Photo: Contributed
Brian Danilkiewicz
A Kamloops angler will represent Canada next summer at the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championship in Scotland.
Brian Danilkiewicz, owner of Casting Loops Fly and Tackle in Valleyview, said he found out last weekend that he made Team Canada.
“I applied and I was selected by a selection committee of my peers,” Danilkiewicz told Castanet Kamloops.
Danilkiewicz travelled to New Zealand early in 2020 to take part in that year’s Commonwealth competition, but it was scuttled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a lot of work to get there, and then to find out you can’t compete,” he said.
“We had to fly home the day before the competition started.”
Danilkiewicz said he’s looking forward to getting a chance to take part next year and represent his country. The competition will take place in Islay, Scotland, between June 27 and July 3.
Between now and then, he said, he will be preparing.
“It’s a lot of research, for the most part,” he said.
“We’re trying to research the lakes that we’ll fish and what kind of fish we’ll be targeting, which will be mostly wild brown trout, and just trying to prepare ties that will work in that area.”
Photo: RCMP
Matthew Joel Bouwknecht
A Kamloops man who almost crashed into an unmarked police vehicle near Penticton before fleeing on foot up the side of a mountain has been ordered to spend eight months in prison.
Matthew Joel Bouwknecht, 39, pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court on Thursday to five charges, including dangerous driving, obstructing a peace officer and driving while prohibited.
Court heard two Mounties were on patrol in separate unmarked vehicles on the Penticton Indian Band reserve on March 25, 2021, when they spotted a car speeding and being driven erratically.
“The officer noticed that the license plate was actually a paper photocopy of a license plate,” Crown prosecutor Evan Goulet said in court.
“He saw this vehicle drive into his lane, to the point that the corporal had to swerve out of the way to avoid getting hit by the vehicle.”
Goulet said the Mountie pulled a U-turn and pursued the vehicle, which soon after crashed into the ditch. When the plainclothes Mountie identified himself, Bouwknecht, who had been driving the vehicle, fled on foot.
Goulet said Bouwknecht hopped a number of barbed-wire fences before officers caught up with him. Once he was arrested, Bouwknecht was taken to hospital for treatment of an apparent drug overdose.
Bouwknecht also pleaded guilty to a pair of breach charges — one alleging he failed to pay more than $900 in restitution and another alleging he failed to report to his probation officer.
Goulet said Bouwknecht has 65 prior convictions on his criminal record.
Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate described his client as “a rebel without a cause” who now wants to get his life on track.
“He’s desperate to get off drugs, he’s desperate to find a stable home,” he said. “He recognizes that he’s 39 years of age and he’s essentially had enough of this nonsense.”
Provincial court Judge Andrew Tam sentenced Bouwknecht to eight months in jail. Once he’s given credit for time served while awaiting sentencing, he will have approximately three months left to serve.
Photo: Castanet Staff
Police say they were called to a store in Sahali over the weekend after an alleged shoplifter deployed bear spray.
Mounties said they were called to an unnamed store in the 1200-bock of Summit Drive just after 3 p.m. on Saturday for a report of a woman releasing bear spray near the front entrance.
RCMP Cpl. Crystal Evelyn said the bear spray hit an unknown passerby.
“Staff had removed the woman for allegedly stealing beforehand,” she said in a news release.
“The suspect was gone when police arrived.”
The suspect is described as a woman standing 5′ 2” with a slim build and light pink hair. She was wearing a dark jacket and a dark hoodie on top of a white shirt.
Anyone with information about the incident can call police at 250-828-3000.
Photo: Amazon
The mother of a young Alberta man who vanished from Sun Peaks nearly five years ago says she’s been “overwhelmed” by support for her new book, which details the first year after her son went missing.
Heather Shtuka’s book Missing From Me is available now on Amazon, where it is listed as a No. 1 best seller in the grief and bereavement category.
“It hasn’t officially [been released],” Shtuka told Castanet.
“I just posted on Sunday on Ryan’s Facebook page and my personal page, just a sneak peek of the cover. I was going to update everybody when the press release came out, and then before I had a chance to do that everybody figured out you could buy it through Amazon.”
Shtuka said writing the book was a “cathartic” experience. She said it focuses on the 12 months that followed her son going missing. Ryan Shtuka was last seen at a house party in Sun Peaks in February of 2018.
“It encapsulates, really, that one year from Feb. 17, 2018, until Feb. 17, 2019,” she said.
Shtuka said the book gives readers a glimpse into the mundanity of her family’s existence before Ryan vanished and details what it was like finding out her son was missing. The book also takes readers through the search process and the transition “back into home and what that looked like.”
“And I think, for us, we’re still struggling to find out what that is,” she said.
February will mark five years since Ryan Shtuka’s disappearance. Heather said she and her family will be in Sun Peaks for a candlelight vigil on Feb. 17.
Photo: Landquest Realty Corp.
A Merritt-area First Nation paid more than $4.5 million to purchase a lakeside resort southwest of Kamloops.
According to a recent post on Western Investor by Landquest Realty Corp., a New Westminster-based brokerage involved in the sale, Tunkwa Lake Resort sold for $4.6 million.
The 18-acre lakefront property — which includes a main lodge, 19 rustic cabins, two luxury cabins, 79 RV sites and a caretaker cabin — had been listed for $4.89 million.
The Lower Nicola Indian Band announced in October that it had purchased the resort, which is located along Tunkwa Lake Road between Logan Lake and Savona.
At the time, the band said the resort’s staff and management was retained as part of the deal.
Photo: Castanet Staff
Mounties recovered a stolen pickup truck while responding to an attempted burglary report over the weekend at a worksite on Ord Road.
Police said they were called to a construction site in the 2000-block of Ord Road just after 1:30 a.m. for a report of a person trying to break into storage containers.
“Officers located and arrested a suspect on scene,” RCMP Cpl. Crystal Evelyn said in a news release.
“A truck with a damaged ignition was also located and confirmed stolen.”
Evelyn said the suspect was released pending further investigation.
Anyone with information about the incident can call police at 250-828-3000.
Photo: File photo
Police have made an arrest in connection to a 2021 fatal shooting at a downtown Kamloops Motel.
Lukas Wade Anderson, 29, of Kamloops was arrested Saturday morning, and he’s now charged with one count of manslaughter with a firearm, along with two other firearms charges.
The charge stems from an incident on the evening of Feb. 13, 2021. Kamloops RCMP responded to a report of shots fired at the Howard Johnson Motel on Columbia Street, where they found the body of 23-year-old Mikael Wayne Stewart.
The Serious Crime Unit was called in to take over the investigation, with support from the Forensic Identification Services and General Investigation Support Team.
“This was a lengthy investigation that involved police officers from almost every uniformed and plain clothes section within the Kamloops RCMP Detachment,” said Sgt. Nestor Baird of the Serious Crimes Unit.
“And after reviewing the evidence that was uncovered, the BC Prosecution Service has approved charges related to what transpired that night in the motel room.”
At the time of the killing, police said the victim and shooter were known to each other. RCMP Const. Crystal Evelyn told Castanet they had been seeing an increase in violence related to low level drug dealing and debt collections at the time of the killing.
The details around the killing aren’t clear at this time, and it’s not known why Anderson was charged with manslaughter and not murder. By definition, a homicide is classified as manslaughter when the accused did not intend to kill.
Photo: RCMP
Lukas Anderson
Photo: Castanet Staff
Parking will be free in downtown Kamloops each weekend in December.
The City of Kamloops took to social media on Friday to say on-street parking is free each weekend this month.
The move is intended to attract shoppers and encourage participation in downtown weekend events, like the Welcome Winter Block Party planned for Dec. 10.
According to the city, the regular three-hour time limit will be enforced.
Photo: Castanet Staff
It took a Kamloops jury less than two days of deliberations to find a North Thompson woman guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of her husband, who was killed on a camping trip two years ago.
The six-woman, six-man B.C. Supreme Court jury returned with a verdict on Friday afternoon, bringing to an end Ashleigh Tschritter’s three-week murder trial.
The 33-year-old was charged with the second-degree murder of her husband, David Joseph Robert Simpson. The jury found her guilty of the lesser included offence of manslaughter.
Simpson was shot to death on Sept. 6, 2020, at a campsite off a forest service road near Vavenby, east of Clearwater on Highway 5.
Court heard Tschritter and Simpson were arguing before the fatal shot was fired. An eyewitness testified that he saw Tschritter retrieve a shotgun and kill Simpson.
That witness, Gary Flowers, said Tschritter’s demeanour changed when Simpson mentioned another woman.
By finding Tschritter guilty of manslaughter, the jury accepted that she killed Simpson but not that she intended to.
Tschritter did not testify and called no defence evidence. Jurors heard a 911 call in which she told a dispatcher Simpson killed himself.
Jurors began their deliberations late on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, they listened back to three hours of Flowers’ testimony.
Manslaughter carries with it a mandatory minimum four-year prison sentence when a firearm is involved.
Tschritter will remain free on bail ahead of her sentencing. Lawyers are expected to return to court on Jan. 9 to set a date for sentencing.
Photo: Castanet Staff
More than a half-dozen flats of beer were stolen over the weekend in a burglary on the Tk’emlups reserve.
Police said they were called to a business on Dene Way on Monday morning for a report of a break-in sometime over the weekend.
According to police, a fence was cut and a trailer was broken into, from which multiple flats of Pacific brand beer were stolen.
Anyone with information about the burglary can call Kamloops Rural RCMP at 250-314-1800.
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