Suspect owed Oland $500K: Papers

SAINT JOHN, N. B. The suspect in Richard Oland’s homicide was “experiencing financial hardships” and owed the prominent New Brunswick businessman more than $500,000, say documents made public Friday.

A judge released portions of search warrants and supporting documents used in the investigation into the death of Oland, 69.

The documents show police have a suspect, whom they say had a financial motive to kill Oland.

The person’s name has been withheld because of a publication ban.

The documents also say the owner of the building where Oland worked had told investigators he was working directly below Oland’s office on July 6, 2011, when he heard six or seven “exceptionally loud, quick, pounding thumps” coming from upstairs.

Oland’s body was found in his office the next day.

Saint John police Sgt. Mark Smith, an expert in bloodstain patterns, examined the crime scene that day.

“He observed that there were several types of bloodstain patterns present at the scene,” the documents say.

Chief Judge R. Leslie Jackson of the provincial court ordered the release of the documents after the CBC and New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal mounted a legal battle to have them unsealed.

In his written decision last week, Jackson said the Saint John police have not proven that the release of the information would compromise their investigation.

But he said other information — such as the condition of Oland’s body when it was found and the identities of people who were the subject of search warrants — would continue under a publication ban.

In August, seven search warrants and related documents were released. They were largely redacted, but they show that police believe Oland was murdered.

Oland was a member of the family that owns Moosehead Breweries Ltd., but he left the company in the 1980s.

He also worked in the trucking business, at the Saint John Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., and as a