Regina man charged with killing brother in 23-year-old cold case

A Regina man has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with a 23-year-old cold case.

In a media release Monday, the Regina Police Service said 78-year-old Joseph George Thauberger had been arrested Sunday and charged with killing then-53-year-old Patrick Cyril Thauberger in September of 1997.

According to a police spokesperson, the men were brothers.

Joseph Thauberger also was charged with offering an indignity to a dead human body, and uttering threats. Police said the latter charge stems from threats that allegedly were made to a woman between 1997 and 2014.

Police said they were told of Patrick Thauberger’s disappearance on Sept. 16, 1997, although he reportedly had last been seen on Sept. 3 of that year.

The police put a photo and information about the missing man on their website and, eventually, on the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police Long-Term Missing Persons webpage as well.

In 2006, the Edmonton Journal did a story about the disappearance. Patrick Thauberger was a psychologist living in St. Albert, Alta., at the time of his disappearance.

According to the Journal account, Thauberger left St. Albert in late August. He was driving a vintage blue limousine, with another in tow, and was en route to a car auction in Auburn, Ind., to sell the cars.

After selling his cars, he visited friends in the U.S., took a bus to Winnipeg and then headed to Regina to visit family.

Following a stay of only a few days, he planned to take a bus back to Edmonton. Joseph drove Patrick to the bus depot.

“I just dropped him off and headed back to the farm,” Joseph told the Journal. “And that was that.”

That was the last time Patrick was seen.

After years of investigating, officers arrested Joseph Thauberger on Sunday. Patrick Thauberger’s family has been notified of his death.

In 2016, Joseph Thauberger was arrested after police — while searching for Patrick — found a marijuana grow op in the rural municipalities of Indian Head and South Qu’Appelle.

Joseph Thauberger made his first court appearance on the murder charge in Regina Provincial Court on Monday morning.