B.C. man who confessed to 2 killings not arrested until a month later, court documents show

A B.C. man who told hospital staff he had killed two people and wanted to harm others wasn't arrested and charged until more than a month after he first confessed, court documents show.

Mitchell McIntyre was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Julia Howe in Creston, B.C., on Feb. 6, 2022. Howe was shot in the head.

Pre-trial court documents show the day after Howe's death, McIntyre went to the RCMP detachment in Creston to tell police they needed to detain him.

After being committed to hospital multiple times over the course of the following month, he would confess again — this time to killing Howe and another person, who he called David Creamly.

Police arrested McIntyre on March 16, 2022, in Howe's death, by which point a man called David Creamer had been cremated and all of his possessions removed from his Kimberley, B.C., house — after officials ruled his death had been an accident and he had fallen and hit his head.

Creamer died on Feb. 6, 2022, the same day Howe was shot in the head.

The tangled web of a case, which is seeing a trial by judge alone this week, chronicles how police eventually charged McIntyre in one of the two deaths.

'I will harm myself and possibly others'

A B.C. Supreme Court decision by Justice Paul Riley lays out what happened in the case.

Riley was ruling as part of pre-trial proceedings called a voir dire, in which the judge hears from both prosecutors and the defence about which evidence can be considered admissible at trial.

On Feb. 7, 2022, the day after Howe and Creamer's deaths, McIntyre arrived at the Cranbrook RCMP detachment saying that he wanted to be arrested and locked up, according to the court decision.

Officers said they could not arrest McIntyre without a reason to do so and spoke to him over multiple hours as he requested a lawyer and to be detained.

An RCMP corporal who was on shift at the time told McIntyre that he seemed like "a good guy" and they wanted to help him.

"Mr. McIntyre responded that he was not a good guy. He needed to be arrested and locked up," the court documents read.

It recounts that McIntyre also told police, "You need to detain me because I will harm myself and possibly others." He was eventually taken to East Kootenay Regional Hospital in Cranbrook under the Mental Health Act.

The court decision says the death of Howe, who was found in a pool of blood on her bathroom floor, was initially not considered suspicious.

It was only two days later, after an autopsy was conducted, that an examining doctor found a bullet in her head and police began investigating the death of the woman who court heard was a neighbour of McIntyre's.

Confessions to doctors

Over the course of a month, McIntyre found himself in and out of the mental health unit of East Kootenay Regional Hospital, the court decision states. All the while, it says, he told doctors of his violent thoughts — and he would then confess to the killings of Howe and another man.

On Feb. 12, 2022, a psychiatrist recorded McIntyre saying he had shot Howe, shot his former friend "David Creamly," who had betrayed him in the past, and had turned himself in to the police.

But doctors were unsure about whether to treat McIntyre's confessions as based in reality, especially as he also spoke of hearing voices in his head, the court documents read.

"Mr. McIntyre was still under the 'delusional belief' that he killed his neighbour [Howe] and his friend," according to doctor's notes on Feb. 13 that were recounted in the court documents.

"When informed that there had been no report of a murder in Kimberley, Mr. McIntyre responded with apparent shock or perplexity."

'As serious as it might get'

RCMP was in intermittent contact with the doctors treating McIntyre as they investigated Howe's death, according to the court order, and eventually, they applied to look at McIntyre's medical records. 

All the while, he was interviewed by at least three doctors, with one recounting that McIntyre told them he was "quite sure" he had "murdered that woman."

On Feb. 18, one of McIntyre's psychiatrists said he was not willing to discharge him and that he should spend time in a forensic psychiatric unit, according to the court decision.

"In terms of his potential safety risk to others, he is as serious as it might get," the doctor is quoted in the decision telling a police officer.

"He is claiming that he has murdered two people, and there is this list of potential people that he is thinking of possibly murdering."

It took until March 8 for police to comb through the medical records and realize McIntyre had confessed to Creamer's death.

The court decision recounts how police were frustrated with doctors for not providing information about Creamer's death sooner.

The judge wrote that the doctors were "trying to respect the limits of patient confidentiality and to exercise independent decision-making regarding Mr. McIntyre's medical treatment in an unusual situation."

During the voir dire proceedings, McIntyre's defence lawyers said prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that his hospital confessions were made freely and voluntarily.

Ultimately, Riley decided to include all of McIntyre's admissions to police and his hospital statements until Feb. 18, 2022, as evidence.

'The story wasn't really making sense,' Creamer's daughter says

Creamer's daughter, Taylor Creamer, told CBC News that investigators never took her father's death seriously.

She said her dad was found on Feb. 6 on his couch, without his phone, which should have been a sign for them to investigate further.

"The story wasn't really making sense ... like, him being on the couch, but yet he had fallen and hit his head," she said.

"How are you guys not putting two and two together? Why are you guys not doing your job investigating these things? How often are these things even happening that you would just overlook it?" she added.

Taylor Creamer says she now wants to push for answers over her father's death and the delays in investigating it.

CBC News contacted RCMP to find out whether they were considering charges in David Creamer's death and for their response to his daughter's allegations.

A spokesperson subsequently confirmed no charges were being considered in connection with Creamer's death.

"[Officers] went above and beyond to progress the investigation," the spokesperson said, adding that factors outside their control meant no charges were able to be laid.

McIntyre's trial is scheduled to run until Nov. 22.