Alfred Palmer, a 71-year-old man, had spent his life farming on a dairy operation west of Medicine Hat, Alberta. He was remembered as community-minded and had once served as a councillor with the Municipal District of Cypress. His daughter-in-law, Dolores Palmer, also lived on the farm with her husband, although the couple occupied a separate house. Dolores helped with the dairy operation and also worked part time as an assistant teacher with Seven Persons Early Childhood Services School.
On December 30, 1990, violence shattered the Palmer farm. Alfred and Dolores were discovered together near the rear entrance of the farmhouse. Both had been shot with a. 410-gauge shotgun. Dolores was pronounced dead at the scene. Alfred was still alive and was urgently transported by air to a hospital in Calgary, where doctors attempted to save him. He succumbed to his injuries the following day, placing his death on December 31, 1990, rather than December 1 as sometimes reported.
The circumstances left investigators confronting a double homicide on an isolated rural property. The surviving RCMP cold-case information identifies the firearm used as a. 410 shotgun but does not publicly identify who fired the shots, describe a confirmed motive, or name a suspect. The location of the victims at the rear entrance of the farmhouse became one of the few publicly released details of the crime scene.
The investigation remained active enough in later years for the RCMP to publish Alfred and Dolores Palmer among its cold cases and appeal for information from anyone who might know what happened at the farm. Investigators directed potential witnesses or people with information to the Redcliff RCMP Detachment or Crime Stoppers. The publicly available case summary does not report an arrest, criminal charge, trial, or conviction connected with the killings, nor does it identify a publicly named person of interest.
Decades after the shootings, Alfred and Dolores Palmer continue to appear in compilations of Canada's unsolved homicides. What began on a dairy farm outside Medicine Hat on December 30, 1990, therefore remains unresolved in the publicly available record: two members of the same family were shot at the farmhouse, one died at the scene and the other after being rushed to Calgary, while the identity of the person responsible has never been publicly established through an arrest or conviction.
