`Somebody … dropped the ball'
Man allegedly killed two people while he was under investigation
Brigitte Tougas says she was shocked this month when she learned a man named Justin Bos had been charged with fatally shooting a Surrey resident in August 2022.
Shocked because Bos had already been charged with killing her son Cody Mostat in Langley on March 25, 2022, the day after he celebrated his 30th birthday. And at the time of both killings, Bos was under investigation by B.C.'s anti-gang agency for allegedly converting Airsoft guns into functioning firearms.
“How is this even happening?” the Kelowna mom asked Tuesday.
She said the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team had a suspect in her son's slaying almost immediately, even though a charge wasn't laid for six months.
By then Troy Michael Regnier had been shot to death in Surrey, on Aug. 27, 2022.
Tougas said there are many unanswered questions about how two men could be killed despite the accused being under police investigation at the time of the killings.
“It just doesn't make sense. ... Somebody definitely dropped the ball.”
IHIT has not publicly disclosed a motive in either case. Bos and Mostat were acquaintances. When Regnier was killed, police said three suspects were “arrested at the scene, who were believed to have been known to the victim, though at this time no charges have been laid.”
Bos, 38, is due in Surrey provincial court on April 14 for an appearance on the second-degree murder charge laid on March 12 in connection with the Regnier murder.
Corporal Sukhi Dhesi, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said in a news release announcing the latest charge that officers “remained committed to this investigation over the past 18 months. We hope that this charge provides some solace to his family.”
But there was no mention of the earlier second-degree murder count laid against Bos on Sept. 21, 2022, in the death of Mostat outside the Highway Hotel in Langley just before 9 p.m. two years ago.
When the Mostat charge was announced, IHIT said it worked closely with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and other agencies.
Indeed, on Feb. 18, 2022 — weeks before Mostat was killed — CFSEU conducted a search related to its investigation into Bos and another man named Matthew Whitty.
The anti-gang agency later revealed that its probe into “alleged firearms manufacturing and possession” had begun in December 2021.
A second search in the gun investigation was conducted on April 2, 2022 — just a week after Mostat's murder.
At the time of his death, homicide investigators did not release Mostat's name, but simply said “an adult male was located and appeared to be in medical distress; it was determined he had suffered life-threatening injuries. While being treated by B.C. Ambulance Service, the male succumbed to his injuries.”
Bos was charged in Mostat's death less than a month after Regnier was shot several times outside a Surrey residence in the 16600 block of 19 Avenue.
In December, CFSEU announced that charges had finally been laid in the firearms case against both Bos and Whitty. The release laid out the timeline of the investigation, which started before Mostat's slaying and continued afterwards.
CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said Monday that she couldn't comment on the case.
However, sources told Postmedia that targets in any long-term police investigation would not be monitored around the clock.
Mostat was a welder by trade, but had a severe injury on the job when he was 19, Tougas told Postmedia. A doctor prescribed strong pain medication. But when the prescriptions stopped, he turned to the street.
“He was an addict, but he was a functioning addict. He worked.
He had his own vehicle,” she said.
He also had his own run-ins with police over the years.
To his family and friends, “he was the happiest — just an outgoing person. He had the biggest heart,” Tougas said.
The day before he died, he told his mom during their birthday call that he wanted to get into treatment. He planned to head up to Kelowna to stay with her.
“He was happy that he made it to 30 and he was ready to change. He wanted to change.”
She told him to enjoy the day. He said he loved her.
When the police called to say he was dead, she initially thought it was an overdose. She was prepared for that. She was not prepared for murder.
“It has been the most heartbreaking thing ever in my life,” she said, her voice breaking.
“I just exist, I don't live anymore.”