Fairhaven homicide victim was cancer survivor, 66, out on morning walk from care home

Harvey Zoerb loved horses, playing Johnny Cash on guitar and going for coffee with friends at Market Mall.

The 66-year-old cancer survivor also liked the freedom to come and go from the personal care home where he lived in the Fairhaven neighbourhood in Saskatoon. Last Wednesday, June 12, his roommate said Zoerb left the home sometime between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. CST and walked to a nearby 7-Eleven, on the other side of Sears Park.

He never came home.

"Sometimes he gets tired of waiting for breakfast and then he heads out," said Darrell Runningaround, one of Zoerb's roommates.

Runningaround said he noticed the commotion that morning in the nearby Fairhaven School parking lot. Police cruisers, fire trucks and paramedics crowded the area by the hockey rink.

"The owner, the manager, come out and told us that Harvey was found outside the school."

Zoerb is the city's 11th homicide this year and his death has sparked outrage and fear in the west side neighbourhood. On the Facebook page Ward 2 and 3 Residents, many people are saying Fairhaven has changed dramatically — and for the worse — since the Saskatoon Tribal Council's emergency wellness centre opened in the fall of 2022.

And they do not hesitate to share the concerns when asked in person.

On Monday morning, Bob Meyer offered his take while sitting in his truck outside the 7-Eleven where Zoerb had gone on his last day. Meyer's lived in the neighbourhood since 1981 and raised his family there.

"We've warned that something major was going to happen because in the overnight, evenings we have multiples of people roaming the neighbourhood doing no good. It was just a matter of time," he said. 

Meyer said Sears Park, which stretches from the 7-Eleven to Fairhaven School, is beautiful during the daytime. At night, however, is a different story.

"There's usually groups of people in the treelines. You'll see them quite often during the day sitting there, or else at night. There's often encampments along that treeline."

Aside from the Saskatoon Police Service's initial news release — which included police saying "there is not believed to be a threat to public safety" — there have been no arrests and no publicly-identified suspects in the homicide. Police have not identified the victim, or said how he died.

On Monday, Zoerb's family and friends gathered for his funeral and memorial. It streamed live from the Dalmeny Funeral Home.