Ten years after Kevin Bowser was shot to death on the steps of his ex-girlfriend’s home, his family might finally get some answers.

Shilo Beals, 31, is the target of a Canada-wide warrant issued in July and is charged with the first-degree murder of Bowser, along with six weapons-related offenses.

While the decade-old cold case might be on its way to closure, many similar cases are still unsolved in Halifax.

According to a University of King’s College analysis of Statistics Canada data, a higher percentage of homicides go unsolved in Halifax than in most cities across the country.

Halifax’s clearance rate – the percentage of homicides “cleared”, either by the laying of charges or “other means”, such as the death of a suspect – is the fourth lowest among cities with more than 50 homicides since 2004, the year of Bowser’s death.

Halifax’s homicide clearance rate for the past 10 years is 66 per cent, ranking it just above Vancouver (49 per cent), Edmonton (62 per cent), and Montreal (63 per cent) – three cities with larger populations – and behind Toronto (68 per cent), Calgary (69 per cent) and eight others.

Halifax’s clearance rate includes statistics from both the Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP.

Provincially, Nova Scotia also lags behind the average in the past decade, solving 74 per cent of the homicides committed, a higher rate than British Columbia (58 per cent), Alberta (71 per cent), and Quebec (73 per cent).

Until the arrest warrant for Beals, Bowser’s murder was one of at least 34 left unsolved since the start of 2004 (because of the way Statistic Canada’s data tracks clearances some cleared cases could from before 2004).

His shooting on July 12 was the fourth in Halifax since the beginning of that month, according to archived media reports, although Bowser’s was the only fatality.
Police knew both Beals and Bowser for the shooting.

Bowser was charged with weapons offenses after an incident with a sawed-off shotgun in 1997 and spent two years in prison, the Chronicle Herald reported at the time of his death.
Beals spent two years and nine months in federal prison for drug charges.

His parole hearing documents from 2009 also state he was a suspect in two attempted murders using firearms, had prior convictions including possession of a weapon and pointing a firearm, as well as weapons and uttering threat charges that were both withdrawn.

Beals was sent back to jail the same day he was released from custody in March 2011 for an outstanding assault warrant.

Prior to the Canada-wide arrest warrant issued last month, Beals’ was also involved in a civil suit against Halifax Regional Police for what he claimed to be an illegal execution of a search warrant.

According to a study by Statistics Canada, homicides involving gangs and firearms, similar to the Bowser’s case, are the hardest to solve.

Between 2000 and 2010, the report states, non-gang related homicides were cleared at twice the rate of gang-related homicides. Similarly, homicides committed with a firearm were less likely to be cleared by police than non-firearm related homicide.

Of the 18 listed homicides on the province’s Reward for Unsolved Major Crimes, which offers up to $150,000 for information leading to a conviction, 11 are shooting deaths.

The program, which started in 2006, has received information from the public that has led to three different arrests, according to Roger Merrick, the director of public safety at the provincial Department of Justice. One case is currently before the court.

Merrick believes the effectiveness of the program is “very high.”

“From a […] family’s point of view, it provides them a great deal of relief,” said Merrick. “They now have answers to who killed their loved ones and the people are now being brought to justice.”

The program lists 77 homicide or suspicious missing persons cases dating back to 1955.
While the Statistics Canada study mentions gangs and guns as the hardest cases to crack, Const. Pierre Bourdages of Halifax Regional Police says otherwise.

“The manner in which the homicide was committed, whether it be by blunt force, a gun, or a stabbing, they all present their own challenge,” he said. “One is not easier to solve than the other.”

Halifax Regional Police investigators are always looking for new leads on cold cases, he said.

Officers are assigned to an unsolved homicide for a period of time, then the case will switch to a “new set of eyes” to keep the investigation fresh.

When it comes to the Bowser case, Bourdages said the charges against Beals came from “hard work by the investigators that worked on this file and were able to bring it to a conclusion.”

But that doesn’t always do it.

“One problem we have with some of the unsolved homicides is that we have individuals that have information or that know exactly who’s responsible, who will not provide the information to police,” said Bourdages. “It becomes very hard to investigate and bring these investigations to conclusion when we have people with information that refuse to speak to police.”