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More than 20 years after an Edmonton man named Gerald Geake went missing, police have laid charges in connection with an assault on him that occurred before he vanished.
Police said Wednesday they believe Geake is dead.
On Tuesday, authorities arrested his friend and colleague Kevin Wade Moroz, 54, in Two Hills County and charged him with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
Det. Bryan Kincheloe with the Edmonton Police Service’s Historical Crimes Section spoke at a news conference on Wednesday about the break in Geake’s case.
He said new information shows Geake endured two serious assaults before he left his residence in south Edmonton’s Avonmore neighbourhood in May 2002 for the last time in a 1992 black GMC Sierra pickup truck with Moroz and another person.
Police say Geake was in a truck like this one and want to speak to anyone who may have seen the vehicle in the Avonmore neighbourhood in 2002. Stock photo of a 1992 GMC Sierra. (Submitted by Edmonton Police Service)
“This was directly after the assault,” Kincheloe told reporters. “And when he left his residence with these two people in this truck, he was never seen again by his friends or family.
“If anybody was in the Avonmore neighbourhood back in the spring of 2002 and is familiar with seeing this truck driving around the neighbourhood, we want to speak with you. If anybody knew Gerry Geake back in spring of 2002 or even earlier, we want to speak with you or anybody who knew of his friend group.”
Geake was reported as missing to police in 2003.
New evidence after 24 years
At the time of his disappearance, Geake was 37 years old, about five feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 160 pounds. He had blond hair with a mullet-style hair cut, although he was naturally a brunette. Police said he has blue eyes and that he may have appeared injured or incapacitated at the time he went missing.
Kincheloe said police can’t reveal the identity of the other person who was in the truck for investigative purposes.
WATCH | Edmonton police lay charges in connection with 2002 incidents:
Edmonton police have laid charges in a case more than 2 decades old
More than 20 years after an Edmonton man went missing, police have laid charges in relation to the case. In 2002, Gerald Geake left his home in the Avonmore neighbourhood and hasn’t been seen since. Edmonton police say he was seriously assaulted twice before his disappearance. Now, police have charged 54-year-old Kevin Moroz, with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
While scientific advances such as geospatial technology helped lead to the breakthrough, Kincheloe said it is often a matter of reinterviewing witnesses who may feel more comfortable sharing what they know as time passes.
Kincheloe said that despite a heavy workload, his team is usually only able to solve one or two cases a year.
“So when we do have these wins, it is good for the office and good for the citizens of Edmonton to know that police are doing all they can to have these files come to conclusion,” he said.
Criminal history of accused
Court records show Moroz previously received a one-year conditional sentence for aggravated assault in connection with an incident that occurred on July 21, 2002. According to an agreed statement of facts, Moroz admitted to striking a woman on the head six times with a ball peen hammer at an automotive shop in south Edmonton. It was an unprovoked attack on a woman he knew and he was high on crack cocaine at the time.
Moroz was chased and hit several times by the victim’s father, resulting in a cut to the left temple as well as a black eye. Later that day he was apprehended by a police dog and needed medical attention for a puncture bite to his left hamstring.
The sentencing judge ruled at the time “that the accused poses no significant risk of reoffending.”