Murder trial begins in death of Alex Fraser
Alexander Fraser, a father of two from Niagara Falls, vanished without a trace on Boxing Day 2014 after his burning car was discovered near the Niagara River in Fort Erie.
The 49-year-old’s body was discovered two months later floating near the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station in Niagara Falls.
His head was bound with duct tape and his wrists and ankles were tied.
A first-degree murder trial against three Niagara Falls men began Tuesday in a Superior Court of Justice in Welland. Brad MacGarvie, 26, Thomas Nagy, 26, and Duran Wilson, 30, have all pleaded not guilty to the charge.
In his opening address to the jury Crown attorney Tyler Shuster said the evidence will show Fraser was lured to his death after one of the defendants heard Fraser had planned to get several people to beat him up in retaliation for an earlier assault.
Shuster said Fraser, who worked as an unlicensed cab driver, had been the victim of a violent assault at a Niagara Falls apartment in mid-November 2014.
During the assault, which involved the three defendants, Fraser was hit, punched and struck with a weapon
“He was called a pedophile and told to leave town and not come back,” Shuster said.
Fraser promised he wouldn’t contact police and agreed to leave Niagara.
On Christmas Day, Shuster continued, MacGarvie learned Fraser was still in Niagara and was planning to get a group of people from Sarnia to travel to Niagara to beat him up.
What followed, the Crown attorney said the evidence will show, was a plot to lure Fraser to an isolated area known as Gonder’s Flats along the Niagara Parkway in Fort Erie.
When Fraser arrived at the location on Boxing Day, his vehicle became stuck in the mud and he attempted to push the car free.
Court was told one of the defendants then “tackled” him from behind.
Fraser’s hands and feet were tied and his head was bound with duct tape and he was forced into another vehicle and driven to a wooded area not far from McLeod Road.
Nagy and MacGarvie, Shuster told the jury, walked Fraser into the woods. The duo later returned to the vehicle without him.
Two other people who were there at the time of the incident were told not to reveal what had happened or “the same thing would happen to them,” Shuster said. A few days later, the two witnesses contacted police.
The Crown’s first witness, Trevor Hausler, testified he was driving along the parkway around 2 a.m. on Boxing Day when he noticed a fire in the distance.
“I pulled in and saw there was a car on fire,” the 23-year-old said. “It was fully engulfed in flames.”
He estimated the flames from the fire were at least six feet tall and that the vehicle’s tires were melted.
As another passerby called 911, Hausler checked the car and did a quick search of the area.
“I looked around the area to see if anyone was hurt or injured,” he said. “I didn’t see anyone.”
Fraser grew up in Hamilton and had lived in Niagara Falls for a number of years.
The trial, before Judge Robert Reid, is expected to last more than four weeks.