Ryan Lane murder trial hears shocking texts between 2 of accused
Meghan Grant | CBC News | Posted: March 24, 2016 8:59 PM | Last Updated: March 24, 2016
Text messages between 2 accused allegedly show planning of Calgary man's killing
Shocking text messages between two of the people accused of killing Ryan Lane were read aloud in court in Calgary on Thursday, with the Crown alleging they show his killing was planned months before he disappeared.
Sheena Cuthill, her husband, Tim Rempel, and his brother, Wilhelm Rempel, are accused of killing Lane after he started fighting for visitation rights with the child he and Cuthill shared.
After the first family court hearing, Cuthill complains to her husband that she is angry and stressed about sharing her daughter with Lane. Afterward there are phone calls made among all three accused.
"Can I trust Will to have this done without cops showing up on my doorstep?" Cuthill says to Tim Rempel in a text message after the calls are made.
"I put a side of me away a long time ago that I told myself I would never let come back but this is OUR family and I will never let anyone ever tear … Sometimes things just need to happen," she texts her husband.
Crime analyst Trish Pace introduced texts and phone calls as evidence, but only Telus kept that information as business records at the time. The other two accused used Rogers and Bell Virgin Mobile phones, and those companies didn't keep the histories.
Crime analyst Trish Pace introduced texts and phone calls as evidence, but only Telus kept that information as business records at the time. The other two accused used Rogers and Bell Virgin Mobile phones, and those companies didn't keep the histories.
'Did you ever make pple disappear?'
Later on Nov. 19, Sheena Cuthill messaged her mother, Kim Cuthill.
"In all of ur life time with the bikers u hung out with n whoever else ... Did you ever make pple disappear?"
Kim Cuthill said she hadn't and encouraged her daughter to get a lawyer and use mediation to deal with Lane.
The texts between Sheena Cuthill and her husband continued into the evening.
"U won't have any part in this mister ur gona behave n let ur brother deal with it .... If I decide this," she wrote.
Over the next several weeks, the two talk about how stressed Cuthill is becoming. Her husband encourages her to allow him to deal with the situation.
'Give me the okay'
"I want you to be with me or at work or have some kind of alibi," Cuthill texts Tim on Dec. 29, 2011. "They're not going to believe that he just left."
Just over a month later on Feb. 5, 2012, the morning before Lane disappears, Cuthill asks her husband what he is doing.
"Getting things ready, scoured the best spot at the pit," he tells her.
At 1:20 a.m. on the Feb. 6, the day Lane disappeared "Give me the okay," Tim Rempel tells his wife.
"Okay," she writes back.
Human remains were found several months later in a burn barrel at a gravel pit near Beiseker along with pieces of Lane's phone, as well as his class ring.