Pubdate: Tue, 13 Aug 2002
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Steve Mertl

MURDER PROBE TO BRING MORE ARRESTS

Crown Papers Show Police Are Targeting Several People In Probe Of 
Drug-Related Killings

ABBOTSFORD -- More arrests are expected in a massive investigation into 
several drug murders in B.C. in the mid-1990s, says a lawyer for two men 
already charged.

Paul McMurray said Monday that Crown documents show police are targeting 
several people -- possibly four or five -- in the case, which police have 
said has links to the Cali drug cartel in Colombia.

"There are other arrests that are likely to happen as a result of this 
investigation," said McMurray, who represents Robert Moyes and Mark Therrien.

McMurray also confirmed a high-profile undercover informant plays an 
important part in the police investigation of the case.

Former housewife Tami Morrisroe reportedly claimed that Moyes admitted to 
her he had a role in the murders of five people at an Abbotsford farm in 
September 1996.

Morrisroe, now said to be living in a witness-protection program, claimed 
she talked to Moyes while working in the drug underworld to try to clear 
her father, Sid Morrisroe, of involvement in the 1983 murder of a Vancouver 
nightclub owner.

Police have refused to confirm Morrisroe's role but McMurray said her part 
in the case is revealed in a 120-page summary of Crown evidence disclosures.

"It's important, I don't know about pivotal, but it's certainly important," 
he said in an interview. "I think she definitely is [material to the case] 
and she will be, I'm pretty sure, a Crown witness."

Therrien made his first court appearance Monday in Abbotsford.

He was arrested Friday and charged with five counts of first-degree murder 
in the Abbotsford killings.

Moyes was charged a week ago with the Abbotsford killings, as well as the 
first-degree murders of a couple in Burnaby in December 1995.

Police say all the killings are drug-related.

"Other arrests are definitely pending," said Constable Shinder Kirk, a 
spokesman for Abbotsford police, one of several agencies involved in the 
seven-year probe.

"I'm not prepared to discuss where those arrests may occur."

RCMP spokeswoman Constable Danielle Efford also would not say how wide the 
police net was being spread.

"The international implications are involving the fact that the cocaine 
that's being imported here is coming from Colombia," she said.

"There are more arrests to follow. Because this is an ongoing investigation 
... we can't discuss any further details."

However, Efford said she is not aware of whether Canadian police are 
working with any police agencies abroad on the parallel murder and drug 
investigations.

Therrien, 38, was remanded in custody for another court appearance Aug. 19. 
Moyes appears again in Abbotsford court Aug. 22.

The heavy-set, goateed Therrien was arrested Friday after being released on 
bail on another unrelated charge, said McMurray.

Therrien had been on parole but it was revoked May 18 after he was charged 
with theft and fleeing police, B.C. parole officials said.

He had completed a federal sentence in 1997.

Moyes, a 47-year-old career criminal with a record going back 30 years, 
knew Therrien in prison, McMurray said. Moyes was in custody at the time of 
his arrest after his parole was revoked for drug violations.

The two men appear to have been early suspects in the Abbotsford murders.

"They were questioned shortly after it happened," McMurray said.

Moyes was being held in segregated custody at an undisclosed location, the 
lawyer said. Therrien was to be moved to the Surrey Pretrial Centre.

McMurray said he believes both men should be isolated for their own protection.

"There's always some twit who figures he can earn a name or a reputation 
for himself by going after somebody who's charged with a high-profile 
thing," he said.

McMurray said it's possible the Crown may proceed against his clients by 
direct indictment, thereby eliminating the need for a preliminary hearing.

It's something he'd prefer not to see, the lawyer said, because there's 
often a vast difference between what people say in police statements and 
what they swear to in court.

McMurray successfully defended accused child-murder Shannon Murrin in the 
death of Mindy Tran in Kelowna. That case hinged on the testimony of a 
jailhouse informant.

Raymond Graves, 70, his wife Santo, 56, and their son David Sangha, 37, 
were killed in their Abbotsford farmhouse. Daryl and Teresa Klassen, both 
30, who were visiting the Graveses, were found dead in an adjacent shed.

Teresa Klassen's sister said the family is relieved arrests have been made 
and thanked police for persevering in the case.

"Over the past six years, there hasn't been a day go by that we haven't 
thought about her," the woman, who identified herself only as Kim, told 
Global TV news.

Police said the Graveses, who were facing attempted murder charges at the 
time of their deaths, were cocaine traffickers and Daryl Klassen was 
associated with the drug trade.

Nine months earlier, Eugene Uyeyama, 35, and his wife Michelle, 30, were 
found dead in the gutted remains of their Burnaby home. Police said they 
also had drug ties.
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