Murder numbers up across Whistler-Chilliwack region

Murders across the region from Whistler to Chilliwack were up marginally in 2016.

Overall there were 67 slayings or suspicious deaths this year in the area — compared to 60 in 2015 — according to data compiled by Postmedia News.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team conducted 52 investigations involving the suspected slayings of 54 people in 2016, Cpl. Meghan Foster said. In 2015, IHIT opened 39 files involving 43 victims.

IHIT investigates murders for all Lower Mainland RCMP detachments as well as municipal forces like West Vancouver, Port Moody, New Westminster and Abbotsford.

Vancouver and Delta police forces investigate their own homicides.

In Vancouver, there were just 11 murders in 2016, down from 15 the year before, Const. Brian Montague said.

And in Delta, investigators are still probing two suspicious deaths from 2016 — neither of which has been confirmed as a murder, Sgt. Sharlene Brooks said this week.

In the most recent case, on Dec. 11, a 53-year-old Delta man died after a fight outside the Rose and Crown Pub in Tsawwassen.

The second Delta file involves the death of Surrey resident Robinder Virk, 32, whose remains were found on March 3 inside a known drug house in the 2000-block Tsawwassen Drive.

Probably the year’s most shocking case was the random attack on 13-year-old Letisha Reimer in a hallway at Abbotsford Secondary on Nov. 1 when she was fatally stabbed and a classmate was wounded. The attack was captured on video. Police arrested drifter Gabriel Klein, 21, who is now charged with second-degree murder.

There were gangland shootings as well, including the October slaying of high-profile Hells Angel Bob Green in Abbotsford. His alleged killer, 856 gang member Jason Wallace, turned himself in to police the next day.

The Green murder was followed by the brutal death of 856 gang associate Shaun Alan Clary, who was found in pieces on a rural Langley road. No one has yet been charged.