First-degree murder charges laid decade after B.C. man’s body found

Tura Stephen McCarty, 22, was found deceased in West Kelowna in January of 2016. (Image credit: RCMP)

More than 10 years after a young man was found dead in his vehicle on a rural B.C. road, two people have been charged with first-degree murder.

Tura Stephen McCarty, 22, was found deceased behind the wheel of his Jeep Cherokee on Bear Creek Road in West Kelowna on Jan. 16, 2016, the RCMP’s Southeast District Major Crime Unit said in a statement Monday.

Two suspects were arrested Friday, police said. The next day, Crown approved first-degree murder charges against 33-year-old Heather Dawn White of Kamloops and 60-year-old Cal Douglas Little of Abbotsford.

“Investigators believe that McCarty was targeted and that his murder was an isolated incident,” the statement from Mounties said.

No information was provided about how McCurty was allegedly killed or what relationship—if any—he had with either of the accused.

“The securing of charge approval was the culmination of more than a decade of tireless efforts,” the RCMP’s statement said, before thanking all agencies involved in the investigation.

White and Little are in custody and next due in court on May 14.