New Zealand is similar in that their justice system has a Name Suppression regulation. A case on here involving a woman who was murdered in early December has suppressed the arrested male suspect's name from day 1. Different countries; different legalities.
CANADA Canada - Ben Tyner, 32, cowboy, horse returned w/o him, Merritt, British Columbia, 26 Jan 2019 - #2
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Trudie
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Lol, no prob, it is quite confusing.
Yes~enough time to gather phone & other electronic data, imo.
Failing to mention a precise date must cause someone to squirm a bit, I hope.
Or maybe they got dashcam video!!!
I wonder if this was Gunny's usual bridle? Would Ben use a spade bit on Gunny? Or did 'someone' grab the wrong bridle? 'They' got the right saddle onto Gunny, but not the right bridle-- with Gunny's regular bit? MOO
Actually, has there ever been confirmation that it was Ben's saddle on Gunny? If that information is being held back, then that's a AHA clue. JMO
You may be on to something. I wonder if they checked it out. Can you tell by looking at some of Ben's pictures?
He might have used different bridles at different times for different reasons. Thus pictures might not prove anything. When I had my horse, I used stronger bridles (bits) for longer rides when I needed more control. (He was a big quarter horse and I'm fairly small, and needed help at times.) I had a different bridle for the rink and English riding too. Just a thought if trying to prove something here about Ben's routine.
ETA Added word bits
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Trudie
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Never heard. I’m back at square one. Lol I’m trying to determine when Ben was last seen.
I’m sure Ben had a lot of tack, so idk if any tack on a Gunny would be considered “wrong”. Now saddlebag contents might hold more meaning. Jack would know what Ben carried, imo.
Idk if anyone photographed Gunny after finding her. Idk why they would. It was before noon, everyone thought a rider parted ways with his horse. If I found a tacked horse near my house, I’d secure it, never even think of photographing it. Well....maybe now I would.
When she was returned to the ranch, however, and unsaddle/unbridled - would there have been a place to store saddle and bridle with Ben's stuff. IOW, then it could be determined if the horse's gear was Ben's, right?
And I don't know if Jack saw anything helpful. By the time he arrived, what a few days after reported missing? Would the gear have been stored somewhere and pointed out to him? Mostly rhetorical questions.
Trudie
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Iirc, Jack arrived Tuesday, I can’t remember for sure but it seems I read they got first available flight!
Hard to say if Ben kept his tack in the house or in a barn/tack room. Every picture I see, his tack is nicely polished. I sure hope his stuff was cared for respectfully so his family could collect all of his belongings! It crushes me to think from the time Ben went missing until Monday someone might have been in his house, pilfering thru his possessions. That would be difficult to prove, unless signs of a struggle. He probably had guests in from time to time, there had been a previous resident & so forth, so dna would be all over, imo.
Nowadays it seems just about everybody has a phone with a camera. Maybe, whether it was loggers, the hunter, or the Natives, took a photo or few of Gunny 'as found' to send around to the local folks and the RCMP to try to identify the riderless, saddled horse way up a mountain? A faster way than individual phone calls and texts to get the news out that a riderless, tacked horse was found up on a logging road with a broken rein?
Trudie
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Hopefully!
Iirc, Gunny was taken to the Indian Band area & they corraled her until she could be trailered to
NR.
It it still took from 5:30 am when KR caught her and called (texted) it in. However he communicated it - it took til 12:30 to hear about it being Ben’s horse. 7 hours. Could be by this time Gunny had been taken to a corral until identified. Jmo
Trudie
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Yea, someone (LE) had to get in touch with the livestock Identification Agency to determine the brand was Ben’s.
We discussed this on thread one.
So...if KR was responsible for killing Ben out there, he would have known it was Ben’s horse. And wouldn’t have had to go to the trouble of tracking down the owner. Jmo.
Lots of action on this thread today! Yes @Trudie I do agree that your hunch is a very likely scenario as well.
Another cowboy, perhaps a longtime current or former employee of the ranch would have motive and opportunity to harm Ben if they felt slighted or had that level of concern for their livelihood.
The church fire also bothers me. Any link to arsonist and Nicola Ranch found by others? None that I can find.
As for KR...I can’t find the MSM article (or perhaps it was on the official FB page). I believe it was discussed early on in the first thread, but I do recall something that LE/family were not permitting KR to help with the search? Why would they not utilize his knowledge of the area unless they felt he was intentionally leading them astray? Or why else?
Here’s a MSM regarding KR 2016 being charged with with illegal poaching. Charges were later dropped. Something doesn’t feel right with him. I don’t want to believe it but I’m inclined to feel otherwise. JMO.
Kim Robinson trial: Hunter claims he was legally hunting cougar - Merritt Herald
Another cowboy, perhaps a longtime current or former employee of the ranch would have motive and opportunity to harm Ben if they felt slighted or had that level of concern for their livelihood.
The church fire also bothers me. Any link to arsonist and Nicola Ranch found by others? None that I can find.
As for KR...I can’t find the MSM article (or perhaps it was on the official FB page). I believe it was discussed early on in the first thread, but I do recall something that LE/family were not permitting KR to help with the search? Why would they not utilize his knowledge of the area unless they felt he was intentionally leading them astray? Or why else?
Here’s a MSM regarding KR 2016 being charged with with illegal poaching. Charges were later dropped. Something doesn’t feel right with him. I don’t want to believe it but I’m inclined to feel otherwise. JMO.
Kim Robinson trial: Hunter claims he was legally hunting cougar - Merritt Herald
And thankfully so. I hated the thought of poor Gunny tied up and left alone beside mountain road by the hunter when he went down to report that he found a riderless tacked horse with a broken rein wandering on the mountain.
Thank you for your map showing the ranch and where Gunny was found. Opposite sides of Swakum Mtn. on the Nicola Plateau.
Did someone mention caves or mines as a place to hide Ben's body? Our 2012 BC Road Atlas shows there is a road in the area of the ranch called 'Thelma Mine Road'. Could Ben have been taken up Thelma Mine Road?
It starts as Mill Creek Road north of Merritt, then Thelma Mine Road branches off to the west, crosses the Coq Highway, and heads up the eastern side of Swatcum Mountain. The opposite side of Swatcum Mtn. where Gunny was found.
On Google Earth it looks like there are several gravel roads on the eastern side of Swatcum Mtn. I don't know if any are driveable to get Gunny up and over the top in a horse trailer. Maybe it was a lot less hassle to trailer Gunny up Highway 97C towards Logan Lake and up the western side of Swatcum Mtn?
If so, that could mean there were a lot of chances for dash cams to catch a truck and horse trailer on those several miles and why the RCMP are asking for dash cams to be checked.
The Coq highway from Vancouver past the Nicola Ranch area to Kamloops is very busy--4 busy lanes with a continuous cement barrier down the middle. There must be an underpass for Thelma Mine Road to cross the Coq.
Fingers crossed that many dash cams got video of a truck and horse trailer that weekend and the RCMP have those videos now. jmo
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@Satchie, could you please tell me how we know where Gunny was found. I'm interested but just can't find it in the thread. Thanks.
Does any one have photos of Swatcum Mountain in better weather to get an "on the ground" perspective of how big etc it is? Just curious. One of Winnie Flats? Thanks. Just trying to wrap my head around it. Hard to do with just maps ya know. I found lots of photos on google but don't know which is which. excuse misspelling and such.
Some points to reflect back on, Article dated Jan 31
‘We’re coming for you’: Search on for ‘true American cowboy’ missing in B.C. backcountry
Tyner, who was born in Florida and raised in Wyoming, had taken on a new job about three months ago as ranch manager at the Nicola Ranch in Merritt, B.C., about three hours east of Vancouver.
Tyner was last seen Saturday afternoon. He may have ridden into the backcountry along an area called Swakum Ridge.
Kim Robinson, a local tracker and hunting guide, said he found the riderless, saddled horse Monday morning. It was missing a rein but otherwise had “good rigging” on it. The horse was a bit spooked but he managed to calm it down and tie it to a tree. He then went and fetched other local ranchers who later brought it back to town and confirmed it belonged to Tyner
Tyner’s parents, Richard and Jennifer Tyner, and younger brother, Jack, travelled to Merritt from Wyoming to take part in the search.
Reached briefly on her cellphone Wednesday morning, Jennifer told the National Post they were just going into a debrief and they likely wouldn’t be reachable for some time as cell reception was spotty.
Later in the morning, Richard texted his sister, Judy Sanders, in Kissimmee, Fla., to say that he and Jennifer were surveying the area via helicopter, while Jack was on horseback, accompanied by Ben’s dogs. At one point, Jack found what was believed to be a broken rein from his brother’s horse, Sanders said.
The officer manager at Nicola Ranch told Postmedia News it was “totally out of character” for Tyner to leave the ranch without notifying someone.
“None of this is adding up, it’s a flipping mystery,” Tammy Straya said.
“It’s so horrible, none of us have ate or slept. We’re worried sick.”
Straya added that Tyner’s horse returned in good condition with nothing to indicate that it had been attacked.
“Something might have scared it, but there’s no blood, no spur marks, no scratches. It’s his horse, and it’s a gentle horse,” Straya said.
Before his move to B.C., Tyner lived on the Wyoming ranch and became caretaker of the operation after his father suffered an injury, she said.
Always eager to learn, Tyner jumped at the opportunity to work in B.C., he said.
“Who wouldn’t want to go to a big cattle ranch in Canada — a new horizon, a new way to see things?”
DeBerard said he tried
Before his move to B.C., Tyner lived on the Wyoming ranch and became caretaker of the operation after his father suffered an injury, she said.
“He’s a very fine young man, quiet and reserved, very mannerly. A little shy … but takes real pride in what he does.”
DeBerard said Tyner never hesitated to lend a helping hand to neighbours back home.
“Anytime you needed Ben to gather cows, or brand cows, or if you needed him with a horse trailer, he’d drop whatever he was doing to help somebody — a solid, strong guy.”
Always eager to learn, Tyner jumped at the opportunity to work in B.C., he said.
“Who wouldn’t want to go to a big cattle ranch in Canada — a new horizon, a new way to see things?”
DeBerard said he tried texting Tyner on Sunday and found it odd when he didn’t get a reply. That’s when he learned that he was missing
BBM
‘We’re coming for you’: Search on for ‘true American cowboy’ missing in B.C. backcountry
Tyner, who was born in Florida and raised in Wyoming, had taken on a new job about three months ago as ranch manager at the Nicola Ranch in Merritt, B.C., about three hours east of Vancouver.
Tyner was last seen Saturday afternoon. He may have ridden into the backcountry along an area called Swakum Ridge.
Kim Robinson, a local tracker and hunting guide, said he found the riderless, saddled horse Monday morning. It was missing a rein but otherwise had “good rigging” on it. The horse was a bit spooked but he managed to calm it down and tie it to a tree. He then went and fetched other local ranchers who later brought it back to town and confirmed it belonged to Tyner
Tyner’s parents, Richard and Jennifer Tyner, and younger brother, Jack, travelled to Merritt from Wyoming to take part in the search.
Reached briefly on her cellphone Wednesday morning, Jennifer told the National Post they were just going into a debrief and they likely wouldn’t be reachable for some time as cell reception was spotty.
Later in the morning, Richard texted his sister, Judy Sanders, in Kissimmee, Fla., to say that he and Jennifer were surveying the area via helicopter, while Jack was on horseback, accompanied by Ben’s dogs. At one point, Jack found what was believed to be a broken rein from his brother’s horse, Sanders said.
The officer manager at Nicola Ranch told Postmedia News it was “totally out of character” for Tyner to leave the ranch without notifying someone.
“None of this is adding up, it’s a flipping mystery,” Tammy Straya said.
“It’s so horrible, none of us have ate or slept. We’re worried sick.”
Straya added that Tyner’s horse returned in good condition with nothing to indicate that it had been attacked.
“Something might have scared it, but there’s no blood, no spur marks, no scratches. It’s his horse, and it’s a gentle horse,” Straya said.
Before his move to B.C., Tyner lived on the Wyoming ranch and became caretaker of the operation after his father suffered an injury, she said.
Always eager to learn, Tyner jumped at the opportunity to work in B.C., he said.
“Who wouldn’t want to go to a big cattle ranch in Canada — a new horizon, a new way to see things?”
DeBerard said he tried
Before his move to B.C., Tyner lived on the Wyoming ranch and became caretaker of the operation after his father suffered an injury, she said.
“He’s a very fine young man, quiet and reserved, very mannerly. A little shy … but takes real pride in what he does.”
DeBerard said Tyner never hesitated to lend a helping hand to neighbours back home.
“Anytime you needed Ben to gather cows, or brand cows, or if you needed him with a horse trailer, he’d drop whatever he was doing to help somebody — a solid, strong guy.”
Always eager to learn, Tyner jumped at the opportunity to work in B.C., he said.
“Who wouldn’t want to go to a big cattle ranch in Canada — a new horizon, a new way to see things?”
DeBerard said he tried texting Tyner on Sunday and found it odd when he didn’t get a reply. That’s when he learned that he was missing
BBM
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