Photo: Castanet

Police found the body of Mohd Abdullah in this white cargo van parked on the driveway of a home in Dufferin on March 17, 2022.

A Kamloops lawyer and his elderly friend drove nearly 600 kilometres on highways and backcountry roads in a rented cargo van three years ago, unable to find a spot to dig a hole to bury a storage tote containing the body of a missing Thompson Rivers University professor.

That's what court heard on Wednesday as Butch Bagabuyo’s first-degree murder trial continued at the Kamloops Law Courts. The 57-year-old lawyer is accused of killing his client, Mohd Abdullah, on March 11, 2022.

According to prosecutors, Bagabuyo and Abdullah worked together in 2016 to hide $774,000 from Abdullah’s ex-wife during his separation. Abdullah, who worked as a computer sciences instructor at TRU, was trying to collect that money in the months leading up to his death.

The Crown alleges Bagabuyo killed Abdullah after burning through that money, stabbing him to death inside his second-floor law office in the 300-block of Victoria Street and then enlisting the help of an unknowing elderly friend to help dispose of the evidence.

Abdullah was reported missing after failing to show up to work at TRU on March 14, 2022. His body was discovered three days later inside a large storage tote in the back of a rented cargo van parked in the driveway of Bagabuyo's friend.

Driving 'aimlessly'

On Wednesday, court heard Bagabuyo and his friend Wynand Rautenbach, now 87, put 591 kilometres on a cargo van they rented from Budget on Notre Dame Drive on March 15, 2022.

Rautenbach described Bagabuyo as a close friend and court heard the two men would meet regularly for coffee or tea to discuss politics. He said Bagabuyo was excited and “on edge” when he asked him to rent a van to help him dispose of a bin full of problematic evidence.

"He wasn't Butch," he said.

Rautenbach agreed to help. He told an employee at Budget on Notre Dame Drive the van was needed to move a couch and he rented it in his name.

In court on Wednesday, Rautenbach said he and Bagabuyo drove “aimlessly” in the van over a two-day period. Their route took them through Cache Creek, Logan Lake, Tunkwa Lake, Lac le Jeune and the Highland Valley Copper mine area, as well as the Tk’emlups reserve, Dunn Lake and Barriere — often hitting closed roads or dead ends.

Every time they stopped to dig, he said, they found the ground was frozen or pipeline workers were nearby.

Rautenbach said he recalled Bagabuyo putting something in the garbage at a rest stop near Tobiano.

He did not know the bin in the van contained Abdullah’s body. His grandson phoned police after opening the van and peering into the bin, where he saw a socked foot and a leg in jeans.

He phoned police and Bagabuyo was arrested the following day.

Shovels were his

In addition to the bin, when Mounties searched the cargo van they found two shovels, rope, a steak knife and a roll of tape, as well as a beach towel with the name Bagabuyo written on the tag.

Prosecutors said police also located a number of black garbage bags inside the van, including some with what appear to be arm and neck holes cut into them, and a white one with the word "after" written on it in marker. Some of the garbage bags were partially melted.

Rautenbach said the shovels in the van came from his shed.

He said he suggested they try loading the bin onto a boat and dumping it in a lake, but Bagabuyo wasn't interested. He also told Bagabuyo the van was too much — way bigger than the bin required and a source of unwanted attention.

“It was a draw to my house," he said.

Police on stand

Thursday will be a half day in the Bagabuyo trial ahead of the Easter long weekend. Two Mounties are expected to testify in the morning about surveillance video seized as part of the investigation.

The nine-week trial in front of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker started on Monday. It is slated to run for three weeks in Kamloops before shifting to Vancouver on May 5.

Photo: RCMP

This is the Budget rental van as police found it on the driveway of Wynand Rautenbach's Kamloops home on March 17, 2022.