The McKenzie Murders - The Beaver Lake Tragedy

On the outskirts of Saint John, New Brunswick is a small community known as Mispec. This small and quiet community holds a very dark past. A hundred and sixty-six years ago, a chilling murder happened that has haunted Saint John and the surrounding area for over a century.

Robert McKenzie

Robert was a man of wealth. He had first started a fabric company which was in the Braggs Building on the corner of King and Canterbury Streets in Saint John. He sold this company to A&T Gilmour and opened a chair factory out in Mispec. Where he moved his family, building a farm and several Mills that covered about two thousand acres of land. They rumored that Robert McKenzie was worth about thirty thousand dollars, and in 1857, that equaled about $1,052,100.

The farmhouse that Robert built for his family was about fifty feet long by twenty-five feet wide. It was located close to Beaver Lake, which was good for fishing. Anyway, the farmhouse was on one side of the road, a barn stood beside it and one behind it. There was also a smaller house on the opposite side of the road where his farmhand, George, lived.

Robert and his wife Effie had four young children, the oldest was five, and the youngest was about one year old. The family were churchgoers and never missed a single Sunday. However, all that was about to change.

On Saturday, October, 24th, 1857, Robert and George were working in the fields as two of the McKenzie children were playing nearby. George had worked for the family for several years, but he was moving on to bigger and better things. His replacement, Hugh Breen, would be moving in that night with his wife.

That afternoon, after finishing their work, they went into the main farmhouse with the children for a bite to eat. This would be the last time George saw the McKenzies. After they ate, George left the house, leaving Robert and his family for the last time. A short while after that, a horse-drawn buggy rode by the house. It was two known Saint Johners out for a ride. Robert went outside to talk with them. As they talked, they saw Effie standing at the door with the children. They were the last people to see Robert McKenzie and his family. Robert returned to the house, and after that, there was a knock on the door, and he left the house.

Just before midnight, all the way to Saint John, a police officer was patrolling King Square when a citizen stopped him and asked what was wrong with the sky. Just over the eastern horizon, as a dark orange glow. The police officer assumed that someone’s barn was on fire.

The Discovery

The McKenzies didn’t attend church the following morning, and their neighbor, who lives more than a mile away, was worried. Peter went for a walk that morning and walked past the McKenzie’s only to find that both houses had burnt to the ground. He did not investigate thinking that the family escaped the fire and went to a neighbor’s house. It wasn’t until he got home and told his wife what had taken place that he become concerned. His wife became worried and feared that something terrible had happened. She sent him back to investigate. Peter didn’t want to investigate alone, so he collected another neighbor and together they headed to the McKenzie’s. They didn’t have to investigate long before finding the iron chest, open with the key still in the lock. Knowing now that this was a robbery, they feared that the McKenzies all died in their sleep. They ran to collect another neighbor before searching the house further.

They found the remains of who they assumed was Mrs. McKenzie and one child under some rubble from the chimney. They knew then that this was a murder and a robbery. Most of the children were close to Ash, and two children were missing. About a year later, they found one child in the pantry's rubble, but they did not find one.

When they searched the smaller house, what they at first thought to be a burnt log turned out to be the torso of a man. The arms, legs, and head were gone. But they found some buttons and suspender buckles. The entire scene was chilling, and it wasn’t until the next day that they reported it to the authorities in Saint John.

The Murders and Robbery

The farmhand, Hugh Breen, another man by the name of Patrick Slavin, and his fifteen-year-old son Patrick Junior arrived at the McKenzie farm after George left that night, but before the horse-drawn buggy went by. They had been planning to rob the McKenzies for months, and the day had come. In the smaller house, they started a fire in the fireplace, and Hugh gave Patrick Slavin the axe. Then Patrick and his son hid while Hugh went up to the main house. 

Hugh lured Robert down to the smaller house on the pretense that he needed help to move something before his wife came. When they entered the smaller house, Robert asked Hugh if his wife was close. It was Slavin who replied to him. This startled Robert, just as Patrick Slavin swung the axe, striking him in the chest and knocking him to the floor. But Slavin wasn’t finished and struck him over and over with the axe until he was sure that Robert was dead.

Then Slavin and his son searched the body, finding a small key before they threw him in the cellar. Slavin dropped the axe, and they made their way up to the main farmhouse, where Mrs. McKenzie and the children were unaware that Robert was now dead. When the men got to the door, Hugh passed Slavin another axe, and they made their way into the house.

Effie McKenzie was sitting in the rocking chair with her youngest on her lap, the other children were on the floor gathered at her feet and she was singing to them. She didn’t seem surprised that Hugh entered her house and expected her husband to be with him. Effie asked about Hugh’s wife, and again Slavin answered, swung the axe, and struck her. She fell out of the chair, dropping the child on the hearth. Slavin didn’t stop there. He struck Mrs. McKenzie over and over until she was dead. He then struck the child laying on the floor. The other children cried and screamed, but only one ran. The five-year-old ran from the room and hid in the pantry. Slavin killed each child with the axe and hunted down the other child, killing them in the pantry.

All the while Hugh and Patrick Junior stood watching this, and when he was done, they left the house and went to the edge of the woods, under a Yew tree. They sat there before heading back to the main house. When they got there, the house wasn’t silent. There were moans and groans coming from inside. So the men returned to the Yew tree where they waited a while longer.

Patrick Junior became hungry, and so they went back up to the now quiet house and fed him some bread and milk! Then they searched the house, turning it upside down, and finding less than nothing. At least not in cash. They opened the safe and found a little coin but not at all what they were expecting to find. When they were done rummaging, they returned to the smaller house, pulled Robert out of the cellar, and set the bed on fire. Then they gathered some wood and took it up to the main house, starting a fire on the porch. They waited until the houses were really engulfed before they walked the seven miles back to Slavin’s house. All of this took place before midnight.

Catch and Convictions

The police found them in a makeshift camp behind Slavin’s brother-in-law’s house. They were hungry and suffering from exposure. The two older men did not resist and surrendered to the police. The boy, however, tried to run. The police said that unless he stopped and threatened him, they would shoot both him and his father, the boy stopped.

Both Hugh Breen and Patrick Slavin plead guilty, which meant there would be no trial, and they were sentenced to death by hanging on the gallows on December 11th, 1857. Young Slavin plead not guilty, so he got a trial. The jury found him guilty but asked the court for mercy and so they sentenced him to life in the penitentiary.

Hugh Breen never made it to his execution date, because he killed himself in his cell on December 6th, 1857. On December 7th, the entire city came to the jail to view his body. Old Slavin went to the gallows as scheduled.

In 1871, young Patrick Slavin escaped the penitentiary and flee to Maine. He was arrested in Maine, but could not be sent back to Canada for his crimes. Instead, he was released and free to live the rest of his days in the United States.