Injuries to man’s body caught coroner’s eye
Editor’s note: This is the second in an exclusive, two-part series. Part 1 ran Tuesday and explained, based on court documents, how Darrell James Matt, 54, died Dec. 25, 2016, while snowmobiling with a buddy near Princeton. While the friend, Brian Millar, told police he’d found Matt lying face up in the snow, unconscious after an apparent heart attack, the autopsy, detailed below, found something far different. Millar is not considered a suspect.
The day after Darrel James Matt died, coroner Margaret Janzen called Princeton RCMP Sgt. Barry Kennedy to say she’d looked at photos of Matt’s body and had “concerns surrounding the cause of death,” which had been tentatively attributed to a heart attack.
“Janzen stated that Matt had trauma to his head and excessive swelling to his body, which is not consistent with a cardiac event,” Cpl. Chad Parsons wrote in a document called an information to obtain, which was filed in court Jan 12, 2017, to obtain a warrant to seize the snowmobiles Matt and his friend, Brian Millar, were riding.
Concerns about the cause of death became full-fledged suspicions following an autopsy on Matt’s body conducted in Penticton on Jan. 9, 2017, by Dr. Susan Tebbutt.
Massive blunt-force trauma
Tebbutt, a pathologist, found Matt’s spinal cord severed in two places, multiple broken ribs that had punctured his heart and lungs, and a broken collarbone that had pressed against his carotid artery.
“The pathologist is of the opinion that there was massive blunt-force trauma to Matt that is consistent with a motor vehicle accident at high speed,” Parsons wrote.
Tebbutt then suggested Matt was struck either by an animal that hit just him and not his sled, or by Millar’s snowmobile.
Three days later, police seized the sleds driven by Matt and Millar, and later learned from Matt’s roommate, Robert Gallinger, that the helmet Matt had been wearing had a 28-centimetre crack down the back of it.
According to the ITO, Gallinger told Mounties the crack was easy to spot and “right through the helmet” with gravel in it, as if it had been hit by a rock. The helmet was later seized. Gallinger last week declined an interview request from The Herald.
Gathering evidence
Seizure reports attached to the ITO explain police on Jan. 17, 2017, collected unspecified fibres from a ski on one of the snowmobiles — the document doesn’t make clear who had been riding it — and nothing from the other one.
Parsons also noted one of the sleds had a large crack on its hood and a dent in the bumper above its right ski.
“The dent appeared to be relatively fresh as it appeared as though no rust had started in the dent as it had in other scuffs,” the officer wrote.
Brick wall
Since the fatal Christmas ride, Mounties have cleared Millar as a suspect, but made little headway otherwise, Sgt. Kennedy told The Herald in an interview last week. “We’re kind of at a brick wall here,” he said. Police are considering a variety of possibilities, including Matt somehow being killed by his own sled or an unknown snowmobiler striking him and fleeing the scene before Millar arrived. “It’s very unusual,” added Kennedy. “There are so many possibilities that could have happened and a lot of unanswered questions.”
Mounties are hopeful a fresh lead from the public, perhaps from someone who saw or repaired a damaged snowmobile around the time in question, will help move the case forward.