No justice: Family, friends ‘know’ who killed Deano Paus yet killer was never charged
A murder victim’s dying mother reached out for answers to son's death 11 months before her own
(I sat down with Bev Paus in her apartment in 2015 to talk about the murder of her son Deano five years prior. She was dying of cancer. Bev told me she hoped my story would serve as a final public plea for someone to step forward with evidence to charge the man presumed to be the killer. I didn’t name that convicted murderer at the time out of an abundance of journalistic caution. I will here: Aaron Douglas. Deano lived in his apartment at one time, even dated his ex-girlfriend, and Douglas was released from prison two days before Deano went missing. Three years after Deano died, Douglas shot three people in a Chilliwack apartment killing two of them. This is an edited version of the story that appeared in the March 19, 2015 edition of the Chilliwack Times. Bev died on Feb. 3, 2016. – PJH, July 31, 2025)
Five years after Deano Paus went missing, and four years after his body was found, his mother wants answers although she knows there is no such thing as closure.
“That wouldn’t matter, that wouldn’t help,” Bev Paus said during an interview in her small Chilliwack apartment.
The murder of her only son weighs on her terribly.
“I still talk to my son and cry a lot. I’ve talked to other mothers who’ve lost and they all say the same thing: there is no closure, you never get over it, you take it to your grave.”
But that doesn’t mean Bev and Deano’s only sibling, sister Loreal, don’t want to see an arrest, particularly because they and most in the underground drug world are certain who is responsible. Back in 2011, a year after Deano went missing and presumed murdered, all signs pointed to a particular local drug dealer: Douglas.
Now, in 2015, they are more certain than ever who did it.
A killing over a woman?
Aaron Douglas, who most people think directly or indirectly was involved in the murder of Deano Paus, was in jail in early 2010.
Deano and he had been friends at one time. He was even living in the dealer’s apartment and then he started to date his ex-girlfriend. Deano’s roommate, who possibly considered herself to be his girlfriend didn’t take that particular relationship well, according to Bev.
“The manager of the apartment block told me there was a fight one night between Deano and [her],” Bev said. “She was very angry and screaming.
“What I think happened is [she] got word to [the drug dealer] who Deano was dating.”
The dealer got out of jail on March 15, 2010. Deano went missing March 17.
Loreal said Deano had a metal bar on the inside of his front door so the door couldn’t be kicked in. He also had a lock on his bedroom door. The family thinks whoever got to him was a friendly voice because the front door of the apartment wasn’t damaged while his bedroom door was smashed in.
“Deano wouldn’t have let anybody in that he didn’t think was his friend,” Bev said.
The case was declared a murder nearly immediately, but the 40-year-old’s body wasn’t found until 11 months later, in February 2011, by a hiker in the woods between Agassiz and Hope.
If it’s so obvious who killed Deano, why has no one been arrested?
“They’ve told me so many times they got a lot of evidence off the body and a lot of tips and still nothing,” Bev said. “I don’t know if they are just trying to make me feel better or what.”
Mounties will say little about the case. Sgt. Stephanie Ashton of the RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) told the Times in 2015 only that the matter was still under investigation by IHIT.
“No one has been charged at this point,” Ashton said via email, adding that perhaps a story might lead witnesses to come forward with new information.
When the case first came to public attention, Paus was described as “known to police,” a term usually used for someone with a criminal record.
But Deano’s sister Loreal says her brother was a hard worker, loved by a great many friends. He was a comedian, a softball player, an uncle and much more. He worked at lumber mills in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, but he also struggled with addictions and clearly got involved with the wrong crowd.
He was in and out of rehab and went to jail himself, which he told his mother was the best thing that happened to him.
“It cleaned him up,” she said. “He was doing so well.”
Bev and her only son were exceptionally close, and she was glad about one interaction the two of them had in March of 2010.
“I was fortunate to be able to tell him about a week before he went missing that he is the best son I could ever have. I was so glad I got to say that.”
Bev herself knew she was likely not long for this world. She had stage-four colon cancer that had spread to her liver.
“I hope something about Deano’s death comes out of this, but I may not live to see it,” she said. “About six months ago I was given two years to live. I think I’m going to last a little longer. I’m not done yet.”
Bev Paus died on Feb. 3, 2016
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Paul J. Henderson
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