Times
Going for Gold
The Langley
Making Merry
page 11
T u e s d a y ,
J u n e
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page 31
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Tree faller plunges to his death
Clear sailing for Rolfe at B.C. track and field championships
NATASHA JONES Times Reporter
Gord GOBLE/for The Times
Walnut Grove’s Hannah Rolfe clears the bar during her high jump attempt at the B.C. high school track and field championships at Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium. Rolfe, a Grade 8 student, placed fifth in the competition. More coverage on page 35.
WorkSafe BC investigators are probing the death of a man as he attempted to bring down a 130 foot Douglas fir in Aldergrove. He was in the bucket of a boom at a height of approximately 80 feet when the mishap occurred. “While trying to bring down the tree, the bucket in which he was working separated from the boom and the worker and the bucket fell to the ground,” said Donna Freeman, who speaks for WorkSafe BC. The man was employed by Freelance Tree Services, she said. WorkSafe BC investigators were at the North Otter area property on Thursday evening, and the B.C. Coroners Service is also involved in an investigation, Freeman said.
Man eaten by bear was convicted killer Rory Wagner, whose body was buried by a black bear near Kamloops had murdered a Langley man in 1993 TIM PETRUK Black Press
The man whose body was dismembered and partially eaten by a black bear south of Kamloops was a convicted murderer from the Lower Mainland, who in 1993 killed a Langley man he thought had sexually abused a member of his family, Black Press has learned. Kamloops regional coroner Mark Coleman confirmed the identity of the dead man as 54-year-old Rory Nelson Wagner, who had recently been living in Kamloops. Investigators believe Wagner sat dead in his 1986 Volkswagen Jetta, parked just off
Long Lake Road south of Knutsford, for a matter of days, likely as a result of suicide, before a bear happened upon the scene. The bear pulled the corpse from the vehicle through an open window, then buried it underneath a pile of dirt and undergrowth. Kamloops RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said the body was “dismembered and partially eaten” when located by investigators. Mounties were alerted to the scene by hunters, who made the grisly find at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30. Police said at the time the black bear was still in the area protecting the corpse. Investigators removed the body from the site late Wednesday night.
Conservation officers set up bear traps in the area, hoping to catch the bruin that buried Wagner’s body. The bear was put down on the weekend. An autopsy and toxicology test on Wagner took place Friday. In 1996, Black Press has learned, Wagner was one of three men who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in relation to the death of a Langley man. Three years earlier, in 1993, Andy Kohlman was found not guilty on sexual assault charges allegedly committed against one of Wagner’s relatives. Wagner, along with his younger brother, Roland Robert Wagner, and another man,
Gerald Peter Beaugrand, kidnapped and murdered Kohlman after the not guilty verdict. Kohlman had been beaten to death. His body was dumped in the Fraser Valley. Wagner, his brother and Beaugrand were initially charged with first degree murder and kidnapping. They pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second degree murder on the day their trial was slated to begin in New Westminster. At the time of his death, Wagner would have still been bound by parole conditions as a result of the murder conviction. continued, PAGE 5
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