Family devastated after charges stayed in 2018 fatal hit-and-run near Terrace

Charges against two Surrey men accused in a deadly hit-and-run near Terrace nearly eight years ago have suddenly been dropped weeks before their B.C. provincial court trial was set to begin.

Taylor Stogryn, 37, and Conrad Wierzbicki, 35, were charged with indignity to human remains and obstructing justice.

Stogryn was also accused of failing to stop at the scene of an accident in the 2018 collision that killed Cameron Kerr , 30

On Weds. Oct. 14, Kerr’s brother said the family met with RCMP and Crown counsel, who informed them the Nov. 2 trial would not be proceeding, and charges against both Stogryn and Wierzbicki had been stayed.

“It’s really hard to understand how the justice system could lead us to this,” Garrett Kerr said in an interview, adding his family is pretty devastated at the news.

Cameron Kerr was walking home along the shoulder of Highway 16 in the early morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018, when he was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver four kilometres west of Terrace.

Kerr’s brother said the family was told the case collapsed because testimony from a key witness, a forensic pathologist, was not what it was anticipated to be, and would no longer support a likely conviction.

“The indication we were given is that because they couldn’t confirm that they moved his body, they wouldn’t be able to confirm that they stopped in the first place; thereby, they wouldn’t be able to confirm that they knew what had happened, what they had struck, that they had killed a human being,” Garrett Kerr told Global News.

The BC Prosecution Service, which does not provide its reasons for staying charges except in rare cases, said in a statement: “…the decision to stay the charge in this case was made due to a material change in circumstances that meant the charge assessment standard was no longer met.”

Criminal lawyer and former Crown prosecutor Rob Dhanu, K.C., said it’s relatively rare to see a case like this fall apart so close to trial.

“The Crown dropping serious and complicated charges on the eve of trial is the equivalent of a developer putting up a high-rise and watching it crumble just before everyone moves in,” Dhanu said in an interview Thurs.

Dhanu said the Crown would need to resolve the issues that undermined its case before taking another shot at justice.

“Technically, the police could continue to investigate, but the legal reality is it’s highly unlikely the Crown would pursue charges again,” Dhanu told Global News.

“They really didn’t leave us any shred of hope,” Garrett Kerr said of the decision. “It felt pretty final.”