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Death

Kamloops jail has highest number in the province for in-custody deaths

KAMLOOPS - Since August 2014 there have been four in-custody death’s at six regional provincial jails, three of which were in Kamloops according to data from the Ministry of Justice.  The number went from three to four on Monday, Sept. 21 with the latest death in Kamloops but details of the case, including the inmate’s...

SNELSON TRIAL UPDATE: Kelowna killer sentenced; only 19 months left to serve

KAMLOOPS - It took two trials and nearly 22 years for the case and the jail doors to close on Jennifer Cusworth’s killer, but it will only be one year and seven months before his release. Neil George Snelson, 48, was sentenced to 11 years today, Sept. 16, in Kamloops Supreme Court. Since he was...

Vernon teen accused of murder to have no contact with three people

VERNON - A local teen charged with murder has been ordered not to have any contact with his co-accused — a 14-year-old boy — and two other young men from Vernon. Brandon Joseph Clayton Wellington, 18, appeared in Vernon Provincial Court today, Sept. 9 on one count of second degree murder in the death of...

Foul play involved in body found in Polson Park

VERNON - Police are revealing more information about a man found dead last week in Polson Park.  He has been identified as 42-year-old Jason Thomas Hardy, and police believe foul play was involved in his death. His body was found the morning of Aug. 26 in Polson Park. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says Hardy has...

Rafting accident claims life of Kelowna man ahead of wedding

KELOWNA – Less than a month before he was set to be married, a young Kelowna man has drowned while white-water rafting near Golden over the weekend. Rene Bourgault was rafting with three other people in Kicking Horse River Sunday, Aug. 16 when the group was thrown into the water roughly ten kilometres east of...

Man dies after jumping off houseboat in the Shuswap

SICAMOUS - The body of a 24-year-old who jumped off a houseboat yesterday and did not resurface has been recovered. Sicamous RCMP say the Saskatchewan man jumped off a houseboat into the water of Mara Lake yesterday, Aug. 4, and did not resurface. The RCMP dive team and Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue team...

Family hopes inquest will dispel mystery surrounding death of Kamloops inmate

KAMLOOPS - This winter an east coast family hopes to get answers on what caused the death of Dylan Levi Judd — an inmate found dead in a Kamloops jail cell last year. The B.C. Coroners service will hold an inquest on the deceased this November. Twenty-year-old Judd was found unresponsive in his cell during...

Coroner’s findings in death of Enderby senior

ENDERBY - Dementia is considered a contributing factor in the death of an Enderby woman. Barbara Nell Derenowski, 73, was found dead March 4 on a logging road near Douglas Lake after driving many kilometres from her home in Enderby. Her neighbours were shocked and saddened to hear of her passing. According to a coroner’s...

Men who died in Vernon motorcycle crash identified

VERNON - The names of two men who died in a weekend motorcycle crash have been released by the B.C. Coroners Service. They were James Tyler Folden, 23, of Lumby, and Trinity James Dale Bright, 24, originally from Cherryville, but most recently residing in Canmore, Alberta. Folden was driving an offroad motorcycle with Bright as...

SNELSON TRIAL: Cusworth was beaten to death: Pathologist

GRAPHIC CONTENT ADVISORY  KAMLOOPS - Around seven or eight blows to the head caused the death of a 19-year-old girl who was found beaten, bruised and strangled in a watery ditch at the side of a pumpkin farmer’s property in Kelowna in 1993. In Kamloops Supreme Court today, June 4, Dr. Ronald Roy, a forensic...

Aggressive cow killed Cherryville farmhand with deadly head butt

CHERRYVILLE - The death of a Yellowknife man who was attacked by an aggressive cow last summer was an accident, says the B.C. Coroners Service. Allen Donald Powder, 49, was moving cows from one corral to another at a farm in Cherryville on July 1. He’d worked for the farm owner’s company about 17 years...

Woman killed in car crash spread joy through social media

KELOWNA – Joselyn Casavant’s Facebook status updates were "hilarious," according to one of her hundreds of friends. The 21-year-old who died after being hit head-on by a speeding Honda on McCurdy Road last weekend is being remembered by family and friends as someone who genuinely cared about making other people happy. Anthony Kuchma, 23, first met...

Woman found in Kelowna alley dies from injuries

KELOWNA – An 83-year-old woman found with serious injuries in an alley in downtown Kelowna early Sunday morning has died in hospital. RCMP say the woman was found alone in the lane between the Kelowna Daily Courier building and the McWilliams Centre at 580 Doyle Ave. at about 1:13 a.m. She was rushed to Kelowna...

UPDATE: More than a dozen people witnessed murder on Kelowna city bus

BUS PASSANGERS WARY AFTER MURDER KELOWNA – Passengers on the number eight bus in Kelowna are eyeing each other with more suspicion Friday, after a man was murdered in an apparently random knife attack at a stop on Baron Road Thursday night. Taran Mundie, 23, is a UBCO student who takes the bus almost every...

Nurses union sounds alarm after third care-home death

SALMON ARM - The dementia patient who attacked a fellow resident at a Shuswap care home had already assaulted people at the facility, including a nurse, and was flagged as aggressive, says a spokesperson for the B.C. Nurses Union. That patient’s name has not been released, but the name of the man who wandered into...

Motorcycle crash kills West Kelowna man

PENTICTON - A West Kelowna man was killed when he crashed his motorcycle into another vehicle this past weekend. On Saturday, Sept. 13, a 42-year-old motorcyclist accelerated straight through a yellow light at the same time an oncoming car was making a left-hand turn at the intersection of Main Street and Industrial Avenue. The motorcyclist...

UPDATE: American killed rock climbing near Penticton identified

PENTICTON – An American in his 30’s fell to his death on Saturday, Aug. 30, while rock climbing in Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park near Penticton. “The man fell from a substantial height,” RCMP Const. Chris Richardson says. “He was deceased upon arrival at hospital.” The victim, identified as Stas Eric Gray of Seattle Washington, was...

This is how young people in Penticton are bringing awareness to mental health

PENTICTON - There's a group of five Penticton 20-somethings creating a plan for a new non-profit organization to help bring support and awareness of mental health to town — because of what happened to someone they know. They gather at a coffee shop on Main Street in downtown Penticton, their computer screens glowing, pages of...

Surrey man drowned, remains found by RCMP dive team

OKANAGAN - The remains of a Surrey businessman who drowned while on vacation in Washington have been found, thanks to the efforts of the B.C. RCMP Dive Team and the Okanagan County Sheriff Department. While vacationing with family and friends on Washington’s Osoyoos Lake earlier this month, John Mele dove into the water and didn’t...