Elmer Shepard was born on October 31, 1903, and was twenty-seven years old when he joined the OPP. The unmarried officer had several postings in his eight years of government service. He worked in Barrie, Huntsville, Baysville, North Bay and Corbeil before moving to Kirkland Lake. He had worked most of his career as a traffic officer.

While in North Bay he switched to motorcycle patrol and was assigned to the home of the Dione quints when they became one of the top tourist attractions in North America.

Serving in Kirkland Lake meant a change of pace from that of his duties of North Bay. The gold town was bustling and OPP, RCMP, town and mine police all worked together in many situations. 

On Saturday, July 23, 1938, Shepard was on duty and had occasion to travel on an enquiry to Matheson some fifty miles farther north. He took his good friend from the RCMP office with him along for the ride.

After concluding the business end of the trip, the two officers proceeded a little further north to the family reunion of a mutual friend. When the officers finally left the reunion it was in the early hours of Sunday morning. Since the last train had gone, Shepard had been asked to transport a young man and three girls to Swastika, just outside Kirkland Lake.

Officer Shepard traveled on a secondary road to get to Ramore where they would take Highway 11 south. Just north of Ramore, they came to a road that crossed a bridge over a creek. The car headlights did not reveal the general disrepair of the bridge and as the police car moved around a curve on the bridge, the right front wheel broke through a weak patch in the planks, and the car plunged 30 feet to the creek below. 

PC Shepard was killed in the accident. At the time of his death, he was engaged to be married.