Kamloops’ James McLaughlin sits down with the man he believes killed his sister in 1993

A three-hour conversation, mostly a one-side monologue from Dow with just a sheet of glass between McLaughlin and the man he believes killed his sister nearly 33 years ago.

“I couldn’t show any anger or whatnot toward him because he is the key toward solving Sherri’s case and letting us know where she is. And I just had to sit there. It was such an odd and terrible feeling that this is the person who is responsible,” recounted McLaughlin.

The hope quickly faded, with Dow accepting no responsibility for Sherri’s disappearance, perhaps ending any hope of closure. Days later, Dow ended his life with MAID.

“You know who you are. I know who you are. What I’m asking is if there is a grain of humanity in you — and I know there is — please do the right thing and tell someone,” said RCMP investigator Garry Kerr in a 2009 news conference discussing advances in the McLaughlin case.

That emotional appeal was not enough to ever get Dow to confess.

“It terrifies me that I’m not going to have any closure, that this might not ever end for me,” said McLaughlin. “Anytime I walk my dog, I ask myself if my sister could be in the bushes right next to me. Anywhere I go, it haunts me all the time.”

In the conversation from prison, Dow even attempted to point blame at his brother, but McLaughlin stated that timeline of events simply doesn’t work.

“For Daniel Dow’s story that somebody used his car, went out and abducted Sherri, did whatever he did with her, hid her, disposed of her – whatever the case may be – and then came back and tucked the car in before his brother got home is just an absolute ridiculous story,” said McLaughlin.

For 33 years, McLaughlin has been left to wonder, searching for that missing piece of the puzzle. Now, there is three hours of conversation, a six-page letter and a diary from Dow to be dissected.

“When he left his brother’s place that night he drove north, thinking [they] would go to Edmonton,” McLaughlin says Dow told him during the meeting in the Vancouver prison. “It just makes me think maybe that’s it.”

It’s quotes like that, little nuggets of off-hand information, that will keep McLaughlin forever searching for his sister.

“I can’t stop. I haven’t been able to carry on with my life. Everyone thinks it’s just like a light switch – that I can just turn off the depression and carry on. And they ask, ‘What would your sister want?’ Well, because we don’t know where she is and what happened, I can’t stop,” said McLaughlin.

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Sherri McLaughlin’s case was featured in Dylana Kneeshaw’s ‘Into Thin Air’ series last year, where you can learn more about the case.

by Michael Reeve

Kamloops’ James McLaughlin sits down with the man he believes killed his sister in 1993

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