Bail denied: David Knox will stay behind bars in advance of trial for murder of Chantelle Ruhl in 2025

Knox allegedly killed the 37-year-old Ruhl, dumped her body in bushes by train tracks, attempted to destroy evidence

July 31, 2026

David Dalton Knox was denied bail in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack on Friday (July 31, 2026) facing a second-degree murder charge for allegedly killing 37-year-old Chantelle Ruhl in 2025 and dumping her body in a ditch near a rail line.

Knox is also charged with interference with a dead body and two counts of obstruction of justice, one of which dates from after his arrest when he was in police custody.

All bail hearings are subject to publication bans under section 517 of the Criminal Code, which prevents publishing evidence or other information from court. The reason for this ban is because evidence that will likely come out in trial, potentially in front of a jury, needs to be protected until that trial.

To be granted bail in any case, a judge has to consider three grounds on whether to detain or release under section 515(10) of the code:
a) primary - will the accused show up to court; 
b) secondary - is the accused a risk to re-offend while on release; and
c) tertiary - would release undermine public trust in the justice system.

When it comes to the latter reason to deny release on bail, it depends on how strong the case against the accused is, the gravity of the offence, if a firearm was used in the offence, and if convicted the case leads to a lengthy imprisonment.

The summarized details of the evidence regarding the homicide cannot be shared because of the publication ban, but some elements of what allegedly happened was enough to prompt tears from Ruhl’s mother who was in attendance.

Without sharing the details put forward in court, but given the strong evidence Crown has against Knox, the seriousness of the case, and his lengthy criminal history of violence, Justice Caldwell denied granting him bail. 

The decision means he will spend at least the next six months in pre-trial custody in advance of the next appearances before trial in January 2027. 

There is, however, under section 520 of the code an ability to review a previous detention order any time before trial at least 30 days after a decision was made. This is rarely used and highly unusual in a murder case for a number of reasons, one of which is reverse onus, which means an accused bears the burden of showing why detention is not justified, already a high burden the first time. And a review is not simply a new bail hearing, the accused has to show the original decision was wrong in law, something major has changed, or there is new evidence. The tertiary ground for detention, public confidence in the system, that looks at seriousness of the crime and the quality of the Crown’s evidence means a 520 review in this case is highly unlikely.

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Paul J. Henderson
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