Family of B.C. man last seen in 1999 hears accused killer describe murder

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Relatives of a B.C. man who was last seen in 1999 have watched a videotaped confession of the accused killer describing how he committed the murder.

They heard 46-year-old William Smith tell an undercover officer that he became angry at his friend for speaking to police about a domestic assault and punched him in the head repeatedly.

Smith says in the hidden-camera confession shown in B.C. Supreme Court that he dragged Sandy Charlie down a flight of stairs and buried his body when he realized the man wasn’t breathing.

The jury has heard Smith became a suspect in about 2006 but was not arrested due to a lack of evidence.

That changed in 2011, when Charlie’s remains were dug up by an excavator outside a house in Lytton, B.C., prompting an undercover investigation the following year.

Smith is charged with manslaughter and interference with a dead body. (CHNL, The Canadian Press)