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Drivers asked to respect the tractors on the road Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Ah, spring in Chilliwack. Tractors are out on the roads, and the smell of fresh cut hay, and manure is in the air. Motorists are being urged to slow down and use caution when sharing the road with tractors and other large farm vehicles. Dairy farmer Gail Derksen said she was “smoked” by a speeding pickup while driving her tractor on Lickman Road. It happened about noon on Friday as the Derksens were in the middle of cutting and harvesting hay on the family dairy farm. She was about to make a turn into the driveway. The tractor was almost at a complete stop in the northbound lane of Evans Road, when the truck came up behind her, passed on the left and hit the front forks of the tractor. The truck bounced off and ended up on the shoulder of the road, after almost hitting some trees. “I was fine, and my machinery was fine because I was on a tractor,” Derksen told The Progress. Gail and Steve Derksen live and work at the dairy farm that’s been in Steve’s family for 50 plus years. Their kids learned to drive a tractor at 14. “We realize we live on a very busy road, and we try hard to be careful,” she said. “We are very vigilant because we know it’s an issue.” Nonetheless there are a handful of incidents and near misses every year, she said, including one where she was physically and verbally assaulted by a driver who didn’t want to respect the tractor she was driving with a full load of hay, and followed her with the intent of getting in her face about it. Derksen is asking people in Chilliwack to slow down, and pay attention. Continued: FARM/ p6
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An excavator stands at the ready outside the gutted home of the Janzen family on Llanberis Way Tuesday morning. Investigators have confirmed three bodies were removed from the home, however they have yet to formally confirm their identity. JESSICA PETERS/ PROGRESS
Coroner to investigate Janzen deaths Jessica Peters The Progress Laurel Janzen sent out a message on her Twitter account on March 9. “Watching someone I love in unbearable pain everyday for 18 months and I feel helpless,” she wrote, adding: #weneedhelp. Her 19-year-old daughter, Emily Janzen, had been suffering from debilitating migraines since elementary school, but in the past year and half they had left her bedridden, ill for days and ultimately unable to attend UBC for music studies. Both women’s Twitter accounts are filled with messages of hopelessness and despair over the migraines and their effect on Emily’s otherwise promising young life. But Emily’s sense of humour and hopefulness are also chronicled online. “Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, I just thank God I’m still alive,” one of Emily’s most recent posts read. “I complain about all the pain, but at least I’m here to feel it.” Now, the B.C. Coroners Service is launching an investigation into the events that led to Emily
Police move in Thursday evening.
and Laurel’s deaths at their home in Popkum, along with the deaths of father Randy Janzen, and his sister Shelly. RCMP have been slowly confirming what people close to the family have been reporting since last Thursday — that Randy Janzen confessed on Facebook to killing all three women. He said he shot his daughter as a way to release her from the pain, and that he shot his wife Laurel “because a mother should never have hear the news her baby has died.” In another post he confessed to also killing his
sister, Aldergrove resident Shelly Janzen, to save her from the “shame” of what he’d done. Friends have told media they saw the posts immediately, at about noon, and went to his sister’s house to see if she was okay. Newspapers were piled up and there was no activity, so they turned to the police. By 4 p.m. Thursday, RCMP had surrounded the Janzen home on Llanberis Way in Popkum, believing Randy Janzen was inside. A police helicopter circled the small community for hours, keeping watch on the house and the surrounding area. Llanberis Way is an idyllic no-through street, backed by the former Minter Gardens site and tucked in a forested area filled with tall cedar trees. On Thursday, neighbours arriving home from work were kept at bay on Bunker Road, as RCMP, a tactical unit, and the K9 unit moved in on the house. Other neighbours were told to stay indoors for their safety. After hours of slow activity, something changed as RCMP and the K9 unit began to move in quickly. Continued: ANSWERS/ p3
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