‘Beside the bed there was one male victim laying on the ground … with his hands bound behind his back’
When firefighter Tyrell Jones entered the scene of a burned out Calgary home he immediately labeled it a “horror house.”
And that was before his colleague made the grisly discovery of a deceased and bound victim in the second-floor master bedroom of the southeast residence, court heard Tuesday.
Jones told Crown prosecutor Rebecca Ross he used the term for what firefighters usually reserve for homes overcrowded with items which can create a safety hazard because of what he found inside.
“I believe I reported it as a horror house,” Jones told the first-degree murder trial of three accused charged in the Feb. 13, 2022, death of Douglasdale resident Chad Kowalchuk.
“There was stuff inside that everybody had to be aware of.”
Along with scaffolding in the living room, Jones noticed a jerry can and two propane tanks in plain view.
“There was a couple of propane tanks sitting on the landing (heading to the upper level). That was a little bit of a cause for alarm,” he said.
“We applied water to them to cool them down … It’s a risk of explosion. Not to mention that it’s odd they were inside the house, it’s not very common.”
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Pawel Milczarek, Jones acknowledged “horror house” wasn’t the correct fire department terminology, but it jumped to his mind because of what he saw.
“When you see something that’s atypical it kind of raises a red flag,” he said.
Charged in connection with the death of Kowalchuk, 53, are Justin Boucher, Ronald Abraham and Robert Sims.
Emergency services were called to the home on Douglas Ridge Green S.E. in the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 2022, more than four days after the Crown believes Kowalchuk was tied up, beaten to death and had his safe containing his drug supply stolen.
Because of the severity of the blaze, which fire investigator Travis Thiessen concluded was intentionally set, firefighters weren’t able to access the upper level because the stairs had been burned away.
Lt. Scott Kroeker testified that as a result they decided to attack the fire on the upstairs level from outside.
Bedroom windows were broken and the back of the residence and fire hoses used to spray water into the upper level, he said.
Kroeker then climbed a ladder to get closer to the source.
While the area was quite smokey, he was able to see inside once he had sprayed the area with water where he spotted a bed in the master bedroom.
“Beside the bed there was one male victim laying on the ground … with his hands bound behind his back,” Kroeker said.
Ross asked what position he was in.
“On his stomach, face down,” the witness replied.
Kroeker said he wasn’t certain what was used to tie the victim up.
“From my vantage point it seemed to me maybe duct tape or rope, it was kind of hard to tell, they were in the small of his back.”
