Credit: Chris Bowerman/Handout photo

Amber Bowerman, a much-loved writer, editor and mentor, was one of the victims in an apparent murder-suicide that took place this week in Calgary. According to several newspaper reports (listed below), Bowerman, 30, was a basement tenant in the home where Joshua Lall, his wife, Alison, and their two daughters were found dead Wednesday morning. Only the Lall's one-year-old daughter was unharmed.

Bowerman had been working as an advisor and publications editor at The Emery Weal, a student newspaper published by the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology students association. She was also a frequent contributor to many Calgary-based magazines, including Alberta Views, where she worked for four years, and publications owned by the RedPoint Media Group., such as Avenue Calgary, Up! Magazine, and CalgaryInc., where she had just completed a story scheduled to appear in the June issue.

I met Bowerman at the Alberta Magazines Conference in March, where she seemed to have a smile on her face the entire time. The many glowing remembrances of her now appearing in newspaper obits suggest the industry has indeed lost someone special.

"She was a remarkable person, with such a spirit of fun, and a wonderful sense of humour," a tearful Jackie Flanagan, editor of Alberta Views, told Michael Platt of the Calgary Sun. "If I could say anything to Amber, I would say you had a really great spirit, and I loved you."

"We've had two writers who we believe would someday make a huge impact, and she was one of them," Avenue Calgary editor Käthe Lemon told Platt. "She had such a wealth of talent—she could write humour, research pieces, opinion, anything."

Related links

• "Journalist a victim in Calgary massacre" [National Post]
• 'If only love could bring Amber Bowerman back" [Calgary Herald]
• "Bowerman amazing, fun loving" [Metro]
• "She was like a big sister" [Calgary Sun]
• "Fellow Calgary journalists hearts grow heavy in mourning the shocking death of vivacious writer Amber Bowerman" [Calgary Sun]
• "Police focus on father in grisly Calgary killings" [Globe and Mail]