WHIA-Con-26-Presentation-7-presentation-and-bios

The Murder of Dwayne Demkiw - The Disappearance that Unraveled a Killer

Presented by the Edmonton Police Services, Alberta, Canada 

Case Summary:

In 2011, Jason Steadman, a Seattle based domestic terrorist, was sentenced to one year in federal prison after initiating a revenge campaign on the Seattle Times.  After prison, Steadman fled to Canada and assumed the identity of missing person Robert Aubrey-Maxwell.   

In 2015, Edmonton and Calgary Police investigated the murder of Dwayne Demkiw in Edmonton and the burning of his car in Calgary.  Canadian police thought they had identified Robert Aubrey-Maxwell as the killer and arsonist, not realizing Robert Aubrey-Maxwell was Jason Steadman.   

Following the Edmonton and Calgary crimes, Steadman (aka Robert Aubrey-Maxwell) fled to Vancouver and subsequently entered the United States via jet ski.  He later surrendered to American authorities, as Jason Steadman, for an outstanding warrant. 

The Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver crime scenes contained male DNA which did not match that of Robert Aubrey-Maxwell, confounding investigators until they realized Steadman’s assumed identity of Robert Aubrey-Maxwell.  American authorities identified Steadman’s DNA as that which had been located at all three of the Canadian crime scenes. 

Steadman was convicted of killing Dwyane Demkiw and is presumed to have murdered Robert Aubrey-Maxwell whose body has never been located.

 

Presenter (s)

Staff Sergeant Rob Bilaway has been a member of the Edmonton Police Services for 28 years.  He was promoted to Detective in 2007 where he worked in the Criminal Investigation Section until 2011 when he transferred to Homicide in 2011, where he remained until his promotion to Staff Sergeant in 2019.  After leading the Forensic Identification Section, he transferred back to the Homicide Section in 2022.