Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in 2011 death of teenager
VERNON — A British Columbia man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of an 18-year-old girl on Halloween night in 2011.
Matthew Foerster was previously convicted of first-degree murder in 2014 for the death of Taylor Van Diest.
The young woman was found near death along some train tracks in Armstrong, and later died of her injuries in hospital.
Last May, the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered a retrial because of two problems raised by Foerster’s lawyer with how the jury was instructed.
Foerster pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder in B.C. Supreme Court Monday in Vernon and will be back in court for sentencing on April 9.
During his first trial in Kelowna, court heard Van Diest was hit on the head with a metal flashlight.
At about 6 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2011, Van Diest left her home in Armstrong to meet up with friends to go trick-or-treating. On the way she exchanged several text messages
with a friend, the last one of which read that she was being “creeped.”
When she didn’t arrive, Van Diest’s friends drove around searching for her for 90 minutes before calling Van Diest’s twin sister
and mom and contacting police.
Van Diest was found barely alive at about 8:30 p.m. Jurors at the first trial heard evidence that she was found lying face down near railway tracks that ran through town, her head resting on a steel pipe.
She had suffered six blows to the head, a pathologist testified. One of them fractured her skull and caused a severe brain injury.
Foerster did not testify at the initial trial and his lawyer did not call any witnesses. She told the jury her client’s actions amounted to manslaughter, not first-degree murder. She said Foerster wanted to have sex with Van Diest, but when the teen fought back he pushed her down, causing her to hit her head on a steel pipe.
But the Crown lawyer said Foerster hit Van Diest on the head six times with a heavy flashlight, tightened a shoelace around her neck and drove to Vernon, where he threw evidence in a garbage bin, leaving little doubt he intended to kill her.
He said Foerster’s DNA was found under one of Van Diest’s fingernails and that she scratched his neck trying to fend him off. The court also heard about defensive wounds found on Van Diest’s hands and forearms.