Homicide unreported & unresolved: Some Hope community members shocked a young man’s alleged murderer still walking around town
Clayton Coutts was shot and killed almost two years ago in a violent incident that’s gone unreported in media
*Updated: Story edited to add IHIT's response on the status of the case on July 23, 2025, two days after this was first published - PJH
If you don’t live in Hope, why have you never heard about the violent murder of 28-year-old Clayton Coutts on August 20, 2023?
That’s not a rhetorical question. I don’t know why the local newspaper in Hope or Chilliwack or Agassiz or broadcast media from the city didn’t pick up on this homicide to report the victim’s name, the circumstances, the outpouring of community grief and outrage, or at least to follow up on a slightly misleading IHIT statement from the day of the killing.
Coutts was allegedly lured out of a trailer where he was living in the 59400-block of St. Elmo Rd. in Hope before 3 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2023, and killed with a blast of a shotgun. More than one person has reported that Coutts was then run over with a vehicle as the killer or killers fled the scene in a vehicle.
Incidentally, police only ever give vague addresses by way of locations, but 59440 St. Elmo Rd. is the Whistle Stop RV/Tent Park and is the only property in the 59400-block of St. Elmo Rd.
The only official word since the killing came in the form of a boiler-plate news release issued by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) at 10:32 p.m. the day of the murder that said an arrest was made. The only media coverage of the incident was a word-for-word reprint of that release.
“A suspect, who was identified at the onset of the investigation, has now been located and arrested,” IHIT said. “As such, Investigators believe there is no ongoing risk to the public.”
IHIT was deployed and worked with the local police, the BC Coroners Service, and the RCMP’s forensics team.
“We’re asking anyone with information about this incident to please contact IHIT immediately,” Sgt. Timothy Pierotti of IHIT is quoted as saying in August 2023.
That was 23 months ago. To the uninitiated reading this IHIT statement, one would be forgiven for thinking the case was wrapped up. A suspect was identified and arrested so, case closed?
The case is not closed and arrested doesn’t mean charged let alone convicted. Several people have been discussing the case in Hope community Facebook groups with varying degrees of accuracy of information, but also some dismay that two people who many people claim to “know” committed the crime are not in custody and are still living in the community.
“Are ___ and ___ free and walking around town?” asked an anonymous person in one group five months ago. “There is never any information on this case.”
At one point there was a mini-campaign to boycott a certain shop in Hope because they had apparently hired the alleged suspect in the Coutts homicide, but the shop owner quickly dismissed the man for which he was thanked.
“Our team had no idea he was a suspect in an ongoing case,” the shop’s owner posted on Facebook, adding that he “took action immediately.”
There has been much outpouring of support and grief and honouring Clayton Coutts from friends and family members, including on a page dedicated to his memory.
Because I wasn’t paying close attention to the goings-on in the Eastern Fraser Valley from June 2023 until fall 2024, I myself hadn’t heard of the case at all. I wasn’t reporting, which is why I didn’t report on it.
However, because I’m compiling information for a large project on every homicide in the Chilliwack area over the last two decades, now I’m paying very close attention to homicides. And on May 15, 2025, a community member asked me about two people he identified by name who he said “killed a guy around the weigh scales close to Hope.” (St. Elmo Road is right next to Highway 1 and the westbound Commercial Vehicle Enforcement and Safety inspection station is a couple hundred metres from the location of the homicide.)
The two were, according to this resident, arrested by the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) – often mistakenly referred to as a “SWAT” team – but they are both still in Hope “walking around free.”
An email to the new IHIT media spokesperson regarding the case about whether it was resolved, gone cold, or was ongoing, was responded to quickly.
“The investigation is ongoing,” IHIT’s new media spokesperson Sgt. Freda Fong told me on May 16, 2025. “Anyone with information about this case who hasn’t already talked to IHIT is still welcome to talk to us. It is not a closed case.”
I followed up with IHIT this week and on Tuesday received confirmation of Sgt. Fong's statement.
“At this stage, as charges have not been laid, I am unable to provide you with any additional information,” Cpl. Sukhi Dhesi said via email. “IHIT continues to ask that anyone with information to come forward and speak to investigators through the IHIT information line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or by email at ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.”
Homicide investigations are complicated at the best of times. Witnesses can be reluctant or downright terrified to come forward. It’s not easy building a rock-solid case to present to Crown counsel to approve charges they think will have a substantial likelihood of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.
Twenty-three months seems like a long time but it’s possible a charge is around the corner, something neither IHIT nor public prosecutors would announce before it happens.
Tyler Christensen, for example, murdered Kyle Cromarty in Chilliwack on Oct. 4, 2018 and wasn’t arrested until Nov. 25, 2022, more than four years later.
Former Chilliwack resident Evelyn Fisher was murdered in a Florida trailer park in 1980 and wasn’t solved for 42 years when a charge was laid in 2022.
Justice is imperfect in many ways and it is almost never swift.
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Paul J. Henderson
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