Man convicted of killing brother dies in Saskatoon correctional facility

A Regina man convicted of killing his brother 26 years ago has died in a Saskatoon correctional facility.

Correctional Service Canada (CSC) issued a media release Wednesday saying Joseph Thauberger died Tuesday in the Regional Psychiatric Centre. The release said the 81-year-old man had died “of apparent natural causes.”

“At the time of death, the inmate had been serving an indeterminate sentence, which commenced on July 27, 2023 for second-degree murder and indignity to a dead body,” the release said.

According to the CSC website, the Regional Psychiatric Centre is “a mental hospital with the security provisions to also function as a federal correctional institution.”

CSC said it will review the circumstances of Thauberger’s death in addition to notifying the police and the coroner.

Thauberger initially was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of then-53-year-old Patrick Cyril Thauberger in September of 1997.

After a trial at Regina Court of King’s Bench that started in late June, Joseph was found guilty of killing his brother and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

In a media release issued at the time of Joseph’s arrest in November of 2020, police said they were told of Patrick’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 was a psychologist living in St. Albert, Alta., when he went missing.

According to the Journal story, Patrick left St. Albert in late August of 1997. 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 his brother 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 on Nov. 29, 2020. Police found Patrick’s remains in a farm pond in December of 2020, helping officers crack what had been a cold case.

— With files from The Canadian Press