The Bauer murders

John Bauer

   The home at 85 Alta Vista in Kirkland was the scene of one of the city's worst-ever crimes.
   Over three days, starting September 18, 2001, John Bauer, 51, shot his wife and three sons, his father-in-law and a business associate, all but one within these walls.
   Dead were his wife Helen, 50, sons Jonathan Bauer, 22, Wesley Bauer, 19 and Justin Bauer, 13.
   He also killed father-in-law Elmer Carroll,75 in NDG. He later lured business associate Lucio Beccherini, 44, a into the home and shot him in the back of the head, the same way he killed the others.
   John Bauer then set fire to the house in seven spots and killed himself. The blaze was extinguished. When neighbours got to the fiery house one or two victims was still alive but died within minutes.

Mylena N's boyfriend died

    
   Bauer had, up to then, been a good-mannered man who was president of the Lakeshore Minor Hockey Association for a few years and worked as a sales representative for Labatt and drove a Budweiser van.      He had taken a job at a finance company in St. Laurent a few months earlier and there was some mention that he was in financial difficulty. His wife volunteered at the nearby church and his sons were exemplary kids, hardworking and good athletes.
   Bauer committed the Kirkland Massacre methodically over three days and mailed out a letters to relatives outside the province explaining that he wanted them together in Heaven.
   Wesley's girlfriend Mylena Natcheva, then 17, was one of many who had seen John Bauer with his family a few days before. She attended a family birthday party for the father in law and everything seemed in order.
   Kirkland Mayor John Meany and MNA Francis Scarpallegia, who also lived nearby, expressed shock, as did many others.
   Homicide detective John Roberts later remarked that the neighbours extended significant help, patience and cooperation in the subsequent lengthy investigation, sometimes bringing hot coffee to their trailer, and so forth.

John Bauer

Wesley Bauer