Homicide charges pending for missing 5-year-old and grandparents
By Shara JJ Cooper
Earlier today, the Amber Alert was called off for missing five-year-old Nathan O’Brien and a press conference was announced for noon PST. O’Brien and his grandparents Alvin and Kathryn Liknes have been missing for two weeks.
At the press conference, Calgary Police Service Chief Rick Hanson announced that the missing persons case has been changed to a homicide status and that they have a man in custody.
The man — who Hanson said he cannot name, but is being widely reported as Douglas Garland — is expected to have three murder charges laid against him later today. Two of the pending charges are for murder in the first degree for the murder of Alvin and Kathryn Liknes, and one pending murder in the second degree charge will be laid for O’Brien.
Hanson said they arrested the man at approximately 1:30 a.m. July 14 in the Airdre area near Calgary.
The bodies of the trio have not been discovered but Hanson said the evidence is overwhelming that they are dead.
“The preponderance of evidence is such that has led our investigators to believe that they are dead,” Hanson said at the press conference.
He could not share many details of the case in order to preserve evidence, but he did say that they were confident in that decision.
“This investigation has been painstaking. This file has been built piece by piece by piece by piece,” said Hanson. “This has been the confirmation of an immense investigation.”
At the end of the conference, he offered his sympathy and condolences to O’Brien’s parents and the families involved.
“It’s extremely tragic. It’s devastated them. I think it’s safe to say even as the days went by there’s always a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately with the laying of charges we have taken the hope away from the family.”
Hanson asked everyone with rural properties or businesses around Airdre to inspect their property to help find the missing bodies.
