detectives conducted multiple interviews and searches for her remains.

Despite a lengthy, thorough investigation, detectives were never able to obtain enough evidence to lay charges in her presumed murder.

“Her disappearance was considered suspicious at the time and it was presumed criminal and it was investigated as a homicide,” said Harrison.

“It was heavily investigated.”

Her son, who would now be in his late 70s, was not amongst the family members at the police news conference on Wednesday. Police would not answer questions over whether he is still alive.

Other family was at the event, including Ruth’s nephew Richard Wetmore.

“We were very appreciative of all that has been done and that they continue to search for her,” Wetmore said.

“It is our family’s hope that we can later to rest next to her husband, which is what she wanted.”

Police now believe that Ruth’s remains were hidden in a hand-dug water well in a rural area less than an hour north of St. Albert. Edmonton police were very specific about the kind of well they are searching for.

The well — wells, actually, as police are searching for two — investigators are seeking are believed to be on a farmstead where trails lead through brush to two old, hand-dug water wells approximately 50-60 feet deep. One of them is lined with wood, the other with brick.

One or both wells may be filled and/or covered with brush or debris.

“We are now appealing to the public, in particular landowners and people familiar with the areas in question, to check their land, talk to their parents, their grandparents, or family historians. We understand there may be many wells that match this description,” Harrison said.

“However, given our past searches, we know these wells are very challenging to locate. This could be due to the time that has passed, changing topography, and homesteads which have moved. If you have wells that match the description in the defined area, we are asking you to come forward to police with details.”

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So far this year, the EPS historic homicide team has searched six wells near Bouchard Lake in Westlock County, but police believe there are hundreds of wells out there in which Ruth’s body could have been hidden.

“Many homesteads and farmsteads from that period – the early 1900s – would have started with a wood-lined well and then potentially progressed to a brick-lined well. And then you get into now where they’re drilling for them, right? So we’re not interested in drilled wells that are 200 feet deep.

“We’re talking about ones that were hand dug in the early 1900s.”

In recent years, EPS investigators consulted with Government of Alberta ground water well specialists, interviewed landowners, and conducted several extensive searches of possible well sites, but have come up empty-handed.

Finding overgrown, century-old wells is has been extremely challenging, police said, which is why they’re asking homeowners to help.

“Typically, you have to engage the landowners, the farm owners and they’ll know that Uncle Jed down the road used to have a well by his farmstead,” Harrison said.

Police are asking landowners and anyone else familiar with the areas approximately an hour’s drive north of St. Albert, including areas surrounding Morinville, Barrhead, Westlock, Rochester and Redwater, to come forward if they have any information about an abandoned well that matches the description above.

Police acknowledged tracking down the right well could be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

“They could be overgrown by this point, right? Something that’s a hundred years old might look very different than it did even 30 years ago.”

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