In 1999, in the Alberta town of Fairview, two family physicians were at odds. Dr. Doug Snider, 59, had already been in practice there for three decades. He was described as both well known and well liked. Dr. Snider had also raised his family in the community nearly 550 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Another doctor, 60-year-old Abe Cooper, who would later be described as his rival, came to the town just a decade prior. He had a black belt in martial arts, a pilot’s licence, and he drove a motorcycle. He also practiced alternative forms of medicine, and by some accounts, he could be loud and overbearing. At issue was the fact that Dr. Cooper had filed a civil suit against Dr. Snider and two other physicians. It came after Cooper’s privileges to work within the Fairview Hospital were revoked. Cooper felt that the three other doctors worked in a conspiracy to convince the local health board that his conduct was unprofessional. Losing access to the hospital was hurting Dr. Cooper’s medical practice, and as a result, he filed the $3.2-million dollar civil action. That lawsuit was said to have had a major effect on Dr. Snider and his health. On the night of May 5, 1999, it was believed that the two doctors were to meet at Cooper’s clinic in an effort to resolve the lawsuit. Dr. Snider never returned home from that meeting. Despite a search of the community and the area around the town, no sign of Snider could be found. What RCMP investigators found instead was large amounts of bloodstaining, on the carpet, and in the trash, inside the office of Dr. Cooper. Dr. Cooper charged with murder of Dr. Snider RCMP charged Dr. Cooper with first-degree murder related to the disappearance of Dr. Snider and his trial began in Edmonton in September of 2000. “We’re relieved that the trial is finally starting … it has been a difficult 16 months,” Dr. Snider’s sister told a large cluster of media outside the Law Courts on the opening day of the five-week trial. Inside, jurors heard that Dr. Snider’s family never saw him alive again after that night in May of 1999. The Crown prosecutor told jurors that instead of settling the lawsuit that night, Cooper forced Snider to sign a false admission to all the claims Cooper laid out in his civil suit. Then, he killed Dr. Snider so that he could not repudiate that confession. And Crown prosecutor David Stilwell also pointed to not only the blood stains inside Dr. Cooper’s office but even more images of blood within the trunk of his car. Investigators found a pool of it, still visible in the area underneath the spare tire. So much that there was evidence the blood actually found drain holes and had sprayed onto the underside of Dr. Cooper’s Nissan Maxima. All of it, in the office and the trunk, matched the DNA of the missing doctor. In response, the defence relied on a theory that, far from the clinic being the scene of a killing, Dr. Snider left the meeting and left his life in Fairview behind forever, saying that he was still alive somewhere, living a secret double life. Defence lawyer Larry Anderson told jurors, “I think this is going to be a mystery. At the end of it, you will not know.” The theory did not sit well with the Snider family, and neither did the jury’s verdict, when it finally came on Oct. 6, 2000. Jury returns verdict of manslaughter After three days of deliberation, the jury came back, and it was clear that they did not believe the missing doctor was still alive. But jurors did not find enough evidence of premeditation or advance planning in the killing of Dr. Snider. The jury found Cooper guilty of the lesser and included offence of manslaughter. One of Dr. Snider’s sons addressed the media after the verdict. “For the Snider family, this does not mean closure. We don’t have a body, the family would love to have a burial,” Darren Snider said. “The family came looking for answers. We didn’t receive anything. Instead we heard our father was alive. What a cruel … ridiculous thing to say.” Dr. Cooper was handed a10-year sentence. With credit for pre-trial custody, he served seven years and four months before his release. He lost his licence to practice medicine but continued to maintain that he was innocent in the killing and disappearance of Dr. Snider. At trial, investigators confirmed that Dr. Cooper’s car, with all that blood evidence, was discovered in the parking lot of the Edmonton International Airport. There was speculation that Cooper might have dumped Snider’s remains somewhere along the way, between the more than 500 kilometres between the Fairview clinic and the Edmonton International Airport. No trace of Dr. Snider has ever been found.
