(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

BC Coroners Service ruled David Creamer's death an accident after he was found in his own bathroom. Three years later, a BC man admitted to shooting him in the head.

Mitchell Earl McIntyre pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Aug. 22, making it the second killing for which he's waiting to be sentenced.

McIntyre, 66, already pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Julia Howe, whom he killed in her Creston home in February 2022.

Police and a coroner at the scene both initially believed she died after a fall in the bathroom, but an autopsy later found a .22 calibre bullet in her head.

On the same day, he drove to Kimberley, 95 minutes away, and killed Creamer, his former friend.

What led to Creamer's killing isn't clear, but it took even longer to determine his death wasn't entirely accidental.

Creamer's adult son found him in the home, where there was no sign of a struggle. Though there was a "small wound" near his ear, his son, a police officer and a coroner all believed it to be an accident, according to a Kamloops court decision last year.

No forensic evidence was taken and Creamer's body was cremated two days later.

A homicide investigation only started a month later when RCMP got access to McIntyre's medical records.

McIntyre had turned himself into the Cranbrook RCMP detachment a day after their deaths, telling police he "needed to be arrested," without explaining why. He said he was unstable and was ultimately taken to the psychiatric ward at East Kootenay Regional Hospital.

Doctors found no clinical signs of mental illness, but he did admit to health-care staff to killing two people.

In his decision last year, Justice Paul Riley said McIntyre only stayed in the hospital to delay legal consequences.

Having pleaded guilty to both killings, McIntyre is expected to return to court in November for his sentencing hearing.

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