Murder on Lone Rock (7 minute read)

When you paddle from Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC and head north into Indian Arm, following the community known as Woodlands, you will encounter Lone Point after 2 kilometres of paddling.

Lone Point is a privately owned property in a spectacular location. A beautiful 5,000 sq foot log home now dominates what is an island when the tide is high. I'd paddled past Lone Point recently and took this photo, posting it on the social media site Strava where a friend asked about it.

That question had me dust off a very good book on local history titled "Echoes across the Inlet". It tells the story of  Lone Point's first owners and an intriguing story of murder of one of the owners family members.

From the book, without permission.

The book can be purchased from the Deep Cove Heritage Society.

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Page 47... "Lone Rock." It was a tiny island, 700 yards off Woodlands and Tepoorten bought it from J. Eades Ward for $1,000. Tepoorten was of Dutch descent, a father of eight children and founder of a wholesale pharmaceutical company in Vancouver. Six years later he began transforming the barren rock into an island paradise. An enormous amount of soil for the beautiful gardens had to be carted in bags from the mainland. Hundreds of pounds of sand were hauled onto a beach that was previously sharp rocks and jagged barnacles. A water-line was run from nearby Sunshine Creek and a sprinkler system was installed which follows all the paths and the outside circumference of the island. This island retreat was named "Samarkand," meaning "heart's desire."

Visitors were beckoned by the winding, friendly paths. Overlooking a French-style well was the Captain's Walk, commanding a spectacular view of the North Arm. From it led paths that passed beneath rustic trellises, covered with roses in fantastic shapes such as a bleeding heart, a sailing ship, a salmon, a star, a crescent and a weather vane. Flower beds were nestled in every possible and impossible place, perched on rocky shelves, overhanging the sea. Samarkand was literally covered with roses, hydrangea, wisteria, wild salal, yellow poppies, bachelor's buttons, and a myriad of shrubs and blossoms. According to Mrs. Meryl Jelinek, J.A.Tepoorten's grandaughter, a team of gardeners would arrive on the island every spring to prepare the multitude of beds for summer planting. She also recalls the days prior to there being a bridge across to the island when she would wait for the tide to go out, so she could walk over to visit her grandparents. As she got older, she would either swim or row a boat over.

The Tepoortens had the luxury of owning a coal-oil fridge and a gasoline washing machine. But these were just material things. Vancouver resident, Monty Roberts, visited Samarkand in the early 1930's and wrote this description: "I found myself upon an island made beautiful by the ancient, artful lore of many faraway places. 1 walked under an archway borrowed from old Japan, passed Arabian urns such as hid the 40 thieves. I watched wisteria creep in tiny tendrils around a well that must have been plucked whole from a French farm. I felt the breeze of a Don Quixote windmill and winked an eye at a cobble stone lighthouse. Velvet lawns and seashell paths sprang beneath my feet. I breathe deep the perfume of flowers and my ears rang with the songs of birds."

<a few more pages regarding Woodlands history not related to Lone Rock, so not copied>

Tragedy struck Woodlands on November 14, 1946. Robert Tepoorten, son of Julius A. Tepoorten was shot to death by Donald Russell, a friend of the Tepoorten family. Robert Tepoorten was 39 years old, married and the father of an 8 month-old girl. A young man of 18, Russell was living with his parents, Harry and Nellie Russell, in North Vancouver. He had attended Lynn Valley public school and left after completing Grade 9. He was not interested in school, preferring to work for a living. Russell was an out doorsman, who enjoyed hunting and canoeing. At the time of the shooting, he was employed by the Hammond Cedar Mills as a deckhand on a company tug. He had been off work and went to Woodlands to help Robert Tepoorten with the construction of his house. Unknown to his parents, Russell had taken his father's shotgun with him, so that he could do some duck-hunting, two ducks were found hanging on the Tepoortens clothesline when this tragedy happened.

Tepoorten and Russell had known each other for 16 years and their families were friends. Only Robert Tepoorten and Don Russell knew what words were said between them that day. Robert had been lecturing young Don the previous evening about some earlier trouble he had been in. However, in a terrible moment, Russell took his shotgun and shot Tepoorten, who died immediately. Russell went back to the Tepoortens' home and asked Mrs. Tepoorten for her husband's car keys. This made her suspicious and, sensing something was amiss, she refused. Russell struck her with a piece of stovewood until she relented and handed over the keys. Russell was unable to start the Tepoortens' car and fled, paddling off in his canoe.
Police would later find the wrong key jammed in the ignition. While Russell was making his escape, Mrs. Tepoorten grabbed her infant daughter, who had been sleeping, and fled to a neighbour's home. There were no telephones in the area so the neighbour, Neil Hood, travelled by boat to Deep Cove where he was able to contact the police. The RCMP brought in dogs to search the densely wooded area around Woodlands without success. They found Russell's canvas canoe at Barnet a couple of days later. For the next nine days, a massive search was undertaken which extended as far as Calgary. During this grim manhunt, Don Russell had never been further than Vancouver. He had booked into a local downtown hotel, spending his days sleeping and going to dances in the evening.

He had also discussed with the hotel proprietress the newspaper articles about the manhunt. Russell even chatted to police, without revealing his true identity. When his money ran out he tried, unsuccessfully, to secure credit at the hotel. He had to resort to sleeping on the bathroom floor and, when the hotel proprietors found him, they threatened to call the police, Russell said: "You might as well. I am Donald Russell." The police were incredulous, as were the hotel operators. This was not the desperate criminal for whom the police and public had been searching. "I never hid," he told police and surrendered without incident. He was tried for the murder of Robert Tepoorten and was convicted of manslaughter.

"Donald Russell will not hang for the shotgun death of Robert Frederick Tepoorten at Woodlands, Nov. 14," said newspaper reports. The jury deliberated for only an hour before reducing the murder charge to the lesser count of man slaughter. There was no evidence produced that the accused had fired the shotgun which resulted in the death of Tepoorten. And if there had been evidence available, it did not show that Russell did it with the intention of killing Tepoorten. For this crime, Russell went to prison and, upon his release, spent the rest of his life working for the John Howard Society.