Colleen Shook

Colleen Shook was a vibrant and determined 24-year-old woman who lived with her parents and twin sister in Burnaby, British Columbia. Working as a legal secretary, she was building a life for herself, surrounded by a loving family who remembered her as a fighter. Her brother, Lance, recalled that Colleen had sworn she would never submit if she were ever attacked, a vow that may have tragically cost her life.

On the evening of Wednesday, September 4, 1985, Colleen called her mother from work to say she would be home late. She was going out with a girlfriend for dinner at The Keg restaurant in nearby New Westminster, followed by a visit to the Chicago Tonight nightclub. The two friends left the club shortly after midnight, and Colleen planned to take the bus home as she usually did. Police believe that after she disembarked at the intersection of Willingdon Avenue and Kingsway in Burnaby, she was stalked by her killer.

At 6:30 the next morning, a newspaper carrier made a horrifying discovery on the front lawn of a home on Willingdon Avenue. Colleen Shook’s bloodied and partially clad body was lying on the grass about five meters from the front door. The evidence at the scene told a story of a violent struggle. Investigators with the Burnaby RCMP determined she had been dragged, brutally sexually assaulted, and stabbed to death. The viciousness of the attack sent fear through the quiet residential neighborhood.

In the immediate aftermath, Colleen’s shocked family tried to comprehend the senseless violence that had taken her from them. Her mother, Alice Shook, made a public plea for the killer to surrender. "He owes it to society to come forward and seek help," she said, her words heavy with grief as friends and neighbors gathered to comfort the family at their Northlawn Drive home. The investigation began immediately, but years passed without an arrest, and the case grew cold.

In 1997, the case took a bizarre turn when Terry Driver, a man convicted of the brutal 1995 murder of Tanya Smith, 16, and the attempted murder of her friend, Misty Cockerill, began claiming responsibility for other unsolved crimes. From prison, Driver bragged that he had also murdered Colleen Shook and another woman, Kim Stolberg. He even sent a note to investigators with newspaper clippings about Colleen's murder, along with two others, seeking credit for the slayings. Despite his confession, authorities were never able to gather enough evidence to charge Terry Driver with Colleen’s homicide. Driver died in prison in 2021.

Decades later, Colleen’s murder remains an open and active investigation for the Burnaby RCMP. No one has ever been charged in her death, leaving her family without answers and her killer without justice. As of April 2021, her case was still listed as unsolved. The memory of the young woman who loved her family and fought for her life endures, as does the hope that someone will one day come forward with the information needed to finally close her case.