Butcher knife murder during home invasion earns Chilliwack man a life sentence with no chance of parole for 12 years
Matthew Bauer killed 64-year-old Holbert Tew in a gruesome attack while the older man slept on his couch
*Warning: This story contains graphic details about a violence homicide with a knife.
Twenty-nine-year-old Matthew Bauer was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years for the gruesome murder of 64-year-old Holbert Tew as he slept on a couch during a home invasion in 2022.
High on crystal meth, having stolen an antique replica pistol and looking for more things to steal, Bauer came across Holbert Tew sleeping on the couch in the house Holbert shared with his brother David on Fourth Avenue near Fraser River Heritage Park in Mission on Dec. 14, 2022.
When he came across the sleeping man, Bauer crept into the kitchen, got a butcher knife, came back to the living room and stabbed Holbert with such force that the blade penetrated his skull and entered his brain.
The sequence of the following three stab wounds delivered by the killer was never made exactly clear during the jury trial, but Justice Andrew Mayer explained the damage caused while reading his sentencing decision in BC Supreme Court in Abbotsford on Thursday (June 19, 2025).
“[There was] the stab wound to the left posterior surface of the neck, which penetrated to the tissues on the front of the neck. The stab wound to the anterior left surface of the neck, which sliced the jugular vein, and the stab wound to the left side of the upper back.”
The crime scene showed signs of struggle after the first stab wound with Holbert making his way from the living room to the kitchen then the hallway, implying a horrific final few seconds of life.
“Mr. Tew is not here to speak to the trauma of the experience when he was first awoken, struggled for his life, and was stabbed again,” Justice Mayer said. “This court can infer that this was a horrific moment for him and a terrible way to die.”
Temporary psychosis defence rejected
Matthew Bauer had smoked crystal meth in the alley behind the Tews’ house before 7 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2022.
During the brief struggle culminating in the murder, David Tew was awoken in the basement suite by the noise. He came upstairs, saw Bauer, and the two fought, falling to the floor biting one another in the struggle.
David escaped and managed to call 911, while Bauer fled.
Having been caught on security footage at a nearby house on a previous night where there were reports someone was going through vehicles, Bauer was quickly identified as a suspect by Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) investigators. He was arrested on Jan. 6, 2023, charged with second-degree murder the next day.
During the lengthy jury trial, the court hear testimony from David, Mission RCMP officers, IHIT officers, and a forensic pathologist.
A conviction of second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence with parole eligibility between 10 and 25 years.
Bauer’s lawyer asked for 10 while Crown counsel asked for 12 to 13.
Up for debate at the sentencing hearing was Bauer’s mental state at the time of the killing, his psychological state in general, his intent in the moment, and if his self-proclaimed Indigenous status would be a factor.
Being Indigenous is a mitigating factor in sentencing in Canada, but the connection to culture is taken into consideration, details of which are often outlined in a so-called Gladue report. Bauer said his mother is Sto:lo and he has some Haida blood, but he declined a Gladue report. Justice Mayer concluded his link to Indigeneity is “weak and tenuous.”
Defence claimed Bauer was in a psychotic state during the killing. While he was intoxicated, that in itself is not a mitigating factor, but two examinations by doctors came to slightly different conclusions, Crown explained.
Bauer claimed he thought he was stabbing a “shadow person,” something Crown said one of the doctors didn’t know what to make of. The fact that Bauer became frightened when he encountered Holbert asleep on the couch did not need to be attributed to psychosis, and was not illogical given he was undertaking a home invasion.
Justice Mayer found that Bauer was not significantly intoxicated the day of the murder and his mental state was not such that his “moral blameworthiness was substantially lessened.”
While Crown conceded Bauer’s several conditions were “generally mitigating,” it was argued his mental state should not be considered a mitigating factor.
The court heard Bauer suffers from multiple cognitive and mental health challenges: methamphetamine disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, intellectual disability disorder, borderline personality disorder, and ADHD.
In the end, Justice Mayer agreed mostly with Crown and sentenced Bauer to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 12 years.
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Paul J. Henderson
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