Accused killer sought arrest

A Creston man who's charged with murdering his neighbour in February 2022 claimed he killed another man in Kimberley on the very same day, but the Kimberley man's body was cremated before police could properly investigate.

Mitchell McIntyre is being tried for the second-degree murder of 56-year-old Julia Howe on Feb. 6, 2022. The trial is taking place in Kamloops, and a lengthy voir dire over the admissibility of statements he made to police and hospital staff got underway last May.

The lengthy voir dire decision was published online earlier this week, and the trial is scheduled to pick back up later this month. The decision outlines the incredible story of how the two deaths that McIntyre said he's responsible for were initially determined to be accidental.

McIntyre is now charged with fatally shooting Howe, his neighbour, but when her body was first found in a pool of blood on her bathroom floor, both police and the coroner believed she had fallen and “suffered some kind of a medical trauma.”

“Owing to the amount of blood, there was no visible bullet entry wound. Nor were there any other signs of intrusion or an altercation,” Justice Paul Riley wrote in his recent decision, calling the investigator's initial findings “a most unusual feature of this case.”

It wasn't until an autopsy was performed two days later that a bullet was found in Howe's head, and police realized she had been murdered.

In the meantime, McIntyre attended Cranbrook's East Kootenay Regional Hospital at about 4 p.m. on the day of Howe's death, saying he was suffering a heart attack. Doctor's determined he was physically fine and discharged him from the hospital.

Asked to be arrested

The next morning, on Feb. 7, McIntyre showed up at the Cranbrook RCMP detachment and told an officer he needed to be locked up. But he wouldn't say why. Cpl. Kletzel, the watch commander at the detachment, told McIntyre he couldn't arrest him without a reason.

McIntyre was then passed along to Cpl. Tent of the RCMP General Investigations Section. Before speaking with McIntyre, Cpl. Tent spoke to officers at the Creston detachment and learned there had been a “sudden death” across from McIntyre's home the day before, but it had been “deemed non-suspicious.”

Prior to the interview with Cpl. Tent, McIntyre requested fried chicken, french fries and four oranges, and another officer went to fetch the very specific meal. After placing his food order, McIntyre again told the officer he needed to be locked up, but wouldn't say why.

“You need to detain me, because I will harm myself and possibly others,” he told the officer, adding that he was “mentally disturbed.”

When Cpl. Tent asked McIntyre if he had harmed Howe, McIntyre said he did not want to answer.

Cpl. Tent then drove McIntyre back to Cranbrook's East Kootenay Regional Hospital where McIntyre was detained under the Mental Health Act.

Real or delusion?

Less than an hour after he was admitted to the hospital, McIntyre began telling doctors and other staff that he had shot a woman, after first asking if everything he said would be confidential. Staff told him his statements would be kept within his circle of care at the hospital unless he said something about causing future harm to someone.

“Hospital staff tried to determine whether these statements were real or delusional, but all the police would initially say was that a woman had been found dead in circumstances deemed not to be suspicious,” Justice Riley said.

He stayed at the hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit until he was discharged against his wishes on March 1.

McIntyre also told hospital staff he had killed a former friend in nearby Kimberley, named “David Creamly,” who he said had betrayed him. While doctors did not disclose this information to police due to “confidentiality reasons,” a social worker at the hospital did ask police on Feb. 9 if there'd been any suspicious deaths in Kimberley, but they had no information about any.

When the bullet was found in Howe during the Feb. 8 autopsy, McIntyre immediately became a suspect in her homicide. Police told hospital staff that McIntyre was a “person of interest” in the killing.

“From time to time, the police also tried to get more information from doctors and other hospital staff about what specifically Mr. McIntyre had said about his role in the death of Ms. Howe, about whether he had done anything else wrong, and about whether he posed any ongoing risk of harm to others,” Justice Riley said.

“The treating physicians resisted police efforts to obtain disclosure of Mr. McIntyre’s statements about past crimes, taking the position that if the police wanted such information they would have to obtain a court order for Mr. McIntyre’s medical file.”

Handgun found in car

On Feb. 11, police searched through McIntyre's vehicle and found a handgun that fired ammunition consistent with the bullet found in Howe. And during his stay at the hospital, McIntyre told doctors he had a list of people he wanted to harm. This information was passed along to the RCMP.

But despite all of this, McIntyre once again took himself to the Cranbrook RCMP detachment after he was discharged from the hospital on March 1. He told police at the detachment that it was in their best interests for him in stay in custody, as he was a danger to himself and others.

Instead, police put McIntyre up at the Lazy Bear Lodge in Cranbrook that night, and then spoke with him again at the motel on the morning of March 2, telling him he was a suspect in a murder investigation.

McIntyre remained out of custody for several days, until he once again showed up at Cranbrook's East Kootenay Regional Hospital just after midnight on March 5 and told the staff there that he was again having thoughts of harming others.

He was admitted to the hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit, where he remained until March 16.

Kimberley death discovered

During this hospital stay, police obtained a court-ordered production order for McIntyre's medical records, and on March 9, an investigator came upon a doctor's note referencing McIntyre's claims that he had shot a “David Creamly” in Kimberley.

The investigator found that 69-year-old David Creamer had been found dead in his Kimberley home on Feb. 6, the same day Howe was killed.

“When Mr. Creamer’s body was discovered, he had a small wound just below his left ear, and there were no signs of a struggle,” Judge Riley said. “The first person to observe him, an adult son, assumed Mr. Creamer had banged his head and died of natural causes. A police officer attended the scene and, after consultation with a coroner, concluded that the death was an accident.”

Creamer's body was then cremated, leaving police with no forensic evidence by the time they came upon McIntyre's apparent confession to doctors.

No charges have ever been laid in Creamer's death.

Sgt. Jason Smart, the officer in charge of the RCMP’s Southeast District Major Crimes Unit based in Kelowna, and Cpl. Beggs, the lead investigator in the Howe murder, travelled to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital on March 12 to meet with Dr. Kayode Shope, who had been treating McIntyre.

“Sgt. Smart was frustrated and angry that EKRH staff had not given more information about this second suspicious death,” Justice Riley said.

“He was upset with the responding police officer, the coroner, and the ambulance attendants for not taking any steps to bring the Creamer death to the attention of the Southeast District MCU. Sgt. Smart felt that the doctors should have provided 'at least some of the information' about the Kimberley incident. Sgt. Smart felt that he was being 'stonewalled' by Dr. Shope at the 12 March 2022 meeting.”

Justice Riley noted that Dr. Shope had been “trying to respect the limits of patient confidentiality.”

Upon McIntyre's discharge from the hospital on March 16, which McIntyre again objected to, police were waiting for him and he was arrested for Howe's murder.

Ultimately, it took more than five weeks after Howe's death for McIntyre to be arrested for the killing, despite showing up at the police detachment the day after, asking to be arrested.

Admissibility of statements

With regards to the admissibility of McIntyre's statements, Justice Riley ruled that all statements he made to police were voluntary and are therefore admissible at trial. And statements he made to hospital staff up to 11:59 a.m. on Feb. 18 are also admissible, but those made after that time are not.

The reason for the delineation between hospital staff statements is because McIntyre's treating psychiatrist Dr. Reza Khosroshahy told police in a phone call at that time that he was “not willing to discharge him” from the hospital, despite having doubts that McIntyre had any mental illness at all.

The doctor was of the view that McIntyre was "as bad as it gets" in terms of his risk to the public, the judge said, and this was why he wanted to keep him detained, rather than due to a mental illness.

Justice Riley found that once the doctor made this admission, “Mr. McIntyre’s treatment by EKRH staff 'transcended the medical aspects' of his case” and raised reasonable doubts about the relationship between the physician and police.

Because of this, Justice Riley said there is a concern McIntyre may have been induced to make statements to medical staff to ensure his continued stay at the hospital, delaying his arrest.

“I am left with a reasonable doubt as to whether Mr. McIntyre’s statements to treatment providers were truly voluntary,” Justice Riley said.

“It is a reasonable possibility that Mr. McIntyre may have felt compelled to make at least some statements to his treatment providers about the circumstances leading up to his admission, on the theory that if he did not tell them anything, they would not be able to treat him, and he might be discharged.”

The admissible statements will be used by the Crown during the remainder of the trial, which is scheduled to run from Nov. 12 to 22, with two more weeks scheduled in March if needed.