If you an elder with long-time connections to Port Alberni, you probably know about the heartbreaking story of 12-year-old Carolyn Lee who disappeared on her way home from dance class. Sadly, she was found murdered on a rural property at the edge of town on April 14, 1977.
Producers from Vancouver-based Diamondhead Films are exploring the case as part of a project they call Exhibit 21: A Haunting True-Crime Series Traces a 20-Year Hunt for Justice in a small town in British Columbia.
The title, Exhibit 21, refers to a piece of evidence in the Carolyn Lee case: a preserved semen sample that, 20 years later, led to her killer, Gurmit Singh Dhillon. It was developments in DNA science that sent Dhillon to prison for first degree murder 21 years later.
But Lee may not have been Dhillon’s only victim. At least two other women with Nuu-chah-nulth ancestry reported to police that they had been assaulted near Cox Lake, and one identified Dhillon’s vehicle as the one she was attacked in.
Diamondhead Film producer Lisa Rossington has spoken to investigators who worked on the case over the years. She noted that Dhillon’s alleged crimes showed a pattern, that he seemed to prefer vulnerable Indigenous women to victimize. She wondered aloud if he had mistaken Lee for an Indigenous woman as she walked through uptown Port Alberni on her way to her parent’s Pine Café restaurant.
On that cold, April afternoon in 1977, Lee had been at dance class just a few short and well-populated blocks from her parent’s restaurant. She was to walk from the studio to Pine Café, a Third Avenue diner that was only about a five-minute walk away. But Carolyn didn’t make it there.
Sadly, a landowner discovered her remains on his rural Cox Lake property the following morning. Lee had been sexually assaulted before her murder. There had been a light dusting of snow still on the ground and tire tracks were visible. More importantly, the killers left their DNA.
Early in the investigation, a Hesquiaht woman went to the police to report a sexual assault that happened prior to the murder. Mildred Rose Mickey reported to police that she had been driven to the same Cox Lake property and was sexually assaulted.
Mickey gave a description of her assailant and of the vehicle. Investigators had already been driving around town looking at vehicles in search of a tire match for the impressions left at the murder scene. They drove Mildred around town in search of the vehicle she had been assaulted in. That was when she spotted the 1977 blue Chevy Blazer in Gurmeet Dhillon’s driveway.
More than a decade later, Jessie Jack of Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation reported that she, too, had been sexually assaulted by Dhillon. According to Jack, who has since died, Dhillon threatened her during the assault, saying that he had killed Carolyn Lee.
But Jack’s case against Dhillon was dismissed on the grounds that she was extremely intoxicated at the time of the assault and therefore would not make a strong witness. Mickey’s case was also dismissed. Dhillon appeared to be in the habit of selecting vulnerable females to victimize.
Producers of Diamond Head Films are researching the case and would like to speak with anyone who may have had dealings with Gurmit Singh Dhillon, “or anyone who believe they were victimized by him, or anyone who may have been too frightened to come forward to police at the time,” they said.
“The production team is particularly interested in hearing from First Nations women in the Port Alberni area, as investigators and researchers believe Dhillon knowingly targeted vulnerable Indigenous women between 1977 and 1997,” added the production company.
In addition, the production team would like to speak to anyone who remembers Carolyn Lee. If she had lived, Lee would have turned 61 in 2026.
Both Mildred Rose Mickey and Jessie Jack have passed away. The production team would be grateful if anyone could share a photo of them.
Gurmit Dhillon, convicted in 1998, remains in custody.
Diamond Head Films expects to begin filming in the fall.
If you have information to share, email info@dimaondheadfilms.com
