Police searching rural Killarney area for evidence connected to 2017 Neepawa homicide

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Published on Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Photo by Kim Langen

Teams of police searchers were busy on Thursday morning in the area south of Killarney, seeking evidence related to a 2017 homicide in Neepawa. This team, led by Constable Woytkiw of Brandon major crimes (far right), was wading through the deep and grassy ditches north of the Mayfair Colony on Wakopa Road.

By Kim Langen
Killarney Guide

The murder of a Neepawa man back in 2017 has brought a police search team south in order to scour a local area for related evidence.

Over the past couple of weeks RCMP investigators have been conducting inquiries and sweeping the quiet roadside ditches south of Killarney for this unspecified evidence.

On Thursday, July 12, two teams of the searchers – along with a large black search and rescue van – were busy working in two areas south of town: around eight miles west of Hwy. 18 on the Blixhavn Road, (Mile 1 North); and also up on the Wakopa Road (106 West), just north of the Mayfair Hutterite Colony.

Constable Woytkiw of Brandon Major Crimes was in charge of the Wakopa Road group of eight searchers on that sunny, windy day.

“This is our fourth day out here,” he said. “We are searching for evidence related to a 2017 event in Neepawa. We know this community has lots of questions, and you can let them know we are not looking for a missing person or for a body – just evidence. We will be in the area for a while yet; I can’t say how long.”

Few details are being made available to the public or the press at this time, as the investigation continues, said RCMP media relations officer in Winnipeg, Tara Seel.

“Officers are in the area south of Killarney, conducting a search in relation to a homicide in the Neepawa area in 2017,” she said.

The RCMP are assuring the community that there is no risk of danger to them, despite the recent and unusual police presence in the quiet farmland district, and the flurry of black cars and vans moving in and around the area just one mile north of the U.S. border.

“As this is an active and ongoing homicide investigation, I cannot provide too many details,” said Seel. “I can tell you that there is no concern for public safety. This is a search only. This is not in relation to any other events.”

Police have never formally released the name of the murdered Neepawa man, reportedly in his 60s, whose deceased body was found at a residence near Highway 5 North in the early hours of November 25, 2017.

“We don’t typically identify victims,” said Seel.

Neighbours were awakened at around 3 a.m. to the sound of police officers knocking loudly on their doors, according to newspaper reports at the time.

But how this past crime now relates to people or places in the Killarney area is still unclear.

Police were not able to provide any details on what exactly they are seeking out there in the deep grass and weeds, or who in particular they are investigating, said the press office.

“They are looking for evidence related to the homicide - that’s as much as I can say in regards to this ongoing investigation,” said Seel. “There is nothing people can do to assist police at this time.”

Article and picture reprinted with permission of Kim Langen and the Killarney Guide