Dr. John Schneeberger

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In October 1992, a young woman was in an examination room at Kipling Memorial Hospital.  She is upset so the doctor suggests a sedative to help her calm down.  The young woman agrees not knowing that for the next seven years, she will have to fight for authorities to not only believe her but to bring her perpetrator to justice.  Will she succeed in time, or will others suffer due to a manipulative man’s ability to outsmart authorities?  

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Location

This episode takes place in Kipling, a small rural farming community in the Canadian Provence of Saskatchewan.  The town is named after famed British author Rudyard Kipling who wrote the Jungle Book.  The population hasn’t changed much over recent years and has over a thousand residents.  Kipling other claim to fame is its entry into The Guinness World Record book when it was certified that Kipling held the world’s largest paperclip standing 15 feet tall and weighing 3043 pounds.  

All Hallows Eve

On October 31, 1992, a woman named Candice (in the Forensic File episode Bad Blood she was called Candy) had gone to Kipling Memorial Union Hospital wanting to talk to her friend who worked there.  Earlier that evening Candice had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend and was so worked up that she left her job at a local gas station in search of her friend.  When she arrived she discovered her friend wasn’t working that night, but a nurse seeing she was so upset suggested that she see the doctor on call.  Candice was placed in an examination room.

Dr. John Schneeberger was on call that night.  Candice, who was 23 at the time, knew Dr. Schneedberger as he had delivered her baby.  Dr. Schneeberger suggested giving Candice a sedative to calm her down which she agreed to.  Candice thought Dr. John would give her a pill but when he returned to the room he had a syringe.  

Once administered Candice would recall later that she immediately went numb all over and had no control over her muscles.  She was unable to scream and fell over onto the examination table losing consciousness.  When she awoke she was alone in the examination room not quite knowing what happened but believing she had been raped.  

Candice in later interviews would describe it like when you go to the dentist to have a tooth pulled.  After you are numbed up you can’t feel anything but the pressure.  Candice had the presence of mind to take off her underwear and put it into a clear plastic bag and seal it.  

Denial

Candice was too dizzy to leave the hospital and would end up spending the night per the nurse’s insistence.  She said nothing to the nurses about what she thought had happened to her.  The next day she confronted Dr. John asking him “what the hell was that drug you gave me last night?”  Dr. John’s reply was, “why did it give you wild dreams?”  Candice knew from his reply that he was never going to admit what he did and she would have a hard time proving the rape happened.  

Candice drove two hours away to the town of Regina to the rape crisis center where she underwent a rape kit.  She turned over her underwear and jeans that she had been wearing that night in the hospital. She wanted an examination of everything to prove to herself that she wasn’t making it up.  A blood test would reveal that Candice still had traces of Versed in her system.  Versed also known as midazolam, a benzodiazepine used before surgery or painful procedures that cause drowsiness and decreased anxiety.  It also affects memory allowing patients to not remember the procedure they are going through.  

Tests would also show semen from an unknown male on Candice’s jeans, underwear, and vaginal swabs.  Candice then notified local authorities accusing Dr. John Schneeberger of sexually assaulting her.

Good Doctor

Dr. John Schneeberger was not a native of Kipling or Canada for that matter.  He was born in Namibia and had come to Canada in 1987 from South Africa where he held citizenship.  In 1991 he married divorced mother of two Lisa Dillman and the two would go on to have two daughters of their own.  Dr. John was seen as a much beloved local doctor who volunteer his time to various fundraising opportunities in the area.  

Candice had her supporters who believe her, but they were far and few between.  The small community seemed to side with Dr. John and thought Candice, a single mom made a false allegation in order to get some money out of the good doctor.  They bolstered their disbelief of Candice’s allegation as she said nothing to the hospital staff immediately afterward and she had a reputation as a partier around town.  There were also the nurses who noticed nothing amiss when Dr. John had left the examination room. 

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began their investigation.  Dr. John was contacted and wanting to put these allegations to rest he volunteered to give a blood sample.  The blood was drawn by a nurse from the doctor’s left arm and sent off for testing.  The test results would show that the blood drawn from the doctor’s arm did not match the DNA taken from Candice’s rape kit.

Disbelief

 When Candice was told the results she didn’t believe them.  She felt that something shady had happened and that the sample was switched or the results were changed.  Candice persisted with authorities who agreed to ask for another blood sample but this time it would be in the presence of a law enforcement official.  Dr. John agreed to give another voluntary sample in August 1993.  This time the sample was drawn by a registered nurse from Dr. John’s left arm in front of the police.  The vials were then taken directly to the lab at police headquarters.  

Once again, the results would show that the DNA did not match.  Still, Candice didn’t believe it.  She didn’t know how Dr. John was getting away with it, but she knew he had raped her.  Dr. John also defended himself to the police saying that the drug he had injected Candice with that night to calm her down can cause “erotic hallucinations.”  Candice could really believe something happened to her but it could all be in her mind.

However, the semen taken from inside Candice and found on her jeans and underwear states otherwise.  Candice also claimed that she had not had sexual intercourse with anyone for weeks prior to the night of the incident.  Candice was resolute in her conviction that Dr. John had rapped her and she was a woman on a mission.  

Case Closed

In 1994, the RCMP closed Candice’s case citing that two DNA samples did not match Candice’s rape kit and they had no further evidence that pointed to anyone, especially Dr. Schneeberger.  However, Candice did not give up.  She moved away from Kipling and resettled in Red Deer in the providence of Alberta.  She also hired a private detective, Larry O’Brien, a twenty-five-year veteran of the RCMP.  She was certain that Dr. John raped her and wanted O’Brien to get his DNA for comparison.

O’Brien’s first attempt involved sending an associate into Dr. John’s office with a story about a radio show contest asking him to fill out an entry form and seal it in an envelope hoping that the silva on the envelope could be used for comparison.  That first attempt would end in failure as somehow the envelope had become contaminated and could not be used.

On the second attempt, O’Brien broke into Dr. John’s car and collected hair sampled from the headrest.  Unfortunately, none of the hairs had roots on them and could not be used with the testing technology at the time.  

The third attempt involved O’Brien breaking into Dr. John’s car again and this time finding a used Chapstick tube.  O’Brien could see that the edges of the ChapStick were rounded indicating it had been used.  He then ran the ChapStick over the inside of a windowpane envelope hoping to catch the epithelial that could be used in extracting DNA.  

Pay Dirt

So there were two problems that Candice could face with O’Brien breaking into Dr. John’s car and extracting the chapstick.  One, did the chapstick actually belong to Dr. John?  Would those epithelial be his?  Second, any evidence collected could not be used in court because O’Brien didn’t have a warrant.  None of that mattered to Candice she just wanted to prove that her rape kit would match Dr. John’s DNA.  

Candice paid a private lab to run the tests and patiently waited for the results.  Her patience paid off.  The DNA extracted from the ChapStick was a match for the semen on Candice’s clothing and vaginal swabs. If there was a match, then how did Dr. John’s DNA not match on the previous two blood tests?

Civil Suit

Candice’s next step was to file a civil suit against Dr. John.  Candice retells sitting across from Dr. John’s wife during the depositions and the hostility she experienced rolling off her.  Due to the pressure, Dr. John once again voluntarily agreed to another blood test.  This time the procedure would take place in the police forensic’s lab, be videotaped and performed by a forensic lab technician on November 20, 1996.  

At first, Dr. John appears helpful and friendly like he had the previous two times.  The technician wanted to draw blood from a finger prick which is their usual procedure since it is less invasive.  Dr. John politely refused claiming that he had a disease that would cause his hands to bruise.  Since the doctor was volunteering to give his blood he could not be forced to do anything he wasn’t consenting to.  

Jean Roney, the RCMP Biology Lab Technician inserted the needle into Dr. John’s left arm, but nothing came out.  She found this odd as the vein appeared enlarged.  She tried again and still had trouble but eventually was able to extract a small amount of blood.  Afterward, Rooney can be seen on videotape looking perplexed as to why the blood she just extracted from his arm doesn’t look fresh.  

The lab would report back that the sample was too degraded for DNA testing to take place.  At this point, I’m not sure what the next step was because there is no indication that the degraded sample was investigated and another sample was taken.  Since Dr. John was volunteering to give his DNA it may be the RCMP didn’t have enough evidence to compel him for a finger prick sample.  

Candice however, wouldn’t let it go writing and calling prosecutors and investigators wanting an explanation of how you get a degraded sample and a small amount at that from someone’s arm.  

Five Months

Five months later that would all change when on April 25, 1997, five years after Candice’s sexual assault the RCMP were notified by Dr. John’s wife, Lisa that her daughter (13 or 15) claimed that her stepfather, Dr. John Schneeberger had been drugging and assaulting her too.  

Lisa’s daughter from her first marriage had asked one day if she could go to her father’s house for the weekend.  Lisa questioned this request as she knew her daughter had a babysitting job to go to.  That is when her daughter started to cry and took her mother to her bedroom.  Her daughter pulled back the covers showing her a condom wrapper saying, “mom he has done this before.”  

Lisa called John on his cell phone while he was driving back from an out-of-town medical conference telling him to pull off the road.  She then confronted him telling him what her teenage daughter had just told her.  “She told me what you’ve been doing to her.  I know.  You did it to Candice too, didn’t you?” Dr. John denied the allegations but Lisa still kicked him out of the house the next day.  

Searching

Lisa then began to search her husband’s home office, which was right next door to her daughter’s bedroom.  There she found a box that had been hidden up on a high shelf that contained gloves, syringes, vials of medicine, including Versed, and condoms.  Lisa was aware that John had treated all their children with injections even for run-of-the-mill ailments.  He said it was a quicker way of delivering the medication compared to a pill or a liquid.  

Lisa then remembered one time that her daughter had gotten up in the morning feeling groggy and crying.  Her daughter told her that her stepfather had come into her room in the middle of the night and given her an injection.  Lisa questioned John and he admitted he had done so due to her coughing asking his wife, “didn’t you hear her coughing?”  Classic gas lighting.  Lisa dismissed the incident at the time, but now believed it was something more sinister.

Lisa didn’t hesitate to notify the authorities about her husband raping her daughter.  

Gotcha

Dr. John Schneeberger was arrested and ordered to undergo yet another DNA test which again would be videotaped, but this time he was handed a warrant for a hair, cheek swab, and finger prick sample.  You can see on the videotape from the Forensic Files episode Dr. John doesn’t look so friendly this time around.  

Once all those samples were forensically tested they came back as a match for Candice’s rape kit from five years before.  

Dr. John Schneeberger went on trial in September 1999, in a Saskatchewan courtroom.  He was charged with aggravated sexual assault on his stepdaughter, one count of sexual assault on Candice, two charges of administering a noxious substance to commit an indictable offense, and one count of obstruction of justice.  

Dr. John took the stand in his own defense.  He told the court that he had been framed and that someone either Candice or someone she knew had stolen his sperm most likely by breaking into his house and taking a used condom and then using that to accuse him of rape.

To defend himself he had to use a false blood sample.  

Penrose Drain

Schneeberger knew after Candice notified authorities that he may have to eventually give up a blood sample.  So he inserted a 15 cm Penrose drain into his left arm over the vein.  The drain was filled with a male patient’s blood and anti-coagulants to keep the blood fluid.  The reason for the third sample being discolored was that by the time it was taken, it had been over two years later.  

If you watch the Forensic Files episode you can see Schneeberger only rolling up his left sleeve so far not much beyond the elbow.  You can also see at one point when the technician wasn’t paying attention to the drain in his arm. 

The crown prosecutor in closing described John Scheenberger as a “cold-blooded predator who took what he wanted without regard.”  The prosecutor reminded the court that Candice had nothing to gain by continuing to pursue justice.  She had been ostrasized by her community and forced to move away from the town she had always lived in.  

Dr. John Schneeberger was found guilty of sexually assaulting Candice and his step-daughter and of obstruction of justice. Judge Ellen Gunn sentenced John Scheeberger to 6 years in prison.  He would be eligible for parole after serving only two years.  

Schneeberger’s medical license in Canada was revoked in December 2000.  

Custody Dispute

The night before Schneeberger’s guilty verdict he was to have an overnight unsupervised visit with his two young biological daughters age 5 & 6.  His ex-wife refused and ended up paying $2,000 in a contempt of court charge.  Schneeberger would not relent in insisting that Lisa bring their daughters to visit him once he was in jail.  Lisa appealed and Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Gene Maurice heard the case.  Unfortunately, Lisa was ordered to take the girls to the prison to see her now ex-husband at Alberta’s Bowden Penitentiary.  These visits were to take place once a month.

Lisa continued to reach out to various politicians hoping that they could help her.  She didn’t want her young daughters to see the man that sexually assaulted their older sister, especially in a prison setting. Lisa asked if the visit could take place at a nearby hotel instead, but that was denied by authorities saying that Schneeberger was too dangerous to be let out.  

On the day, Lisa was to bring the girls to the prison they were greeted by one hundred protestors there to support Lisa at the prison gates.  As they were approaching the visitor’s room both girls started crying and clutching Lisa’s leg.  The court-appointed social worker who was present seeing the girls upset called off the visit sending the girls home.  Soon after Schneeberger relented and agreed to not insist on future visits.  

Deported

In June 2001, Scheeberger came up for parole which was denied. At his hearing, he admitted to “crimes and deceits” referring to the scar on his arm from the drain as a “badge of dishonor” and he apologized for his “denial.”  One parole board member would refer to Scheeberger’s statement as “shallow and self-serving.”

However, in 2003, John Scheeberger would gain his freedom after serving a little over four years of his six-year sentence.  

By this time, Lisa was working on having him deported.  She had contacted immigration authorities claiming that Scheeberger deceived everyone and had finally been exposed as a criminal and should be denied citizenship.  In August 2003, the Candian Federal Court agreed with Lisa that John Schneeberger should lose his citizenship status and be deported.  The court felt that the doctor at the time lied to obtain his citizenship.  When he was in the process of applying for citizenship he claimed on his application that he was not under any police investigation in 1993.  

In December 2003, John Schneeberger was stripped of his Canadian citizenship and deported back to South Africa.  He was escorted to Johannesburg by two RCMP officers.  Schneeberger had been a registered medical professional in South Africa in the 1980s, but his registration lapsed in 1991.  He attempted to reapply to be recognized as a medical professional but doesn’t look as if that was successful.  He appears to have moved back in with his mother in Duban South Africa where he works in catering.  

Aftermath

There was a Canadian tv movie made about Candice’s story entitled “I Accused” which aired in 2003 and starred actress Estella Warren.  

Bob Mills, a Canadian politician from Red Deer brought forth a bill entitled “Lisa’s Law” or bill c-400 that would limit the rights of children’s access to parents convicted of sex offenses.  

Additional Resources

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