Epilogue for a Canadian Rapist and His Victim
(“Bad Blood,” Forensic Files)
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When Dr. John Schneeberger drugged and raped a patient in his exam room, he probably figured that she a) wouldn’t know what happened or b) wouldn’t be believed even if she did.
Schneeberger was a family physician beloved by residents of Kipling, a farming town of 1,100 people in Saskatchewan. Many of them had been treated by the 30ish blond doctor at one time or another and found him kind and caring.
King of the North. The Forensic Files episode “Bad Blood” told the story of his 23-year-old victim, usually identified only as Candy or Candice in the media.
She was a single mother with a high school diploma, a job at a gas station, and a reputation as a partyer.
On the local totem pole, Candy was basically the part buried in the ground.
Who was she to disparage an asset to the community like Dr. Schneeberger? The charming medical professional helped raise funds so the town could install a public swimming pool. He was happily married with four kids — two of them step-children he took in from his wife’s previous marriage.
What a great guy. In fact, he was so agreeable that he willingly took multiple DNA tests after Candy reported the Halloween-night sexual assault to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1992.
Defamation of character. Just as Schneeberger’s admiring public expected, his DNA didn’t match the semen from the alleged rape.
The test results seemed to confirm townspeople’s suspicions that Candy was lying, that she had a crush on Schneeberger and was retaliating because he rejected her, according to Autopsy, an HBO docuseries that produced a segment about the case.
Some residents suspected Candy was hoping to profit from a nuisance suit, according to Forensic Files.
‘Nothing to see here.’ The doctor maintained that he gave Candy the injection of Versed to calm her nerves and that the drug sometimes caused hallucinations of sexual activity as a side effect.
The police halted the investigation in 1994.
What Mrs. Schneeberger and the rest of her husband’s fan club didn’t know was that the doctor had foiled the DNA tests by implanting in his arm a tube containing another man’s blood.
Self-funding. Meanwhile, Candy persisted. Although the Versed had incapacitated her and made her memory hazy that evening on Dr. Schneeberger’s exam table, she felt sure he had raped her.
It took seven years, but her efforts finally landed Schneeberger behind razor wire.
A private detective she hired got hold of Schneeberger’s ChapStick. Candy paid for a DNA test at a private lab and got a match.
Tables turn. But Schneeberger pulled his fake-blood routine once more during the hospital’s lab test and evaded justice again.
Then, in 1997, there was a colossal break in the case: Lisa Schneeberger switched sides.
She found out her husband had been drugging and sexually assaulting her 13-year-old daughter.
The court ordered more DNA tests, which this time included a sample of Schneeberger’s hair and blood drawn from his finger.
They matched the semen from Candy’s attack.
Nice try, Doc. Schneeberger went on trial in November 1999 in Saskatchewan for raping both Candy and his step-daughter.
He admitted to the blood switcheroo; it came from one of his patients. But, he said, it was a matter of self-defense. Candy had broken into his house, he contended, and stolen a used condom so she could frame him.
The jury didn’t buy it and convicted him of enough crimes to put him away forever.
But he got a sentence of only six years.
After the show. The Forensic Files episode, first aired in 2001, ends with Candy’s jubilation when she learned the doctor had been denied parole.
So, what happened to Dr. John Schneeberger after Forensic Files’ closing guitar chords?
Well, it’s a mixture of justice and injustice.
Paperwork problem. After four years in the minimum security annex of Ferndale Institution (now known as Mission Minimum Institution) in British Columbia, Schneeberger won parole.
The ex-convict — who was also sometimes known by his given first name, Steven — promptly moved to Regina, the same town where Candy lived. He’d been stripped of his medical license, so he got work on a demolition crew and also did carpentry.
Fortunately, Candy didn’t have to worry about bumping into Schneeberger at the supermarket for long.
Records showed that Schneeberger — who originally came from Zambia and later lived in South Africa — had neglected to disclose on his Canadian citizenship application in 1993 that he was being investigated for rape, according to the Calgary Herald.
They still love him? Canada moved to deport him to South Africa — but not before his victims had to witness the residual goodwill Schneeberger had built up in the Great White North.
His friends began a letter-writing campaign urging the immigration minister to reverse the deportation order so Schneeberger would have a chance to say goodbye to his biological daughters.
Schneeberger’s camp won.
His wife, who was identified as Lisa Dillman after her divorce, was ordered to allow the girls, ages 5 and 6, to see him.
Ex-wife’s dilemma. She had paid $2,000 for contempt of court for previously refusing to take them to see their father in jail, but she ultimately obeyed the visitation order, according to a Globe and Mail story. As writer Margaret Wente quoted the former Mrs. Schneeberger:
“At least I can say to my girls when they’re older: ‘I tried.’ They will know that Mummy at least tried to keep us away from him…. I still blame myself. Maybe if I had believed [Candy], none of this would have happened to my daughter.”
The story also reported that Schneeberger’s pals threw him a going-away party.
He had a garage sale to get rid of his things prior to deportation.
Unwelcome. If this is sounding more like a kid going away to college than a sex criminal being chased out of North America, don’t worry — he faced adversity when he finally landed back in Africa in July of 2004.
The man once affectionately known as “Dr. John” in Canada became “Dr. Rape” in South Africa.
He tried to join the Health Professions Council of South Africa so that he could work in some field of medicine again, but he soon withdrew his application.
His brother, William “Bill” Schneeberger, a cardiothoracic surgeon, tried to help him get back on his feet professionally.
He maintained the charges against his brother were false. “I don’t believe my brother is a saint,” Bill Schneeberger said in a statement to the Calgary Herald, “but I know he is not a fool and rape in a consulting room when you have asked two nurses to join you is ridiculous.”
Bill Schneeberger’s efforts on his brother’s behalf appear to have gone nowhere. Bill himself returned to the U.S. and works with the humanitarian organization Emergency NGO in Ohio, according to his LinkedIn profile.
My old room available? John Schneeberger went to live with his mother, Ina, in Durban, South Africa, and reportedly took up work in the catering industry; he had picked up some skills on kitchen duty in prison. He pretty much dropped off the radar screen after that.
As for Candy, she filed civil suits against the doctor and the Kipling hospital where he treated her. No word on how she fared with the legal actions, but she got to see herself played by supermodel Estella Warren in I Accuse, a movie version of her story made for Canadian TV.
Candy herself appeared on the Canadian news magazine show 72 Hours, which produced an episode about the case called “Good Doctor.”
As of this writing in 2018, she’s known as Candice Fonagy and works as a continuing care assistant for an addiction-services facility in Saskatchewan. Professionals with her job title are known as “the eyes and ears of the frail and vulnerable” — a good fit for someone who has survived a saga like Candy’s.
By the way, Forensic Files executive producer Paul Dowling has said he is a fan of hers and that “Bad Blood” is his favorite of all 400 episodes of the series he created.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. – RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Amazon Prime.
See the Autopsy episode “Dead Men Talking” (the segment about Candy comes on at 18:50 minutes).
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