On the last day they were alive, Jake Sansom and his uncle took a selfie.
Smiling, arms around each other, the two men were out in the bush on Friday near Siebert Lake.
They had shot a moose and were celebrating a successful hunt that would put food for their family’s table.
Early the next morning, Sansom and Morris Cardinal were found dead from gunshot wounds near Sansom’s truck. The black 2014 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup was spotted at around 4 a.m. at an intersection at Township Road 622 and Range Road 84, near the farm that belongs to Jason Smith, Cardinal’s son-in law.
After hunting on Friday, Sansom and Cardinal took the moose to that farm and worked on it inside a closed shop.
Sansom’s brother was with them throughout the day and into the evening.
Mike Sansom said he left Jason Smith’s house around 8 p.m. His brother and Cardinal departed later in the evening. They were prepared to take back roads to head east back to Bonnyville.
A short distance down the road, the two men stopped at a T-intersection, prepared to make a right turn.
Mike Sansom said police have told him they believe his brother and uncle were ambushed at the intersection.
“That is one of many investigational avenues that we are currently looking at,” RCMP Cpl. Ron Bumbry told CBC News in an email. “At this time, the investigation is in its preliminary stages and we don’t know for certain.”
The family is reeling.
“I just don’t get why somebody could murder two people for no reason like that,” Sansom said. “They didn’t rob them. The cops said nothing was missing. They pulled up just to kill them, just because. I just don’t understand that.”
‘They weren’t thieves, they weren’t drug addicts’
Jake Sansom, 39, was married and had three children. He was laid off recently as a heavy-duty mechanic at Suncor due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sansom was a volunteer firefighter, a motivational speaker and taught jiu-jitsu to children in Bonnyville.
Mike Sansom said his brother had no enemies.
“I mean if anybody broke down, he’d always stop and make sure he’d help fix their vehicle and get it going again,” Sansom said. “Anybody who needed help, they’d help them. Even my Uncle Morris. They’d give you the shirt off their back if they could. If they thought that you needed it.”
In a message posted on Facebook, Nobleford and District Emergency Services wrote: “Jake Sansom was a gentle person, who had a big heart and always wanted to help anyone he could. Firefighter Sansom was always willing to be involved in the department, community, fundraisers, and continually showed his love for his family and fellow firefighters.”
Mike Sansom said his uncle Morris Cardinal, 57, was equally devoted to his family. The grandfather of five with three stepchildren often helped out with babysitting.
A long-time friend of both victims is horrified the two men were gunned down.
“I just don’t get it,” Blair Inscho said. “They weren’t thieves, they weren’t drug addicts. They’re not anything like that.”
Inscho said he was told that Sansom was shot three times in the head at point-blank range and Cardinal was shot twice in the head.
Autopsies on the two men were performed Tuesday, but the results have not been made public. RCMP said the nature of the gunshot injuries and the number of gunshots would not be released to protect the integrity of the investigation.
Police are asking anyone with footage of the area — including range roads 84 and 90, as well as township roads 614 and 620 — between 8 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday to contact police. That includes trail cameras, dash cameras or video surveillance.
On the last day his brother and uncle were alive, Mike Samson said he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“When we came back from the lake to go to Jason’s, there was nobody around,” he said. “We didn’t see anybody at Siebert Lake. We didn’t see anybody on the road back. There was nobody coming or going.”
Siebert Lake is about 40 kilometres east of Lac La Biche.
A family friend has launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for Jake Samson’s widow and three children.