FOERSTER TRIAL: “I’ve made some mistakes”

"HAS IT BEEN HAUNTING YOU SINCE THAT DAY?"

VERNON – Two years ago in a small interrogation room, Matthew Foerster confessed to police he felt bad for killing Taylor Van Diest.

Parts of his seven-and-a-half hour police interview were shown in Kelowna Supreme Court Thursday and Friday, and more will be played next week.

Foerster, 28, is for the most part uncommunicative in the video, sobbing and sniffling while two RCMP investigators take turns coaxing information out of him.

Sgt. Mark Davidson, who took the witness stand while the video played, eventually asks Foerster: “Tell me this, do you feel bad for killing Taylor?”

An almost inaudible ‘yes’ comes from Foerster.

Davidson presses on: “Has it been haunting you since that day?”

Nothing is heard in response from Foerster, but Davidson says, “yeah, I know man.”

Asked if he tortured Van Diest, Foerster says no. Did he do it for death? No. For sex?

“I don’t know what to say,” Foerster says.

Sitting in the courtroom, Foerster is dressed in dress pants and a collared shirt. He’s lost weight since the video was filmed in April, 2012. A monitor sits just in front of him, replaying the scene. He stares blankly ahead, expressionless.

Davidson asks if Foerster was drinking or smoking weed that night. Both, Foerster says. At one point, Foerster says, “I’ve made some mistakes.”

“What was in your mind when you went to the railroad tracks, what were you thinking?” Davidson asks.

“It’s hard to say,” Foerster replies.

During the questioning, a taped phone call from Foerster’s sister is played to him. In it, she tells him “just be honest and do the right thing.”

Davidson tells Foerster he’s not a bad person, even though he’s done wrong.

In the prosecution's opening address Iain Currie told jurors Foerster is asked in this video: “You told me you went for sex and if she hadn’t fought you, you wouldn’t have killed her… is that truthful?” And Foerster replies: "Yes."

That section of the video is expected to be heard next week. 

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

LINKS:

FOERSTER TRIAL: Tearful testimony from Van Diest's friend – Infotel News