“36 page’

WEDNESDAY
April 2, 1997

Apnil 6th

Warm to 3pm

Teen finds

human skull
in Hastings
Creek area

By fan Noble
News Reporter

POLICE were searching the
Hastings Creek area of North
Vancouver for body parts
after a teenage boy found a
human skull Easter Monday
just off a trail frequented by
joggers and dog-walkers.

Brandon ‘Throssell, 13, said he and his
dog Nutuk were on their daily walk along,
the Lynn Valley creck when Nutuk started
sniffing an area about 20 feet from the trail.

As Brandon approached, he could see an
object lying on moss, He moved it with his
foot.

The skull had been upside down, and
when Brandon turned it over he could see it
did not have a jaw.

“I was kind of scared. It was kind of weird
to look at,” said the Sutherland student.

Brandon said he recognized the skull as
that of a human because he had seen them in
books. He picked up the skull and hid it in
the stream under a log.

He returned to his Hazellyn Place home
to get his mother. They returned to the skull
and took it home before calling the police.

Police arrived. Brandon took them to

See Police page 2

NEWS photo Terry Peters

AN RCMP officer searches the
Hastings Creek area Tuesday, the
day after a boy found a skull.

Smashing cedars

FIERCE winds toppled trees throughout the North Shore on Easter Sunday. This cedar fell on a Ford Explorer and Chevy
pickup on Chamberlain in North Vancouver, causing extensive damage to both vehicles. Part of the home was also damaged.

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Upper Capilano family
robbed and terrorized

By Jolanda Waskito
Contributing Writer

A North Vancouver couple’s
two young daughters were
sound asleep upstairs while
they were tied up and held at
gunpoint by robbers in their
living room Saturday night.

The mother, who wishes to remain
unnamed, said she was reading in the bed-
room when she heard someone come up the
stairs. She thought it was her husband.

“IT looked up and there was this person
completely dressed in black coming towards
me,” she said. “1 thought he was going to rape
me or kidnap me.”

Two brazen bandits, a man and a woman
armed with a shotgun and an automatic hand-

Presentation
House’s Othello:
violent vitality

gun, made off with about $1,400 in cash and
a valuable mond ring, North Vancouver
RCMP said.

The 39-year-old woman, her 40-year-old
husband and their daughters, aged four and
six, Were shaken but unharmed.

RCMP Const. Tom Seaman said that at
HichS p.m, wo darkly-clad suspects wearing
balactava: aed the couple at home in an
Upper Capilano neighborhood.

“Phey found the male on the back deck
and at gunpyint they took him) into. the
house,” Const. Tom Seaman said.

“One suspect held him at gunpoint while
the other located the wife.

The male assailant took hee downstairs and
ted the couple up with duct tape. The home
invaders took their wallets and demanded they
tell them the security numbers for their bank
cards.
The male bandit then left for 40: minutes
and withdrew as much money as be could
from bank machines, When he came back, the
female suspect then searched the house for
more valuables.

“I didn’t know whether she was looking at

nvaded

j ry or suffocating the kids,” the female
victim: said. “I thought my life was over. I
thought the fast thing they would do is leave
us with bullets in our heads.”

The robbers left at about midnight, leaving
the frightened couple on the floor, bound,
gagged, and unharmed,

The cnale resident was able to struggle and
loosen the gag. He shouted loud enough to
wake up his six-year-old daughter upstairs.

“She came down and phoned 9-1-1 when
she saw her parents,” Const. Seaman said.
“She remained calm and talked calmly on the
phone.”

Ahome invasion of this kind in North
Vancouver hasn't occurred since at least 1992.

“It’s the first one in North Van that Pve
heard of and I've been here since 1992,”
Const. Seaman said. “Pve tatked to members
that have been here longer and they've never
heard of a home invasion of that sort.”

Meanwhile in West Vancouver a similar,
though unrelated home invasion and armed
robbery occurred that same day.

See Random page 2

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