Charges have been stayed against two men arrested in connection to a fatal hit and run near Terrace in northwest B.C. eight years ago.
Cameron Kerr, 30, was struck and killed by a Ford F-350 pickup truck on Highway 16 west of Terrace in the early hours of Nov. 18, 2018.
His body was allegedly rolled into a ditch and later discovered by a passerby, RCMP said.
Last year Taylor Stogryn and Conrad Wierzbicki of Surrey, B.C., were charged with indignity to human remains and obstructing justice.
Stogryn was also charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
The trial for Stogryn and Wierzbicki was set to begin Nov. 2.
2 charged in fatal 2018 hit-and-run in Terrace, B.C.
The B.C. Prosecution Service says the decision to stay the charge was made due to “a material change in circumstances” that meant the charge assessment standard was no longer met.
“We were pretty devastated, this is bordering on the worst news we could have possibly imagined at this stage,” said Garrett Kerr, Cameron’s older brother.
“To receive it so close to the trial date was pretty heartbreaking.”
Garrett said he and his family were in a meeting with RCMP and the Crown this week when they learned of the decision.
“We were told that, in deposing their witnesses, they determined that the testimony of the forensic pathologist was not likely to support a conviction related to the interference with the body,” he said.
“It wasn’t clear if that was a change of interpretation from when charges were laid, or how that came about unexpectedly.”
Kerr was a sheet metal worker who was heavily involved in Terrace’s hockey and kayaking scene.
Loved ones remember him for having an “absolutely brilliant, cutting wit” and how he was “always looking out for the little guy,” his brother said.
Cameron Kerr as a child, holding a fish. His family remembers him as hard-working, compassionate and always looking out for others. (Garrett Kerr/Submitted)
“We’ve seen that in the community in the last eight years. There’s just been an outpouring all along the way and certainly now,” said Garrett.
“Just a really personable guy. Really hard-working and honest and compassionate.”
He says as the family moves forward, they plan to honour his memory by living by example, just as Kerr did.
“He would have jumped in the river to swim halfway across and try to save those guys if they drove into the river, never having known them,” said Kerr.
“That just sums up who he was.”
