Lac La Biche County has seen a series of violent crimes over the past two weeks, including a brutal murder where a victim was put through a brush cutter, a stabbing where a 28-year-old man died, a shooting believed to be in retaliation to the stabbing, and another stabbing.
Local RCMP officers say that although the four major incidents have attracted a lot of media attention across the province and have residents worried about their safety, the violent incidents are isolated and not random and occurred within groups of people who were known to each other. “These incidents involve a small group of people and the majority of the public is safe,” said Lac La Biche RCMP Sergeant Henry Van Dorland.
Lac La Biche first made headlines on March 11, when police received reports of human remains found in a brush cutter at a site off of an old logging road just 37 kilometres north of Lac La Biche. An autopsy later revealed the remains to be of Roxanne Bigelow, a 34-year-old Wandering River resident and mother of five. Police found the victim’s common-law partner, Trevor Bobocel, near the crime scene at a burning vehicle. The 38-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder and committing an indignity to a body.
Family members are caring for the children and a Bobocel-Bigelow Children trust fund has been set up at Scotiabank. Donations can be made at any Scotiabank branch across the province.
Police have found the man they were looking for in the March13 stabbing death of a 28-year-old Lac La Biche man. Colton Peter Joe, 18, was arrested by police last Thursday in Edmonton after a week-long, province wide warrant was issued for his arrest. Joe has been charged with second degree murder in the death of Jason Ward. Police say Joe and Ward were at a house party south of Lac La Biche when Ward was stabbed. He died from his injuries in an Edmonton hospital the following day.
Police are also still investigating an early morning shooting in Lac La Biche, where a man was shot in the left arm. Lac La Biche RCMP believe the shooting may be connected to the stabbing and officers are still investigating. The most recent attack saw a woman stabbed in the shoulder and cut on her lip by a group of women last Monday evening. Police believe this incident to be separate from the two other events.
Lac La Biche County mayor Peter Kirylchuk says most residents are in a state of shock about the series of tragic events over such a short period of time, but he is confident that residents’ safety is top priority for police.
“The RCMP are doing their part, and as a community, we need to think of possible solutions and we need to overcome this tragic mood,” he said.
It is easy, he said, for community residents to get overwhelmed by the violence and the publicity it is drawing, but he urges the public to remember that the strength of the area is its people. A recent fundraiser for Lac La Biche’s Big Brother Big Sisters office raised $15,500, a young area woman is in the running for Miss Teen Canada, and a recent career fair drew 850 inquisitive students. It is those kinds of positive events in the shadow of such tragedies that need to be remembered, he said.
“The community is in shock with the tragic events we have had in the last week so we have to pull together and move forward as a community,” Kirylchuk said.
