The last pieces of the puzzle appeared with the spring thaw. The bodies of all three men were found, washed up on sandbars in the Yukon River. They had been shot to death.
George O'Brien, who had indeed shown up at Tagish and had been arrested for cache theft, was charged with murder. In June 1901, he was tried and found guilty of the murder of Lynn Relfe, whose body could be identified most conclusively. O'Brien was hanged on August 23, 1901, in Dawson. To the end, he maintained his innocence. And, although there was evidence that two men had committed the murders, no accomplice was ever charged.
