Murder charge laid in 2007 disappearance
SASKATOON After an investigation lasting more than a decade, RCMP hope a murder charge in the death of 15-year-old Katelyn Noble in Saskatchewan will bring at least some relief for her family.
Eduard Viktorovit Baranec, 41, was arrested Wednesday at a federal prison in British Columbia, and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Noble, who was last seen in 2007 in the Radisson area. Baranec — who is currently serving a life sentence for the 2007 murder of a mother of three in Surrey, B.C. — was also charged Wednesday with committing an indignity to a human body.
“Investigations are complex; investigations take time,” RCMP Cpl. Rob King said in an interview.
“The number of officer hours on this and the number of kilometres travelled is well into the thousands.”
The investigation spanned the country, from Ontario to B.C., RCMP said.
“It’s not like in TV where they get everything done in 20 minutes,” King said. “It takes time. It takes the interviews. It takes the boots on the ground.”
Noble’s remains have not been located, but those efforts will “probably never, ever stop,” King said. “You want to try to bring as much closure to the family as possible and part of that would be returning her home,” he added.
“It has been a long and stressful period for her family, and today investigators hope these developments begin to provide ... family with some measure of comfort.”
Baranec appeared by video on Wednesday in Saskatoon provincial court, seemingly relaxed and agreeable during the short hearing.
He is scheduled to appear again on Oct. 16.
Noble was last seen on Aug. 27, 2007, in the Radisson area. She had moved from Mission, B.C. to live in Radisson with her 35-year-old boyfriend, Greg Friend. The pair lived with Baranec at roughly the same time he was charged with aggravated assault for an attack in the area.
In 2013 during one of her trips to Saskatchewan to conduct searches for her daughter, Leona Noble said she thinks about Katelyn “every single day, from the minute I wake up to when I go to bed at night.”
King said the cause of death and motive will be presented in court. He declined to discuss specifics of the investigation, including whether a Mr. Big sting was used.
In a 2008 interview, Leona Noble described the issues her daughter had with drugs, including an addiction to methamphetamine at the age of 12 and being kicked off the local football team in Grade 9 “for smoking weed with her brother.”
Katelyn was also beat up “all the time” by local girls in Mission, Leona said.
“I can see why she wanted to go,” she added.
Leona said she heard from Katelyn every few days and they remained close while Katelyn was living with the two men in Saskatchewan. She last saw Katelyn in June 2007 during a visit in B.C. She said Katelyn talked to her for the last time in August 2007, saying that she would be moving to Ottawa with her boyfriend “because she was sick and tired of Eduard.”
Leona said she received a call from Katelyn’s boyfriend soon after that conversation.
“He was frantic, asking if I’d heard from her,” Leona said in 2008.
According to Leona, Friend said he and Katelyn were packing and he didn’t know where she went. He went outside and saw Baranec kissing her. According to Leona, Friend said Katelyn pushed Baranec away, and started running down the road.
That was the last time someone reported seeing Katelyn. Her suitcases, bags and purse were still at the home.
In 2011, the RCMP investigation into Noble’s disappearance led to Baranec being charged in the murder of Amanpreet Kaur Bahia, a mother of three who was fatally stabbed in 2007.
In 2016, a B.C. court heard Baljinder Bahia paid Baranec $15,000 to kill Bahia’s wife. Her in-laws found her body lying on the kitchen floor with her oneyear-old daughter crying next to her.