‘PAINFUL’ WAIT FOR JUSTICE
Parents of teen slain outside a Surrey school seven years ago are still waiting for charges to be laid
The unfathomable agony began with a knock on the door in the middle of the night, police informing parents of the brutal and senseless murder of their son.
The pain over the next seven years has been even crueler, in the case of Devon Allaire-Bell’s murder, where it remains unsolved, despite five suspects being caught on video approaching and leaving the murder scene.
“It’s painful, it’s frustrating, it’s so difficult to believe no evidence has been found yet to close the case,” Wayne Bell, Devon’s father, said as the seventh Easter Sunday since his son’s murder approaches.
“At this stage, seven years later, hope is very fleeting. I’m struggling to maintain some. But where do we go from here? It’s painfully obvious (the police) don’t have enough evidence to lay charges.”
Bell cannot believe someone doesn’t know who the attackers were or hasn’t recognized them from the videos that were released by the police.
Someone is covering up for five murderers, he is sure of it.
Devon, 19, had planned to spend that Easter Sunday night — April 24, 2011 — where his buddy Jack Nielsen was house-sitting for his sister.
But when Bell texted his son around 11 p.m. to ask Devon if the guys needed a ride, the father had no way of knowing his boy had been dead for two and a half hours. Bell and his wife Cynthia Allaire-Bell didn’t find out until the police knocked on their door almost eight hours after Devon’s murder.
“Believe me, when those police knocked on the door at 4 a.m. I can give you great detail of what happened,” Bell said. “Then for months after I was in a fog, I didn’t know what was going on.”
Devon and Nielsen had been kicking a soccer ball at Frank Hurt Secondary in Surrey around 8:30 p.m. when two aggressive males approached and challenged them.
“They were trying to pick a fight, there were just the two of them, so my brother and Devon talked back to them,” Nielsen’s sister Sara Bylo said.
Then three more attackers came out of the bush at Frank Hurt Park. The five set upon Devon and Nielsen, stabbing Devon in the heart and Nielsen in the lungs. When they took off, Nielsen was able to go for help.
“Jack was on the ground trying to cover Devon up and they were kicking and stabbing him,” Bylo said. “Even though he was stabbed repeatedly, he was able to run to my mom’s house and get her to call the police.
“He knew Devon was gone at this point. They’d been friends since they were eight, they spent every weekend together.”
The Allaire-Bells for years could barely breathe when their remaining son, depressed by the irreplaceable loss of his younger brother, went out.
“Brandon internalized so much,” Bell said. “Every time he walked out the door we could not rest until he came back home.”
As happens to many who have suffered the fate of having a child taken from them, Devon’s murder has taken its toll on the Allaire-Bell marriage.
“I was close to Devon, I worked every day to be the best father I could be for my boys,” Bell said. “But Devon and his mother, they were closer, she had a connection with him I can only imagine. She’s struggling just to get through life.”
Bell and Cynthia will have been married 32 years come August. They hopped in their car on Monday to get away, to spend Easter elsewhere.
“I need to patch up our marriage and keep it going,” Bell said. “I took those vows very seriously 32 years ago. I am very lucky to have her.”