Fraser Valley to the Arctic Circle: Alberta man to be sentenced for 2018 murder this fall thought he got away with it

Kyle Cromarty was killed in 2018, a case that went cold until 2022 when Harry Christensen was charged with first-degree murder, sentencing set for this fall

Harry Tyler Christensen shot and killed Kyle Cromarty in or outside a Yale Road apartment east of downtown Chilliwack on Oct. 4, 2018.

The case went cold, but diligent Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) investigators solved it in 2022. On Nov. 24, 2025, Christensen will finally be sentenced to life in prison, parole eligibility time to be determined by a B.C. Supreme Court Justice.

It was mid afternoon that fall day in 2018 when the Chilliwack RCMP received reports of shots fired in the area of the old IGA on Menzies, a store that is now a Dollarama. Police arrived to find 26-year-old Kyle Cromarty suffering a life-threatening injury. He was transported to hospital where he died.

Witnesses at the scene that day had slightly different accounts of what happened. One witness saw police talking to a boy who said he heard one shot and saw a male running away, while another witness said he heard two shots. 

IHIT investigators focused their attention on the area around the apartment building with commercial units on the ground floor next to the IGA on Yale Road. 

Officer gathered what evidence they could, questioned potential witnesses but no suspect was located, and the case went cold.

In the mean time, it would appear Christensen – who went by Tyler not Harry, according to a half-sister who contacted me – returned to Edmonton where he was from, and then further north. It had been two years, four months since Christensen killed Cromarty in Chilliwack. He might have thought he got away with the intentional murder. He was apparently off dealing drugs in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, that has a population 3,000 on the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean.

On Feb. 12, 2020, a year and a half after murdering Cromarty, RCMP in Inuvik got a report of an Alberta man breaching release conditions. Police attended a hotel room they were staying, arrested then 28-year-old Christensen and 21-year-old Mariah Sharphead, both of Edmonton. Drug paraphernalia was spotted so Mounties got a search warrant and found three shotguns, ammunition, drugs, digital scales, cellphones, and drug packaging materials in the hotel room.

His arrest in Inuvik and drug and firearms charges actually came as the territory was seeing a spike in crack-cocaine use with reports of dealers quadrupling in one years. Local RCMP for the tiny community had 69 reports of possible drug trafficking in 2019 compared to just 15 in 2015, according to Inuvik RCMP statistics.

Lesa Semmler, MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, was quoted in a CBC story at the time saying that more people in Inuvik were becoming addicted to crack cocaine, and that the traffickers were coming from out of town.  

"It's very scary," Semmler said. "The drug dealers are coming into town, and they're taking advantage of our vulnerable population, and selling from their houses, and keeping them on drugs."

Incidentally, Christensen shared a comment on his Facebook page in September 2020 with a none-too prescient observation of the RCMP's ability to link him to his past crimes: "Fuck the police they ain't got shit on me 100% watch."

Chilliwack cold case

When the case of Cromarty’s murder went cold, it was transferred to IHIT’s cold case unit in March 2021, the unit being a team specializing in challenging homicide investigations.

Police did not provide details but on Nov. 25, 2022, Christensen was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, according to IHIT.

“This case is a testament to the resiliency and commitment of the IHIT members,” Sgt. Timothy Pierotti of IHIT said in a press release in 2022. “Our investigators continue to dedicate themselves to these cases, long after the initial call comes in.”

The case languished in court during the heart of the pandemic and in June 2023 Christensen had a court appearance. The case was put over to a preliminary inquiry for Jan. 25, 2024, which is used for serious criminal cases to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant going to trial.

This reporter has been tracking the case all along. On March 26, 2025, it was on the court list B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack for an intention to enter a guilty plea. I was in the court and at that time, it didn’t happen. There was some sort of mix-up regarding his custody and bringing him to court so the hearing was called off for three months to June 23, 2025. That is what was said in court but after the only member of the media left, something changed, because a clerk at the Chilliwack Law Courts today, July 9, 2025, said Christensen did indeed plead guilty to second-degree murder on March 26, 2025. 

The June 23 date was put over to this week on July 7 at which time a sentencing date was set for Nov. 24, 2025. 

Christensen is remanded and has spent considerable time in pre-trial custody. The sentences for first- and second-degree murder are both life in prison. The difference being that first-degree murder comes with no chance of parole for at least 25 years. For second-degree it is up to a judge to decide between 10 and 25 years before parole eligibility.

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Paul J. Henderson
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