Murder of Gordon Sanderson

On June 29, 2021, it was reported that the remains had been identified via genetic genealogy, 44 years after his discovery. Police had submitted DNA to Othram, Inc., a private laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas, and identified Sam in January 2021, after which the case became an active homicide investigation. On June 30, Alberta RCMP publicly identified Sam in a virtual press conference as Gordon Edwin Sanderson, a 26-year-old Indigenous man from Manitoba who was living in Edmonton at the time of his death. The last time Sanderson had spoken to his family, he had mentioned that he was going to visit his brother in Calgary. Sanderson's older sister's DNA was used to confirm his identity.

Sanderson was exhumed and reconstructed for the second time in 2000 by Cyril Chan, who was with the Edmonton medical examiner's office at the time.

Sanderson's body has been exhumed from his unmarked grave in an Edmonton cemetery twice. In 1979, Sanderson's remains were flown out to Clyde Snow and Betty Pat Gatliff, Forensic anthropologist and medical illustrator at the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma who had been creating 3D facial composites from skulls since 1967. Along with creating a facial composite for Sanderson, the two could tell by measuring his hands that he was right-handed. Snow believed Sanderson to be of Indigenous origin and around 35 years old, contradicting the RCMP's belief of Sanderson being Caucasian and between 26 and 32.

Gordon "Gordie" Edwin Sanderson, previously known as Septic Tank Sam, Sam Doe and Tofield John Doe, was a formerly unidentified Canadian murder victim who was found in a septic tank in 1977 at Lindbrook, Alberta, thirteen kilometres (8.1 mi) west of Tofield. His remains were identified in January 2021, and his identity was revealed five months later. The investigation into his homicide is ongoing.

In the 1970s, he was living in Edmonton, and had planned to visit his brother, Arthur, in Calgary.

Sanderson was an Indigenous man born in Manitoba on October 22, 1950. Police stated that Sanderson was a victim of the Sixties Scoop and put into foster care when he was nine years old. He struggled with addictions and had various run-ins with police.