A man originally from Timmins has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the killing of a woman in B.C., in a tragic case with ties to Sudbury.
Ryan Jack Armstrong, 29, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the killing of Vikki Heppner in 2016 and to improperly or indecently offering an indignity to human remains reports The Abbotsford News. Heppner's body was burned and her corpse dumped on a road in Mission, B.C. in March 29, 2016.
Heppner has ties to Northern Ontario.
Heppner was reportedly under investigation at the time by RCMP in Fort McMurray after more than $24,000 raised in a gofundme.com campaign went missing. Heppner reportedly created the fund after a friend, Roger Belanger of Sudbury, was killed in a tragic accident in July 2015.
The money was supposed to help Belanger's widow and her two young sons, but when the family tried to have the funds transferred to their control, they discovered the account had been drained.
Heppner’s mom, Anna Carlson of Clifton, Illinois, has created a Facebook page in her daughter’s memory. She wrote on her Facebook page that Heppner was pressured by someone else to take the money out of the account, and then left the province.
“She left because she was scared. I told her that she should turn herself in, but she was scared…. She tried to pay the money back. Even one of her friends was willing to sell his semi to help her pay it back,” Carlson wrote on her Facebook page, according to the Abbotsford News, which notes it is unclear if the GoFundMe controversy is related to Heppner's death.
A sentencing hearing is expected to take place in February.
— Sudbury.com
