Prince George RCMP shed further light today on how social media played a roll in tracking down and arresting the prime suspect in a fatal shooting, during the first-degree murder trial for Anthony Robert Willier at the Prince George courthouse.
Willier is facing the charge in death of Nathan Alcide Marshall whose body was found outside his home at 1790 Hemlock St. on Feb. 17, 2010.
On March 1, 2010, a dozen days after the incident, police received a tip Willier was walking toward a Norwood Street home wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a nine-millimetre handgun.
When police arrived at the home at 2128 Norwood St., the occupant denied Willier was there and police set up a surveillance on the home. Back at the Prince George RCMP detachment, Cst. Vinod Raju looked up Willier on the Internet.
"I checked Mr. Willier's Facebook status, and he was commenting that 'They've got me surrounded. Oh well, I may as well give myself up,'" Raju told the court.
In testimony earlier this week, Cst. Luke Rioux, the arresting officer, told the court that the Facebook search helped confirm the location of Willier, who gave himself up without a struggle.
Willier became a suspect when Michael Sanche told police a few days after the shooting that he was with Willier when he drove to the end of Marshall's driveway pulled out a handgun and fired at Marshall as he came out of his house.
Police were also able to gain entrance to the home and recover the vest and handgun as well as a double-barreled shot gun. (In earlier testimony, Rioux said he undersood the vest was found but was not sure about the handgun, saying his task was to deal with Willier.)
Testifying after Raju, Staff Sgt. Brad Anderson said the home's owner, Reginald Anderson, who arrived on the scene from another location during Willier's arrest, allowed a voluntary search of the bedroom of his son, Dean.
The vest, a set of "soft body armour," was found underneath the bed and the handgun and the shotgun were found hidden in the ceiling after Raju noticed a crack or hole in a ceiling tile.
Raju, who also acted as the exhibit officer on the case, confirmed that none of the .45-calibre shell casings found at the murder scene could have been fired by the nine-millimetre handgun.
However, in text messages between Marshall and "Annie W." made mention of selling a shotgun to Marshall while the two were negotiating the payment of money owed to Marshall in the last hours before his death.
Raju also noted that the bedroom was "fully of bicycles and other property that we did not get into."
The jury trial continues today.
