There is an update in the Cole Hosack murder investigation. CJDC TV News has learned one of the three suspects in the case, has left Canada and is living in the United States.
CJDC TV News is not naming the person or the state that he is currently living in because he has not been charged in connection to the investigation.
The North District Major Crime Unit says there is no connection between the death of Hosack and the Rob Girbav murder investigation.
There has been speculation on social media that the two cases were linked. Girbav was killed on December 31, 2023, in Dawson Creek. Hosack is believed to have been murdered just hours later.
After a more than two-year investigation lead by the Major Crime Unit out of Prince George, three first degree murder charges were laid last week, in connection to the death of Girbav.
‘Those two investigations, we don’t have any evidence to support that there is any connection. While I can’t comment on anything directly on any Major Crime or General Investigation file, I have cleared with the (NDMCU) Commander, that that information is appropriate to release, and that there is absolutely no evidentiary connection between those two files," said Staff Sergeant Rob Hughes of the Dawson Creek RCMP.
Hosack stopped in Dawson Creek on New Year’s on his way to Medicine Hat to start a new job.
According to sources, he and three other people went to the Lone Star that night. It is believed words were exchanged with three men who approached Cole while he was playing pool.
Cole went outside to have a cigarette when he was confronted. A fight ensued and Cole ran across Alaska Avenue to escape.
Three men were reported to have chased him across the Alaska Avenue. A source told CJDC TV News that the same three men were spotted on security camera footage.
A source also told CJDC, that Cole was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street before heading down the alley beside the TD Bank.
The North District Major Crime Unit also said that Hosack’s death is not connected to on-going drug turf war. Over the past 4 and half years, 10 people have been murdered in the Peace Region.
Last January, CJDC reported that the RCMP had made an arrest in the case after three suspects were under police surveillance.
One of the men was questioned and then released without being charged. Then in November, CBC’s Fifth Estate reported that the person arrested was Matt Lawton.
Starting next Wednesday, CJDC Reporter Noah Abel will be presenting a 3-part series that looks at the gang drug turf war, that has gripped the Peace Region since 2021.