Crown won’t charge Rose

Posted On 25 Jan 2001

After 11 years in prison, a 52-year-old former Newfoundland man is a free man. The Crown has stayed two charges of second degree murder against Andrew Rose. On October 6, 1983, the bodies of two German tourists were found some 30 kilometres west of Chetwynd. Both had been shot in the head. They were later identified as Bernd Goeriche, 27, and Andres Scherpes, 22, who had failed to catch an Air Canada flight to Amsterdam on October 7. A subsequent autopsy on the bodies revealed they had both been shot in the head. Further investigation revealed someone had used their travellers’ cheques in communities all along Highway 97, though Prince George, Quesnel and 100 Mile House, where the trail grew cold. The investigation took on a feverish pace, with the District of Chetwynd offering up a reward fund for the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers. But it was not until 1989 that Rose was arrested in Sundance, Manitoba and charged with their murders. A Prince George jury first convicted Rose for both murders in 1991. He appealed that conviction and was granted a new trial. In April 1994, a Prince George jury convicted him of two counts of second degree murder. Again he appealed. The B.C. Court of Appeal heard his case and, in April 1996, was about to dismiss the appeal, when his lawyer begs the opportunity to have DNA testing done; there was blood found under Ms. Scherpes fingernails. As well, Iin August 1997, Mounties receive a call that an American had confessed to his wife to the killings before killing himself. The DNA testing reveals the blood under Ms. Scherpes fingernails were her own. The Court of Appeal, taking into account the new evidence in the case, orders a third trial. But on Monday, rather than go through a third trial, the Crown stayed both charges against Rose.