Crime
Two break and enters to start the month in Osoyoos
PENTICTON - Osoyoos RCMP are hoping you can help solve two break and enters on March 1. A garage on 87th Street was entered by thieves who made off with a 1988 black Ford Mustang, a black and yellow coloured Bombardier XP Seadoo and several tools valued at approximately $15,000. On the same date, Osoyoos...
The household remedy that started a major RCMP drug investigation in Enderby
VERNON - When authorities raided an Enderby business and lodging house last week, they noticed a horrible smell from a weird substance growing in a jar and called in the RCMP's drug lab unit from Vancouver—complete with full-body suits and gas masks. But your average health nut might have immediately recognized it as a home-made...
THREATENING LETTER: What Penticton police are telling parents as they prepare for a new school week
PENTICTON - Fears of a continued threat and frustration over communication was on parents’ minds at a community meeting set up by School District 67 following last week’s discovery of a threatening letter at Skaha Lake Middle School. Police and school officials met with students' parents and members of the public to hear their concerns...
KOOPMANS TRIAL: Two shot dead for revenge: Crown
PENTICTON — Two people from Princeton were shot to death and another was seriously wounded because the gunman was "crushed" and betrayed by his belief they broke into his home and stole from him, a Crown prosecutor told the jury today, Feb. 25, in the opening of the murder trial of John Ike Koopmans. Koopmans...
Hells Angel sentencing could be postponed until after Christmas
KELOWNA - What was supposed to be a day of final submissions ahead of sentencing has turned into a multi-day examination into the lives of two men convicted of multiple weapons charges. Admitted Hells Angel Joseph Bruce Skreptak and alleged gang associate Cory Montemurro asked to postpone sentencing until early January so they can spend...
Why a jury found a Vernon man guilty of raping his daughter, but not of incest
VERNON - A Vernon man continues to show no remorse for years of sexual abuse on his daughter and her friend and that got him some extra time in prison. The man, who cannot be named by court order to protect the identity of his daughter, was originally charged with three counts of sexual assault—two...
RCMP considered risks of making school threat letter public
PENTICTON - The threatening letter found on Penticton school property this week is in the hands of RCMP behavioural experts as they try to sort out who is behind the writing and why they did it. A stack of roughly 30 copies of the letter containing what appears to be a threat by a young...
Lumby RCMP appeal to public after two thefts in less than a week
LUMBY - Police are reaching out for public assistance in solving two thefts earlier this month in Lumby. The first was a break and enter Feb. 8 at Tire Craft on Dyffryn Road. The alarm was set off, and when police arrived, they found the rear door had been forced open and money stolen from...
Unsafe Enderby boarding house possibly a chemical drug lab
ENDERBY - An Enderby building decorated on the outside with brightly painted murals is now being investigated as the site of a possible chemical drug lab. Police discovered evidence of a drug lab Wednesday, Feb. 18 while assisting the City of Enderby with an evacuation order. Eleven boarders, including up to four children, were ordered...
Salmon Arm man struck with metal pipe during bizarre altercation
POLICE APPEALING TO PUBLIC FOR INFORMATION ABOUT SUSPECTS VERNON - Mounties say a Salmon Arm man was attacked through his car window last week while stopped at an intersection. The unusual assault occurred last Wednesday, Feb. 11, around 9:15 p.m. in front of the Green Valley Motel on 25 Avenue. A 26-year-old Salmon Arm man...
Alleged thief fails again, and again, and then it gets worse
VERNON - First, an alleged thief failed to steal the goods and then it went downhill from there. Vernon RCMP brought in the dog unit to investigate a report of a theft of a trailer in progress at Silver Star Mountain Resort, Thursday, February 12. Mounties were called to parking lot "E" at 6:30 p.m.,...
Judge to hear evidence against Lumby man accused of murder
VERNON - A Lumby man accused of murdering his girlfriend, a local teacher, is before a provincial court judge this week. A preliminary inquiry for Howard Everett Krewson, also known as Howard Everett, began Wednesday, Feb. 4 and is scheduled to last five days. Krewson, 55, was charged with the second degree murder of Linda...
Police believe Cherryville vandal was motivated by logging dispute
CHERRYVILLE - Police believe a recent act of vandalism was motivated by a controversial logging operation in Cherryville. Heavy equipment belonging to the company contracted to build a logging road in the Cherry Ridge area was vandalized sometime around Jan. 13, Lumby Cpl. Henry Proce says. The construction of the road is part of a...
Bobbitt hearing to reconvene in September
PENTICTON - David Wesley Bobbitt sat in the prisoner’s box for two weeks, listening to how his violent actions affected others, how police think he’s a liar, and why he is a psychopath and sexual sadist. The dangerous offender hearing and sentencing for Bobbitt began on June 23 and will continue Sept. 2. Crown prosecutors...
Bobbitt’s a ‘psychopath’: Psychiatrist
PENTICTON - David Wesley Bobbitt is a clinical psychopath who showed uncommon violent behaviour even as a child, a forensic psychiatrist said today. Penticton knows Bobbitt best for his most recent, perhaps his most heinous crime when he took a young mother and her child captive for hours inside Dave's Second Hand Store on Ellis...