The Mystery of the Calgary Mummy is one of Alberta’s most perplexing cold cases—a story of unease, discovery, and unanswered questions that has haunted the community of Tuxedo Park since 1948.
It began when Alfred Pearce and his family moved into a modest house at 1805 20th Avenue NW in Calgary. From the moment they arrived, Mrs. Pearce complained of a strange, oppressive feeling in the home. She described it as a "creepy presence," like unseen eyes watching their every move. Her daughters echoed this discomfort, saying they often felt a cold sensation brushing against their skin.
The unease reached a breaking point on their first night in the house. While helping her mother with the dishes, one of the Pearce daughters screamed in terror, claiming a ghostly, disembodied hand had reached out and touched her shoulder. Alfred Pearce initially dismissed the encounter as imagination or nerves, but as he tucked the children into bed later that night, he noticed something unusual: the floorboards in the bedroom were sagging.
Curiosity and concern led Pearce to investigate further. He retrieved a crowbar and pried up the wooden boards. What he found beneath the floor made his blood run cold. Lying in a bed of ash was a mummified human corpse. The figure was clothed in a decayed leather jacket, with skin preserved by the dry, ashy conditions. Pearce immediately roused his family and rushed them out of the house before calling the authorities.
Calgary detectives Gordon Gilkes and Frank Whiteside arrived to investigate the grisly discovery. The body appeared to have been there for quite some time, and initial estimates suggested it had been hidden for nearly two decades. In the jacket pocket, detectives found a faded, crumpled letter bearing the name Thomas C. Hall—a man who had vanished without a trace in 1929.
The investigation into Hall’s death raised more questions than it answered. His brother, Wallace Hall, was brought in to identify the remains, and he confirmed that the coat matched one his brother had owned. But the circumstances of Thomas Hall's disappearance remained unclear. No signs of forced entry or struggle were ever found in the house, and no one recalled seeing him enter the property.
Theories swirled around the discovery. Some speculated that Hall had been lured to the house and murdered, with his killer using the ashes of the old coal furnace to conceal the body. Others suggested he had been involved in bootlegging during Prohibition, and that his death was connected to organized crime. Yet no arrests were ever made, and the case eventually went cold.
Even today, residents of Tuxedo Park speak of strange happenings in the house on 20th Avenue. Tenants have reported sudden cold spots, disembodied footsteps, and the sensation of being watched—echoes, perhaps, of the spirit of Thomas Hall still seeking justice.
Who killed Thomas Hall? Why was his body hidden beneath the floorboards for nearly two decades? And what exactly happened in that small Calgary home in 1929?
Join us as we uncover the chilling details of The Mystery of the Calgary Mummy in our latest episode of Unsolved Canadian Mysteries, available now on Spotify and YouTube.