Charges laid in Siksika homicide

Times Reporter  

 

A call about a hit-and-run turned into a case of second-degree murder charges being laid in Siksika this past week. 

A 41-year-old Siksika man phoned the Gleichen RCMP detachment to report a hit-and-run on April 30, at approximately 9:30 a.m.

“It was reported as a hit-and-run to us over the phone and then we said, well when you’re reporting a collision come to the office and we’ll take your information here,” said Staff Sgt. James McLaren. 

The man did not want to come into the office, and so a couple of officers were dispatched to his location. 

“At that point they are looking around at the evidence and things aren’t adding up so they dug a little deeper. They did their investigation at the scene and were able to determine it wasn’t just a hit-and-run, it was a little bit more serious than that, resulting in a fatality,” said McLaren.

An altercation allegedly began between the accused and his partner in the early hours of April 30. 

Police were informed that there had been a domestic dispute which resulted in the suspect running over his partner with his vehicle, and then disposing of the body in a nearby wooded area. 

Gleichen RCMP located the body and confirmed he was deceased. 

The accused also faces a charge of indignity to a body and has been remanded into custody. He was scheduled to appear in Drumheller Provincial Court on May 7. The outcome of the court appearance was not available at press time. 

This is the first homicide of the year for the Gleichen detachment. 

The homicide investigation was handled by the RCMP Calgary Major Crimes Unit in conjunction with the Calgary Medical Examiner’s Office, with assistance from Calgary-based RCMP Forensic Identification Section, General Investigation Section, Police Dog Service, and Forensic Collision Reconstruction Section.

The last took place on May 18, 2013 when two women were charged with the death of 26-year-old Tak Tai Lawrence Leung of Chilliwack, B.C.