The long, confusing dirt driveway near Sagmoen's home.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

The couple clearly looked out of place, a black couple wandering around on a dirt road in the predominantly white rural North Okanagan farming community of Silver Creek.

But regardless of the colour of their skin, another thing that stuck out about them was the woman was hardly wearing any clothes. She also had a huge belly button ring.

Presumed to be a sex worker and her pimp, the couple made excuses, they were looking at how to get to Salmon Arm before they left, although the woman was somewhat reluctant to leave.

A Salmon River Road resident told iNFOnews.ca the story about the couple who appeared on the long dirt driveway about a week or so ago.

The neighbour, who doesn't want to be named, also lives near Curtis Sagmoen, a man with a history of violence towards sex workers.

READ MORE: 'It made my stomach turn:' Escort recalls visit to Silver Creek property

On April 11, Vernon North Okanagan RCMP took the unusual move of issuing a statement warning sex workers to avoid the Salmon River Road area where Sagmoen currently lives at his parents' property.

It would appear the RCMP statement is a direct result of the couple who'd shown up near Sagmoen's property a week or so before. The neighbour said the RCMP was called.

Sagmoen has a history of calling sex workers to his remote rural North Okanagan home. In fact, giving his neighbour's address and allowing sex workers to wander the long dirt driveway confused as to where they were supposed to be going, has all the hallmarks of his behaviour.

During court hearings, it was often heard that sex workers weren't quite sure which address they were supposed to be heading to.

Sagmoen would give them purposely vague and confusing details on where they were supposed to go.

Curtis Sagmoen leaves the Vernon court house Sept. 9, 2019.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

It was also heard in court, that Sagmoen couldn't afford their services, and it appeared he got his kicks by scaring them.

In one case, he jumped out of the bushes and pointed a gun at a sex worker. She fled, scared for her life.

In another case, he used a homemade spike belt to bring a car to a halt. In another, he drove an ATV into a sex worker.

He has been convicted on all three of those cases but following more than two years in prison waiting for trial, Sagmoen was released in December 2019 under strict conditions, including that he had no contact with sex workers.

READ MORE: 'I feel like we're being terrorized:' Curtis Sagmoen's neighbour says

Then in the fall of 2020, police issued a warning telling sex workers to stay away from the rural area where Sagmoen lived.

A neighbour told iNFOnews.ca they'd met sex workers in the area. Again the sex workers were confused about exactly where they were supposed to be but reluctant to leave without the $1,500 they were owed.

While police were clearly aware sex workers had been in the area, Sagmoen was never charged with breaching his probation.

Around the same time, Sagmoen's property was searched and he was charged with assaulting a police officer during the search. That matter is next in court in May.

Sagmoen's neighbour said all had been quiet up until a couple of weeks ago when things started to change.

Vernon RCMP confirmed a nearby property had been broken into, March 27, and several thousand dollars worth of tools had been stolen. Police say no suspects have been identified in the theft and the incident remains under investigation.

The incidents don't sit well with the neighbour.

"Nobody around here wants (Sagmoen) around here," they told iNFOnews.ca "There's a sense of (an) uneasy feeling... people are waiting on bated breath."

The neighbour is clearly angry and upset that sex trade workers are still showing up in the area.

"It just shows that Curtis is not changing," they said.

The incident came about almost five years since the body of 18-year-old Traci Genereaux was found following an extensive search of the property by RCMP investigators.

No one has yet been charged in relation to Genereaux's death and police have not said how she died.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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