Grisly northern murder mystery ends with 2 guilty pleas
A grisly murder case involving the dismemberment of a northern B.C. logger and father has ended in two guilty pleas.
Darren Jesse Bird and Wesley Dennis Duncan pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court in Prince George, Wednesday, to the second-degree murder of Fribjon Bjornson, a crime RCMP had called "horrific".
The victim, a 28-year-old father of two, was last seen at a 7-Eleven in Vanderhoof, B.C., in February 2012.
Severed head found in vacant house
Three weeks later, Bjornson's severed head was discovered in an empty house on the Nak'azdli Reserve near Fort St James.
The rest of his body has never been found.
Four years ago, Bjornson's parents issued an appeal for hunters and people in the backcountry to keep an eye out for any signs of their son.
"Please. Help me. Help me find my baby. Bring my son home," said Eileen Bjornson in 2012.
What happened to Bjornson has always been a mystery.
In 2012, Bjornson's parents told CBC their son struggled with a cocaine addiction.
Killers known to police
The truth may finally be revealed when the men who pleaded guilty to Bjornson's murder return to court for sentencing.
Both men are known to police.
Duncan had previous convictions for impaired driving, theft and assault.
Bird had been convicted of possession of stolen property and theft.
Bird was one of three men charged — but later acquitted — after a 2008 gunfight in which 40 shots were fired in broad daylight on a downtown street corner in Prince George.
A man and a woman are still facing charges, including indignity to human remains and accessory after the fact in the Bjornson murder case,
'It haunts me'
"We never let it rest," Bjornson's father, Fred Bjornson, told CBC in 2012.
"There's never been a day with any happiness since. Every day, every morning, you wake up with it. You live with it all day long. It haunts you in the middle of the night. It's constant. It's hard."
