A B.C. man who went missing nearly 15 years ago while facing multiple sexual assault charges has been declared dead by a court — which ruled he likely died when a fire engulfed the aircraft hangar where he was last seen.
Last week, a judge ruled it was more likely than not that Vernon Martin died in the Dec. 19, 2009, fire in Prince George, and issued a declaration allowing 16 life insurance policies worth millions of dollars to be cashed out.
Two days before Martin was last seen, he was confronted by members of his family with multiple allegations that “he had engaged in sexual misconduct with male members of the extended family approximately twenty years earlier, when the family members were teenagers,” said the BC Supreme Court decision.
His relatives told the court that Martin “did not deny the allegations, but tried to explain and downplay them.” Martin also told his siblings that he had been sued by two of the men and that he was in talks to settle the lawsuits.
The day Martin was last seen, he was visited by a regular employee and the employee’s wife.
“They were extremely angry and confronted Vernon with allegations that he had committed sexual misconduct with their son when he was a teenager. They threatened to call the police and have him arrested. The couple’s son, now an adult, wanted to meet with Vernon that evening,” the court ruling said.
Shortly afterwards, Martin left his sister’s house, where he was staying, to go to the hangar. An hour later, the fire brigade was sent to the building. A witness saw Martin enter the building and no one saw him leave.
The hangar caught fire on Saturday, December 19, 2009, just before 3 p.m.
The cause and origin of the fire were never determined, but the building was destroyed.
“There is very little of the building that has not been burned in some way,” said an RCMP report the day after the fire cited in the decision. “The scene is a large pile of still-burning, dangerous debris that is quickly becoming covered with ice and snow.”
Martin’s body was never found, but the court was satisfied by expert evidence that the nature and extent of the damage caused by the fire, as well as the impact of firefighting at the scene, could have resulted in his charred remains remains ‘were scattered throughout the rubble’. field.”
A search of Martin’s car revealed his suitcase, containing all his credit cards, ID and his wedding ring. A note attached to Martin’s most recent will – dated three days before he disappeared – was found in a fireproof safe recovered from the hangar office.
“I don’t know how to say ‘IM SORRY’ strongly enough for what I did to all of you. I hope you can find it somewhere in your heart to forgive me. I don’t want any funeral. Please let me be cremated and dispose of my ashes,” the letter read in part.
“I’m a very bad person. I don’t really know why I did what I did. I can’t give a clear (?) answer. I start with good intentions, but I take everything way too far. Please forgive me if you can.”
The court considered whether Martin could have faked his own disappearance, but found no evidence that he had fled the city, no activity on his credit cards or bank accounts, and no indication that he had stashed away enough money to survive or had a plan to to start a new life. under an assumed identity.
“I accept that there was motive on Vernon’s part to disappear in light of the revelation of the historical allegations of sexual misconduct,” the judge wrote.
“It is clear that the revelations to his family caused him distress. But rather than plotting his own disappearance, the letter found in the fireproof safe in the Hangar rubble field is more convincing and supports that Vernon did not want to disappear, but to end his life.”
The judge noted that the law does not require the court to determine how a person died, but only that it is satisfied that a death occurred, based on the balance of probabilities.
Martin was not criminally charged prior to his disappearance, but he was charged in Alberta in 2010 with two counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency.