Blackmail laid out in 2017 letter to News
By Medicine Hat News on March 9, 2021.
A letter sent to the News in October 2017 arrived days after a murder in Medicine Hat and describes a ransom payoff gone wrong. Because of it, 43 more people would die, it read. Addressed to “the one reporter who wants the story of the year,” it names an extortion target, and refers to an organization that is surveilling police actions and is ready to kill again. “If you like Abbott and Costello, you’ll love this book by the time we are done telling you all the funny things,” a portion reads. The letter was entered into exhibit evidence on Monday in the trial of Robert Hoefman, who is charged with first-degree murder and extortion. Crown prosecutors are expected to argue it provides a direct link between the two crimes that detectives were investigating separately at first in October 2017. Two News employees who received or handled the letter testified at Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday and read the two-page letter aloud. It was read and handed over to police on Oct. 23, 2017. That is 12 days after the body of James Satre, 63, was found in the alley of his home in the South Flats, and one week after police who were still determining motive in Satre’s seemingly random murder described it as a “cowardly” act at a press conference. “All homicides are violent in nature,” Insp. Brent Secondiak told the media at that time. “I don’t think it was a fight. I think it was cowardly.” One week later, the letter arrived, blaming police and the target of the extortion (who cannot be named under a publication ban) for the death by not following instructions about a ransom payoff. The “sudden death of that gentleman early last week” was not “a cowardly act,” it states, but “a screw up by your friendly neighbourhood police.” It concludes: “Too bad for the citizens of Medicine Hat. See you when ever and you will know when we are back in town.” It is undated and unsigned, and comprises run-on sentences and grammatical mistakes. Passages describe at length a payoff and police actions, but doesn’t provide obvious insight into the murder other than to generally claim responsibility. The News agreed not to print the contents at the time after top police officials stated they considered there to be “significant public threat” and that all available resources were being put on to the case. “This is some unique (stuff),” police chief Andy McGrogan exclusively told the News at the time. Hoefman was arrested by Medicine Hat police and charged with extortion in November, and then with murder in early 2018. The trial has gained wide attention in the province as it entered its second week. The letter entered on Monday describes at length a money drop, but provides few details of the murder other that to say it was retribution for police involvement and that more would result. It suggests Satre’s family should sue police and the extortion target for negligence, and hat the letter writer is a better sniper, among other taunts of police efforts. “We have explained exactly how we work and that everyone was on 24hr. watch and yet your police were so ignorant to that.” Later it states: “We wish the family of the first victim the best as what they can make out of this but at least you have some sense as to the WHO, WHY and How and our sympathies” (sic). The letter also talks about police movements at the payoff site and describes several children who were playing nearby at the time of the drop. The trial is scheduled to last for another six weeks. 24-23
