I feel like more and more we are going to see cases like this one. I can't help but think of the other two men who went missing that same day, in a relatively close vicinity, and have since been found deceased. Seemingly "normal" people getting caught up in all sorts of unsavory circumstances.
It probably starts off very innocently. Just regular people, working hard and looking for a way to get ahead in life. They happen to cross paths with the wrong people, someway or another. The "wrong people" can be very convincing. They will offer you the quickest road to your dreams to get what they want from you. Temptation is very difficult to resist, especially when they make it seam so easy. So clean and so simple. Yet, even the smallest part in a large operation will make you vulnerable and eventually disposable.
My sense (pure speculation) is perhaps Ben was involved somehow in wiring/electrical work for a "client". Maybe he didn't even realize what he was doing or who he was doing it for. He either saw/heard too much -or- wanted out of the operation and his "clients" were not happy about this.
This is just where my mind goes because I have traveled down that dark road once or twice...as a "seemingly normal person". It leads to a world full of greed, impulse, filth, and paranoia. I will not take the trip back there again.
I live close to this area of BC. Supply and demand are at an all time high due to the opiod crisis as well as the impending legalization of cannabis. Everyone is making sure they are well stocked, which includes recruiting "seemingly normal people" to play a part in their operations. The supposed pay out is tempting, especially to those with young families looking to get ahead. They tell you there is no risk. There is. Clearly.
I pray for his safe return and for closure for his family. And I hope everyone else out there makes good choices and continues to take one step in front of the other in the right direction.[/QUOTE
A good friend of mine had a brief life on the mainland with oc/ha, cleaned himself up and lives a somewhat normal life. When I asked him what he thought of this whole scene involving Kilmer and dan and ryan in uki he just said “drugs”, “big time drugs.” Ha does that kind of thing so do the gangs on the mainland who are basically one tier down from cartel. We now know that this is true at least for dan and ryan. With the DEA involved and presenting themselves as RCMP and Vancouver Island major crimes in Squamish heavily and with good reason, we at least know that those two were a part of a larger organization that is most certainly based on the mainland with a contact group on the island.
He said he thinks he knows what happened and this is obviously just a theory but coming from someone who knows how these shady characters operate, I thought it was interesting, however far fetched:
Kilmer was to be the original contact for dan and ryan on their way to Jordan River from uki in an attempt to establish their own “shop”. A third party, the island group, presumably who Kilmer was in deep with, albeit unknowingly, got wind of this, and planned an elaborate abduction and double crossing of the three men and seized what they were transporting.
Kilmer tried to escape from someone who was already in the vehicle, (something I’ve heard through the grapevine of PI’s is more than a theory there is actually evidence of this.) but was apprehended, and taken to Ucluelet via the logging road network that runs behind cow lake and can be travelled to my knowledge almost the entire way to uki, saving a lot of time and more importantly avoiding the numerous highway cams between parksville and uki junction.
The perps also avoided being seen on the security cam outside lyssak wood products by taking the enterance road driving behind lyssak and coming out the “exit”. They then consciously avoided the only working security cam at the small craft harbor whilst picking up dan and Ryan.
They were then all taken back the same route out behind lyssak wood products and executed. Kilmer was perhaps dealt with in the same way but dumped further east on the logging roads back toward nitnat thus confusing LE and why he remains to be found.
This is just a theory and may be way off but it resonates with me to the point that I should post it.
B.C. drug boss pleads guilty to leading helicopter-based smuggling ring | CBC News