The RCMP executed a search warrant in a long-dormant missing persons case last week that was the focus of an APTN Investigates documentary – Lost Spirit – in May.
Police were acting on a tip from someone claiming they possibly knew where Stanley Peters Jr. was buried in the small community of Mount Currie, B.C., about 160 km north of Vancouver.
Peters has been missing for 37 years and police began digging behind a home in the community on July 18.
Const. Katrina Boehmer of the Sea to Sky detachment told APTN at the scene the goal was to bring “Mr. Peters home to his family.”
“[The] file has been an open and ongoing investigation since 1987 when the missing person’s report was received,” said Boehmer.
At least one excavator
The RCMP spent the day digging with at least one excavator. Several tents were also set up as police conducted the dig.
The disappearance of Peters has always been a mystery despite someone being convicted in 1994 for a hit and run that killed Peters.
That’s because his body was never recovered, and his family has been searching for his remains ever since.
“We know a lot of what happened,” said Bernadette Dennis, Peters’ eldest daughter. “We know a lot of who was there and what took place. We just don’t know of his final resting place.”
The RCMP returned the following day on July 19 and this time brought police dogs to help in the search.
Watch:
‘If you talk, I’ll kill you’: The search for Stanley Morris Peters
The family wants closure; not just for them, but the entire community, as well.
“I want everyone to heal and I want everybody to be able to move on and let it go; even those that know about what happened and feel like they are carrying something,” said Dennis.
Robert Dennis Williams was charged with hit and run and Lawrence Alvin Pascal was charged with obstruction of justice in February 1992.
A trial, court heard Williams was at the wheel with five other people in a truck when Peters, who was hitchhiking home, was struck and killed.
The truck stopped and a heated argument broke out among the occupants when they realized Peters was dead. They didn’t know what to do with him, the trial heard.
Didn’t hit and run
Williams admitted he was driving the vehicle and hit a person – sending them flying – but he argued he didn’t hit and run.
A passenger in the truck, Justin Nelson, testified Williams got the others to agree to remain silent.
“The evidence of Dennis Williams dissuading Justin Nelson from calling for help, and the next day securing the agreement of other witnesses not to talk, clearly establishes intent to avoid civil or criminal liability,” wrote Justice E.R.A. Edwards in his judgement of Nov. 16, 1994.
“I find Robert Dennis Williams guilty as charged.”
Williams was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Apprentice watchman
As for Pascal, the court heard testimony from John Jones, a band apprentice watchman at the time.
Jones said he followed the vehicles that left the scene.
“He testified he saw the accused, Lawrence Pascal, dragging a body into the river and that Lawrence Pascal yelled to some observers on the shore, ‘If you talk, I’ll kill you,’” said Edwards.
However, under cross-examination, Jones also said he wasn’t sure who the person was that night and that he was also intoxicated.
“I have concluded that it would be dangerous to convict on the strength of Mr. Jones’ evidence alone and I entertain a reasonable doubt about the identity of the accused, Lawrence Pascal, as the person John Jones observed,” said Edwards, finding Pascal not guilty of obstruction.
Even if Peters’ remains are found, police don’t expect to lay any new charges.
“I don’t believe there is any other jeopardy involved,” said Boehmer. “This is strictly the missing persons investigation that’s being addressed here today.”
