To whom it may concern,
On August 17 1994 at approximately 7:45 PM, I
was giving a friend a ride to her girlfriend's house in Rutland. We drove down
Springfield road and encountered a suspicious person crossing the road with a
suitcase. I thought that I recognized him and so stopped to speak with him. He
tried to conceal his identity from me by quickly turning away from me as I
pulled up along side him. By doing so, the weight and momentum generated by the
suitcase unbalanced him and turned him completely around, briefly exposing his
face to me. This person then went around behind my vehicle, paused briefly as if
reading my license number and then carried on into the trees on the south side
of Springfield road. I still thought that this person looked very familiar and
that it may be the person that I had initially thought it to be, a
person (referred to as suspect "B") who resembled Shannon Murrin and lived only one block away from
here. The
expression on the persons face at the time was so strange that it acted as some
what of a disguise. I had never seen this expression on the face of suspect "B''. I carried on to my destination and then about one half hour
later, returned by way of Springfield Road. In front of me,
crossing at the intersection of Springfield and Ziprick Rd., I again saw a person who
appeared to be the same man I had seen earlier, now returning from the south side of
Springfield Rd., heading north on Ziprick. I did not see a suitcase from this
distance in this light. I had
been puzzled by this person's strange behavior and curious as to why he
would read my license number. So I made a split second decision to attempt and
follow him to determine who this was. By doing so, I drove directly into the Tran
neighborhood at the time that the search for Mindy was just beginning. I did five U
turns in the area over the course of the next one half hour and was seen by
several people. I believe that I found the destination of the person that I followed
to where he was sitting in
a carport at 1420 Collison Road. He was alone when I first drove past but was
soon joined by two other males, standing and drinking beer. They all saw me. One
of them, the one sitting down, knew that I had seen and followed him. Due
to the distance and the fading daylight, I was unable to see this person well
enough to positively identify him. I left the neighborhood unaware that any crime had just occurred in that area. I left town early the next morning
still unaware of what had just happened. I heard the news later that night while I was in
Sicamous after picking up my car from a local repair shop. I was not living in Kelowna
at the time and it was some time before I returned. I saw a brief news
story on the television concerning a suspicious vehicle which seemed to resemble
mine. I phoned a
person in Kelowna and asked questions about where this had happened but I was led to believe that the abduction had occurred some
distance away on
Highway 33 and did not suspect that this other event was related. When I returned to
Kelowna sometime later, I noticed a lot of activity in the park area
where the person with the suitcase had gone. I pulled into the parking lot and
spoke to a security person who was directing traffic. I told him about the
suspicious person with the suitcase that I had seen. He assured me that a very thorough grid search was taking place in the park
just then, and that if there was anything to be found, that it would be found. I was driving a gray Ford van at the time
that I spoke to this person. I heard that nothing had been found. I completely moved away from
the Kelowna area shortly after
this and heard very little about the case. I had been left with the impression
that the police were sure that a white van was involved and did not even hear
anything about a person with
a suitcase being a suspect on the news. The two men that were drinking beer in the carport at 1420 Collison
Rd. can identify the other person who was sitting towards the rear of the
carport. I believe that he is the one who took the suitcase into the park that evening and was
the person that I had followed as he returned to this residence. I am asking who
these people were and if it was Murrin seen at this residence on that night,
why he
was never identified to the police by the others?
I did not come forward at the time of the trial because my life had just
been threatened by armed and masked assailants claiming to be the RCMP during a home invasion at my
brothers residence where I was staying. The same vehicle
that I drove while following this suspicious person in 1994, was displayed
for sale in front of my brothers residence. During the
home invasion, a very specific threat was delivered to not even think about
ratting on anyone or they would be back to cut me in half. I received information that the home
invasion suspects were associates of the Kelowna man who resembled Murrin, the
person I originally thought I
was stopping to speak with on the night of Mindy's abduction.
Although I strongly believed that it was Murrin that I had seen with the
suitcase after viewing video footage, I had relied upon the DNA evidence to positively identify Mindy's killer. That evidence
was some how washed away by the Kelowna RCMP, a fact that I did not know until
near the very end of Murrin's trial.
To be sure that the police at least had the right person in Mindy's case, I
have circulated a flyer asking for the public's assistance
to find the witnesses or the evidence with which to confirm my own presence in the Tran's
neighborhood at the time of the abduction. If the true story of who killed Mindy Tran, is ever to be known, the events that I
witnessed will need to be confirmed and included in the public record. I am not suicidal and I am
not going to disappear on my own. I am not involved in any criminal activity and have no enemies. I have not done anything wrong to warrant
some one threatening my life except perhaps witnessing this event. If there is some connection to these events and should anything happen to me, I have signed a
statement identifying
the people involved and their associates.
This same information was given to
the Surrey RCMP where a preliminary statement was
taken. The RCMP
have not allowed me to view or to sign the statement taken and typed by an RCMP
member on my behalf. The RCMP have not responded to me
or spoken to me since. They did not even ask me for the address of where the
suitcase carrying suspect had returned to on his way back from the park.
The Tran case was
well publicized and is relatively recent history. Evidence may still be
available. I was in the Tran neighborhood when
Mindy was abducted. I know that there were people who saw me. I have had a
statement notarized and drawn a map of who saw me and where. The
carport at 1420 Collison Rd was the destination of the person with the
suitcase that I followed. If Shannon Murrin was not one of the people
that I saw there, then there is another suspect yet to be found. There were
three people drinking beer in that carport just before 9:00 P.M. on the evening of
the abduction when I drove past. I saw them and they saw me. Two of them are
likely innocent witnesses; the third was quite likely Mindy Tran's killer. I am
asking for these people to be identified.
