LangleyAdvance
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Friday, October 8, 2010
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Cloverdale shooting
Suspect tracked into Aldergrove
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Police swarmed Aldergrove Thursday morning in search of a murder suspect.
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A section of Aldergrove, in the area of 266B Street and 29th Avenue was cordoned off for a few hours with police tape after a car-jacked vehicle was discovered down the street from the high school. It’s believed the abandoned 1998 Accura Integra was taken from south Cloverdale earlier the same morning, after the rural neighbourhood erupted in gunfire. Police arrived on scene to find a middleaged man shot dead at the end of a driveway in the 17600-block of 24th Avenue, said Cpl. Dale Carr, spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. Late Thursday Mounties identified the dead man as 51-year-old Randall Davis, of Surrey. Carr said it’s “a touch too early” to say if the shooting was drug- or gang-related or if the victim was an intended target. Shots were heard at about 7 a.m., just east of 176th Street. A short time later, a neighbour’s vehicle was then carjacked but its owner was not injured and police recovered that vehicle in Aldergrove some time later. Police are looking to find anyone who observed a driver in the car-jacked vehicle, driving “erratically” between Cloverdale and Aldergrove between 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. “Police are seizing the vehicle to see what if any information they can obtain from it,” he added. In the meantime, two people found inside the Cloverdale house are “probably considered witnesses at this point,” Carr said. Interviews were being conducted at the Surrey RCMP detachment but no arrest had been made or suspect had been identified by press time. Carr said it’s “difficult to say” if the man was shot in the house or in the driveway. “We do not feel this is a dump site.” A police dog followed a track through
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Police investigators began the task of collecting evidence from the crime scene on 24th Avenue and 176 Street in Cloverdale on Thursday morning. nearby bushes to some evidence, the nature of which police are not disclosing. “However,” Carr said, “the track ended abruptly.” A tactical troop will scour the bush for more evidence as the police barricade was expected to remain for a couple of days. “We have a very large outdoor scene we’re dealing with here,” Carr said. Meanwhile, that portion of 24th Avenue a couple blocks east of 176th Street was expected to be closed until at least Friday. “An extensive neighbourhood inquiry campaign will be done over the course of today and tomorrow,” he explained. On Thursday morning motorists’ necks were craning to look as cars and trucks rumbled to and from the border along busy
176th Street. One man who lives on the other side of 24th stopped by to investigate. “I just heard there was a shooting,” he said, identifying himself only as Rob. He soon found himself swarmed by media looking for his reaction to the murder. “It’s happening everywhere, so not much reaction,” he said. Anyone with information is asked to call IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-IHIT. Or to remain anonymous, people can call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Anonymity is guaranteed. “We need to speak to each and every neighbour in the area, we will be looking to see if they have seen anything out of the ordinary over the last few days,” Carr said.
– with files from the Surrey Now
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Coroner charged with manipulating bodies Forensic team suspicions led to criminal charges against a Chilliwack coroner. by Roxanne Hooper
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A former B.C. coroner faces criminal charges this week, in connection with allegations of manipulating a murder victim’s body in Langley last spring. Langley RCMP’s serious crime section led an investigation into the actions of a coroner after officers became suspicious of his actions at a Langley murder scene. “Lower Mainland District Forensic Identification officers were collecting evidence at a Langley homicide scene in March 2009, when one officer noticed
what appeared to be a pattern of questionable and possibly criminal behaviour by the coroner, and informed investigators of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT),” said the RCMP’s regional communications officer Sgt. Peter Thiessen. The subsequent investigation by Langley Mounties revealed the coroner’s examination in two separate incidents involved alleged criminal behaviour in the manipulation of the bodies, he explained. The other incident apparently occurred in Port Coquitlam in February 2009. “The families of each victim have been contacted and informed of these criminal charges,” Thiessen said. “I can’t imagine how the families would feel, after the murders of their loved ones, about unsettling new
allegations such as these. Out of coroner’s service shortly after respect for the families, we will the investigation into allegations not be releasing any more inforagainst him began. mation about the nature of these He was arrested and interallegations.” viewed Tuesday, and was While Thiessen released to appear in said he could not Surrey Provincial Court identify the murder on Thursday, Oct. 21. victims involved, he He was subsequently confirmed that there charged Wednesday was only one murder with two counts of in Langley and one in offering an indignity Port Coquitlam on the to human remains and days in question. two counts of breach of Laura Lynn trust by a public officer. Lamoureux, 36, was Asked if the coroner’s gunned down near alleged actions will Sgt. Peter Thiessen Sendall Gardens in impact on the court RCMP regional communications Langley on March 14, case against two men 2009. charged with first-degree murder Brianna Kinnear, 21, was shot in Lamoureux’s death, Thiessen to death in a Dodge pickup in said there’s no reason to believe Port Coquitlam on Feb. 3, 2009. the case will be impeded by Kenneth Glen Mattinson, 61 these recent findings and charof Chilliwack, retired from the ges.