Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. In the fall of 2005, a Calgary financier called police. He said he was the president of a commercial mortgage lending company, and recent business dealings left him worried about his safety.
After listening to his story, the civilian communications officer who took his call said there wasn't anything the police could do. Okay, so it doesn't warrant anyone speaking to them and just... Well, we wouldn't do that anyways. We cannot warrant someone to change their behavior. Okay. Okay, well, fair enough. That clears it up for me on that side of things. Hopefully nothing comes of this. Hopefully not, yes, sir.
Less than one month later, the mortgage lender was dead. We were able to determine that Mr. Beauchamp had been shot six times at fairly close range with .22 caliber bullets.
I'm Nancy Hixt, a senior crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, I share the story of Jack Beauchamp, a man focused on business and family when his life was suddenly stolen. This is The Deadly Contract. Early on a cold Monday morning in January of 2006, Carrs filed into downtown Calgary as another workday was set to begin.
One business executive parked her car behind a high-rise office building, went inside, then took the elevator up to the 12th floor, to Moore Bank Financial. She was the assistant vice president of the commercial mortgage lending company. When she got there, the front door was already unlocked, so she knew she wasn't the first to arrive at work that day.
There was a clock beside the reception desk. She noted it was five minutes to eight. As she made her way in, she glanced down the hall and saw the president of the company, Jack Beauchamp, not in his office, but instead lying injured on the floor. She called his name and heard him moan. She ran down the hall. He was lying on his back just outside of his office.
She immediately called 911. At 7:58 a.m., EMS was dispatched to reports of a possible seizure as the operator guided the executive to perform CPR on her boss. Paramedics quickly arrived just four minutes later. They noted the victim's coffee was still steaming and his coworker was by his side.
But by then, the 49-year-old man wasn't breathing. They opened his shirt to apply a cardiac monitor and check for signs of life. That's when they saw bullet wounds in the man's chest. It was too late to save him. We discovered a male deceased of apparent gunshot wounds. This incident is being investigated at this point in time. The Homicide Unit of the Calgary Police Service has been notified.
This is where I usually bring in the victim's loved ones. But from the day this happened, Jack Beauchamp's family has been very private. His widow has only spoken to the media once. And when you hear details of this case, you'll understand why. However, the family issued a written statement to the media following Jack's death.
Over the years, several of Jack's colleagues have provided interviews to give us insight into the deep and far-reaching impacts of his death.
Jerry Garvey is a commercial mortgage consultant and often worked hand-in-hand with Jack, a commercial mortgage lender. A mortgage broker is like a realtor.
My job is I know people who have money would be Jack and my clients are people who need money and I put the two together and arrange the financing but I do commercial. So a developer wants to build an apartment block, says Jerry go find me a mortgage money for this and I would go talk to Jack saying Jack I think you should do this deal because of this this and this.
and handle all that stuff. And we became friends when he first came to town, which was the late 90s. Jack started in the mortgage lending business in 1979 and became the president of Moorbank Financial, which he founded in 1998. Jerry said he appreciated Jack for more than his business sense. Jack was, he was not your normal banker. He was, as I like to say,
He was a Renaissance man, you know, he was interesting, he was well-read and that. So he was, he had Je ne sais quoi and he was a great guy, just an absolute prince. I always loved having a beer with him or lunch and tell interesting stories. Some people are interesting, you know, and he was an interesting guy.
Jack was very active in the community. He was a director with the Calgary Downtown Association. He also volunteered and coached hockey, baseball, and basketball. He loved to travel, spent time gardening, and he loved to sit down with a good book. He had great joy to veer, great attitude.
You know, he could be a tough lender, like negotiating-wise, but, you know, he was fair in everything that he did and that. Like when we did business, we did business, but then, you know, like I say, when we were on the golf course, we were Jack and Jerry, and we're golfing and laughing and having fun. It's still difficult for Jerry to comprehend how the brazen early morning shooting happened in Jack's own office. The worst part was that he went to work not knowing anything.
than what was going to happen and that's what hurts the most you know and because jack was like he was an a he wasn't dealing with hooligans and that or whatever i mean his was very above board you know big time kind of stuff that's not a pawn shop kind of thing or whatever you know and that so no i was just devastated it just like i couldn't believe it sank in right
January 16th, 2006, the day Jack was killed, was supposed to be a day off for Cliff O'Brien. He's a veteran investigator, a superintendent with the Calgary Police Service now, but back then he was a homicide detective and he was called in to help investigate Jack Beauchamp's death. Jack Beauchamp was a father of three.
was a broker at the company and had showed up to work like everybody else just to do his job. When O'Brien got the case, the shooter was still on the loose, leaving workers in downtown offices fearful.
There's a considerable amount of pressure on investigators not only to collect the evidence but also to lock up the shooter. We don't want a shooter running around our city. We don't want evidence destroyed. This is essentially a daytime murder in an office building. You should be safe going to work in an office building. And so there's a lot of pressure for us to move quickly and identify who's responsible and make arrests.
The building where the shooting happened is located on the southwest end of downtown Calgary. It's a high-rise with 25 floors. Moorbank Financial was about halfway up on the 12th floor. The business was now a crime scene, as uniformed officers stood watch at the entrance in the middle of a busy morning rush hour.
As you can imagine, there's a flurry of activities. Police taped off a parkade adjacent to the office tower where Jack Beauchamp's SUV was parked.
We always hear about the first 48 hours and that really is true in those early hours, those early days. It's so crucial that we come together and gather evidence as quick as we can so that evidence isn't destroyed or goes missing or is disturbed so that we really drop everything we're doing, come together and figure out what's our game plan and where are we going to go to get the evidence.
So the forensic crime scene unit did come in and they started processing the scene. We were able to determine that Mr. Beauchamp had been shot six times at fairly close range with .22 caliber bullets. Yellow crime scene markers were placed beside each of the six shell casings. None of the employees witnessed the shooting, but they did shed light on a possible motive.
Just the nature of the job. There were other people that were upset they didn't get, you know, the loan or the mortgage or whatever that they were looking for. So certainly that's, I think, the nature of that business and sometimes that happens. And, you know, Jack had been doing it for a little while and so there's no doubt that there's people that were upset at that.
As crime scenes investigators photographed and videotaped each room, they noted one piece of evidence that seemed to contradict that the gunman was someone Jack Beauchamp knew or had business dealings with. One of the things that we noticed right by where Jack was laying is that one of his business cards were laying there.
And again, not 100% sure what that meant, but what we were wondering is if he wasn't providing a business card to somebody that he was meeting for the first time. And because if you already knew somebody, you probably aren't giving them the business card. And so that was something in the early days that we wondered as if Jack maybe didn't even know the individual.
But Jack's co-workers were adamant. This was the result of a dispute with a client that heated up in the months leading up to his death. They even offered up the name of a possible suspect. Jack had been threatened by a man by the name of Bob Deere.
And Bob Deere was upset because they had had a deal to borrow money and that deal fell through. And it fell through. There's lots of reasons why it fell through, but it fell through. And Mr. Deere was very upset at Jack for this and blamed him for this. And as a result, had left numerous messages that were threatening messages for Jack.
Robert Deere was a businessman. He was a principal in two companies. One of them did landscaping. Another business venture was flipping homes. In 2005, he partnered with two associates to purchase a property in the upscale inner-city neighborhood of Westmount, near the west end of downtown, just north of the Bow River and the popular path that runs along it.
The plan was to demolish the property and build a duplex in its place, often referred to as an infill in Calgary. It's a popular way to put two higher-end homes in one lot, and they can sell for a hefty price.
To get the project rolling, the partners needed financing. Deere was referred to Moorbank Financial, where he dealt with and negotiated a loan with the president, Jack Beauchamp. Moorbank would provide funding under the condition that Deere and his partners abide by a set of terms. That included a non-refundable commitment fee of approximately $18,000.
The contract was signed in November of 2005, and a deposit of $2,000 was given to Moore Bank as a down payment on the commitment fee. Not long after, Deere's partners backed out of the plan to flip the Westmount home. Deere advised Moore Bank that financing was no longer needed.
But a contract had already been signed, and Beauchamp insisted that Deere pay the $18,000 commitment fee. Deere argued he should only have to lose the $2,000 deposit, and so began a heated conflict. Deere refused to pay the outstanding $16,000. You know, it became very personal.
where he thought that this is all because it's Jack Beauchamp, it's not the company, it's not the business anymore. He thought it was very personal. One of Jack's co-workers showed officers a note she kept by her computer. It had Robert Deere's name and phone number, followed by the words, manic depressive whack job.
Police also located a folder on Jack Beauchamp's computer where he kept a record of the email exchange with Robert Deere. By mid-December 2005, one month before he was killed, the conflict escalated to the point that Jack called the police. Calgary Police Officer Fonte. Yes, good morning. My name is Jack Beauchamp. I'm a...
calling from a company called Moorbank Financial. But honestly, I'm not sure if this warrants police intervention or not. I've received some emails from a client that I've discussed with my lawyer, and it seems like they have crossed the line into the threatening side of things. What are they saying? Well, comments like, if you live like a gangster, you should expect to die like a gangster.
I guess, by way of explanation, I'm president of Moorbank Financial Inc. We're a commercial mortgage lending company. And that, I think they kind of crossed the line, but... No, they haven't done anything criminal at this point? There's been no actions taken. Not that, sir. The threat itself is not criminal. It's not specific. Okay. If they were to say, I'm going to damage your property or I'm going to hurt you or your family or someone you know, at that point, they are...
committing an offense by uttering a threat, but by saying, if you live like a gangster, you're going to die like a gangster. Well, that's just one comment. It says, do you realize that someone could hurt you or your business for operating with such unethical, low-life standards? It's still insufficient, sir. We have to say, I'm going to do this to you. That's a threat. So a veiled threat's not a threat then? It's not enough to pay charges.
Okay. I would suggest at this point that you keep everything that you have. I've done that, yes. And that if at any point they say something's right, then at that point you've got sufficient evidence to lay charges against them. Okay. So it doesn't warrant anyone speaking to them and just... No, we wouldn't do that anyway. We cannot warrant someone to change their behavior. Okay. Okay.
Okay, well, fair enough. That clears it up for me on that side of things. Hopefully nothing comes of this. Okay. Thank you. Have a good day, Nick. The following day, on December 15, 2005, Robert Deere sent Jack another email. He said, quote, I apologize for wording my letter to you in such a way that it scared you or seemed to threaten you in any way.
He ended the email by saying, quote, we can both walk away from this without getting hurt. It's up to you, end quote. Later that day, Jack emailed Deere. He said, the difference between us is that you were a low-life coward. He told Deere to stop with the threatening rhetoric and veiled threats.
But the war of words continued and led to a series of phone calls by Deere to Moore Bank that Jack did not return. So it became very clear that Deere is a suspect and what we needed to do was try to find out where Bob Deere is. And again, we started scrambling resources to Bob Deere's house and trying to locate Bob Deere.
At the same time, Calgary police officer Cliff O'Brien was tasked with reviewing surveillance video to try and identify who shot Jack Beauchamp. There were multiple CCTV cameras inside and around the office tower. That included the skywalk into the building and the elevators in the lobby of the building. He waited through hours and hours of video.
Video, especially back at that time, you know, it wasn't digital. It was often on tape. It was very difficult to look through video. In this particular case, I was sitting at a security desk with a security officer and doing our best to look on a very, very small screen at the various video. Eventually, police located the section of video they were looking for.
It's haunting to watch, captured just minutes before Jack Beauchamp was killed. In it, he's seen entering his Calgary office building through the downtown skywalk with a coffee and briefcase in hand. Jack was last seen alive at 7.49 a.m. when he got on the elevator and took it to the 12th floor where his business, Moore Bank Financial, was located.
and just like everybody else in the building, was just coming into work to do his job. O'Brien carefully watched for signs of a suspect. Everybody thought I was going to see Bob Deere and I did not. I even went back and looked at the lobby video a couple times in case there was some disguise used and I missed him. But Bob Deere was not seen on the video at all.
I contacted the primary investigator and said, "I don't know if Bob Deere is involved, but I know that he was not in this building. He did not appear on any cameras in this building." By then, Robert Deere was already in custody. Bob Deere was arrested when he arrived at his home in his Hummer. And that was just after 11 o'clock that morning. But Deere was not charged with murder.
24 hours after his arrest, he was released, charged only with criminal harassment in connection with the emails he had sent Jack.
In the meantime, Cliff O'Brien continued the tedious task of reexamining CCTV video. He watched it over and over again, convinced it would provide insight into who was responsible for Jack Beauchamp's murder. Because what I was doing was spending a considerable amount of time watching people come into this building,
Everybody kind of did the same thing. You come into a building from outside, it's cold, you take your gloves off, you start to undo your coat, and you're getting ready to go to your office or somebody else's office, whatever. And then something caught his attention. Keep in mind that Cliff O'Brien has decades of experience.
I've watched this video over and over myself, and I'm not sure what he noticed would stand out to a lot of people. But he felt one person who came into the building that morning looked and behaved suspiciously. At 7:53, there's somebody that came in. Keeping in mind that it's dark outside, they came into the building wearing sunglasses.
They had a coat on and gloves on and they were carrying a bag. And this individual went onto the elevator and disappeared out of camera view. But they acted different than everybody else. When you're watching these crowded people coming in and going out,
you know, they were all acting a certain way and you had this individual that just seemed very suspicious. The fact that he's wearing sunglasses, the fact that he doesn't start to take off his gloves or undo his coat or, you know, start to prepare to stay. And perhaps what was even more troubling is four minutes later, you see that same individual leave the elevator and leave the building. So he had only been in there for four minutes
When he left, had his same gloves on, still had his sunglasses on. And that really stood out. You don't have to be a homicide detective to go, that looks weird. And it really did stand out from everybody else. This was exactly what the officer was looking for. And it was the moment the case took a whole new direction with a completely new suspect now identified. I was pretty sure that I had caught the killer on camera.
They got that video clear. It was an undercover man. These undercovers got me. If they are the undercovers or if it's a trick from the police, I'm not f***ing sure here. Okay? Mm-hmm.
That shouldn't happen in any of our cities, but certainly not in a downtown office building. That's just, it's such a waste. That's next time on Crime Beat.
Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Audio editing and sound design is by Rob Johnston. Special thanks to photographer-editor Danny Lantella for his work on this episode. And thank you to Jesse Wisner, our Crime Beat production assistant. Thanks to Chris Bassett, the VP of Network Content, Production and Distribution and Editorial Standards for Global News.
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