Death of Surrey Mountie leads to family reunion, new friends 52 years later
Published 4:37 pm Saturday, March 28, 2026
Fifty-two years after his death on a Surrey street, it’s clear that Mountie Roger Pierlet is still loved and remembered by those who knew him.
Some hadn’t talked in years or even knew each other until 2025, after a Now-Leader story helped connect family and friends of the 23-year-old RCMP officer, shot and killed by a guy who didn’t like cops and was out for revenge.
Pierlet was engaged to be married to Debby McLachlan just a few months later.
“Roger was a wonderful man and we were very much in love. His death changed my life and I think of him often,” McLachlan said in 2024, 50 years after Pierlet’s death.
Last September, McLachlan and others close to Pierlet, including his sister Nancy and brother Luke, attended the annual RCMP National Memorial Service at Depot Division in Regina to pay their respects at a get-together nobody really expected nor anticipated so many years later.
“I had not spoken with them since Roger’s death,” McLachlan said in an email this week. “To connect with them by phone and messages was wonderful, but to actually meet them in Regina at the memorial was very special.
“I knew my life would change after I lost Roger, but I did not realize how much I lost,” added McLachlan, now living in Ontario. “It was attending the memorial service in Regina, and learning and feeling part of a much larger family and support, that was very emotional for me.”
On March 29, 1974, Pierlet was working a shift before taking a few days off to visit his parents, flying in from Montreal.
That fateful Friday, John Miller and Vincent Cockriell were drunk and hunting for a cop to shoot as they drove through Cloverdale. Cockriell, 18, had a rifle and wanted revenge, blaming police for the death of his brother, killed during a high-speed chase.
The pair threw a beer bottle through the police station window. Pierlet went to investigate, stood at the open door of a 1964 Dodge and was shot dead by Cockriell.
The criminals sped east on the freeway near Aldergrove where RCMP officers Eric LaFoy and Drewe Nelson, responding to a call for help on police radio, boxed in the getaway vehicle, then ditched. Both were arrested and put behind bars for years to come.
LaFoy, now retired and living near Edmonton, still gets emotional when talking about that deadly day.
“It’s been 52 years but you don’t forget it,” he said in a phone call this week.
Last fall LaFoy and Nelson also attended the RCMP National Memorial Service where they met McLachlan and Pierlet’s siblings for the first time.
Stories were shared, new friendships forged, siblings reunited after decades apart.
“None of this would have happened without you (the Now-Leader) publishing that article on the 50th anniversary (of Pierlet’s death) two years ago,” said LaFoy, who used the internet to connect with McLachlan and others who knew Pierlet.
“The reunion (in Regina last year) was outstanding and we were treated so well. We got along so well, too, even the people who’d never met before. We’ve all stayed in touch and I’m sure we will forever now. None of this would have happened without the story you wrote.”
Passionate about it all, LaFoy wrote about the 2025 memorial for a quarterly RCMP magazine with details about the special reunion of Pierlet’s loved ones, all of whom plan to return to Regina for the 2026 service this September.
“This story, although unique in itself, still brings home the value and importance of honouring all our fallen members who have sacrificed their lives trying to serve and protect our fellow Canadians,” LaFoy wrote in the magazine. “Not forgetting the value in also paying tribute to the families of these fallen members, who on occasion get left behind. We will remember them.”
In Cloverdale, in Pierlet’s memory, the 176 Street overpass just south of Highway 10 is named after the fallen police officer, who was killed nearby.