Man’s death remains a mystery 1 year later
Darrell James Matt, 54, was found face up in the snow by his riding partner on Christmas Day 2016
Editor’s note: This is the first in an exclusive two-part series regarding a mysterious death that occurred last Christmas Day in our region. Police are appealing for help from anyone who may have information.
One year after a Christmas Day snowmobile trip near Princeton turned fatal, Mounties are still trying to figure out who killed Darrell James Matt. The 54-year-old was considered dead as of 8:05 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2016, after paramedics and a police officer, who’d just spent 30 minutes performing CPR on him, were instructed by a doctor to cease efforts, according to court documents obtained by The Herald.
Matt, a father of three, was delivered to the would-be rescuers by his riding buddy and employer, Brian Millar, who told police he believed his friend suffered a heart attack out on the trail.
That was also the cause of death stated in an obituary published two weeks later by Matt’s family.
“We can take small consolation that Darrell was doing what he loved, snowmobiling in the mountains, at the time of his death,” the notice added.
But the obituary got it wrong.
Suspicions arise
In fact, an autopsy performed on Matt’s body in Penticton on Jan. 9, 2017, determined that he died of blunt-force trauma, most likely after being struck by a snowmobile.
With that information in hand, Mounties in Princeton cast their suspicions upon Millar — who has since been cleared — and applied to a justice of the peace for a warrant to seize the snowmobiles the men were riding.
In support of that application, RCMP Cpl. Chad Parsons on Jan. 12, 2017, filed what’s known as an information to obtain, a sworn statement by a police officer in which he spells out the grounds on which a warrant should be granted.
Witness statements given to police and included in ITOs are not sworn and therefore not considered as reliable as court testimony given under oath.
Easy ride
Millar did not respond last week to an interview request from The Herald.
He is the registrant of the nethop.net domain name attached to Princetonbased China Creek Internet Service, which uses a series of wireless transmitters placed throughout the back country to connect the Similkameen to the internet
According to a copy of the ITO obtained by The Herald, Millar told police he and Matt set out around 2 p.m. on a 75-kilometre round trip along the KVR Trail to Chain Lake, where they dropped off fuel at a supply shed.
Throughout the day, Matt, whose family declined an interview request, had been riding lead, and the gap between the two men had grown to about a minute.
Just after 7 p.m., Millar came upon Matt’s empty sled parked in the middle of the trail, and spotted his buddy lying face up in the snow about two metres away.
“At first (Millar) thought Matt was playing around as he was enjoying the ride so much that he was going to get off and make snow angels or something. It didn’t take long to figure out something was wrong,” Cpl. Parsons wrote in the ITO.
“It took (Millar) a bit to get Matt’s helmet off, and when he got Matt’s helmet off, there was no visible marks on his face, no blood, no bruising, no nothing, but he was completely unresponsive.”
Going for help
From his vantage point high above Princeton-Summerland Road, Millar spotted an ambulance drive past the rendezvous point, so Millar emptied the toboggan he’d been pulling behind his sled and put his friend in it, then headed down the hill for help.
After Matt’s lifeless body was taken to Princeton General Hospital, Millar drove back to the accident scene to retrieve the items he’d thrown from the toboggan and disable the snowmobile Matt had been riding so it wouldn’t be stolen overnight.
Police never examined the scene as it was considered “contaminated” after Millar returned to it, Parsons noted.
Tomorrow in Part 2, we look at results from the autopsy, which turned up massive internal injuries to Matt’s body, and find out what police now think may have happened.