Ryan Lane murder trial shown video of truck being washed day after slaying
John Gibson | CBC News | Posted: March 17, 2016 10:21 PM | Last Updated: March 17, 2016
Crown alleges red pickup had been used in plot to lure man to his killing
The jury hearing a murder case against three people accused of killing Ryan Lane was shown a video on Thursday of what police say is one of the culprits thoroughly washing a truck used hours earlier in the slaying.
The Crown is trying to prove that Lane's ex-partner Sheena Cuthill, her husband Tim Rempel and his brother, Wilhelm, conspired to kill him in 2012.
Lane and Cuthill were in a custody dispute over their daughter. She had applied for sole guardianship in October 2011.
Lane disappeared in February that year. His remains were not found until nine months later in a barrel near Beiseker, 70 kilometres northeast of Calgary, burned almost beyond recognition.
Court was shown video of a man washing a red pickup truck on Feb. 3 and again on Feb. 7.
Homicide Det. Kurt Jacobs, who tracked down the security footage about one week into the investigation, told court the truck appeared to be the one police were looking for in connection with Lane's disappearance.
The Crown alleges the Rempel brothers lured Lane to a parking lot in northwest Calgary on the night of Feb. 6, 2012, in order to murder him.
On Wednesday, Court was shown video from the security cameras at an Esso gas station at 6510 Country Hills Blvd. N.W.
It shows a red truck entering the parking lot that night, followed by a Jeep.
Earlier this week, court heard that Lane's father Bruce Lane — concerned for his son's safety — had followed the young man and watched Ryan get into a red truck that drove away with his son.
Washed inside and under truck
Det. Jacobs identified one of the men washing a red truck the next day as Wilhelm Rempel, pointing him out in the courtroom.
He testified that he was able to identify the man because of his appearance, his glasses, a limp and from a close-up video of the man inside the store of the car wash.
He said what stood out for him was that, in the second video, the man opened the doors of the truck and washed its interior.
"I've never seen someone enter the interior and spray the interior of the vehicle before," he said.
The man also made a point of washing all the debris from under the truck down the main drain, Jacobs testified.
Under cross-examination by defense counsel, Jacobs admitted the facial features of the man in the video are unrecognizable and that the video does not show the truck's license plates.
Jacobs said investigators obtained the video from the car wash after he discovered a receipt from the business while searching Rempel's home in Airdrie. Rempel lived in a basement suite at his parent's house.
Court also heard the Crown has obtained a receipt showing Rempel sold the truck — which was registered in his parents' names — to a salvage yard on Feb. 8, a day after Lane disappeared.