Kamloops RCMP were called to the 9000 block of Dallas Drive Feb. 11, 2017.

(KIM ANDERSON / iNFOnews.ca)

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KAMLOOPS - What started off as a celebratory evening for a couple staying the night in Kamloops "turned really dark really fast” when they were interrupted for an emergency, found a beaten and bleeding body and simultaneously helped subdue — and calm — the man they presumed killed him.

Four members of the party, including three family members, described to a judge and jury in Stephen George Fraser's second degree murder trial in Kamloops Supreme Court yesterday the day and night of Feb. 11, 2017 unfolded. 

Louise and Jeffrey Nielson Sr., now both 56, were celebrating their 35th anniversary and Louise’s birthday at the Kamloops RV Park on Dallas Drive, the same night and location Fraser is accused of killing Cody Foster, 26. He faces a charge of second degree murder.

The couple were travelling in an RV from Alberta and were staying in Kamloops to visit friends in the Barnhartvale neighbourhood. However, those plans changed suddenly and they decided to stay the night in the Kamloops RV Park and celebrate regardless, Louise said in her witness testimony yesterday, Nov. 29.

They invited their son Jeffrey Nielson Jr., 35, and his then girlfriend, Kaitlyn Marbeiter, 27, to join them. They were living in Falkland at the time.

Louise said her son and his girlfriend arrived at their trailer at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The two couples celebrated the evening with a few drinks and music, when they heard a loud knock on the side of their RV.

“Just before (we heard) the banging on the trailer we were heaving a great time,” said Jeffrey Sr., who had worked in the past as an auxiliary RCMP officer.

Around 9:30 p.m., Jeffrey Sr. said they heard an unexpected loud knock.

“We thought somebody is here to complain about the music,” Louise said, adding that her husband directed her to go shut it off while he answered the back door.

“I remember seeing a gentleman a little dishevelled and he had a little bit of blood on him,” Jeffrey Sr. said in his witness testimony.

The man standing at the door, who he identified in the courtroom as Stephen Fraser, told him that he needed an ambulance because he had been stabbed.

“He repeated this about two or three times,” Jeffrey Sr. said. He immediately went to his phone to call 911.

By this time, his son and his girlfriend had huddled by the door to see what was going on.

While Jeff Sr. was on the phone with 911, Jeffrey Jr. said the accused told him “his buddy was hurt.”

The accused led Jeffrey Jr. a short distance away to another trailer.

“I remember he stayed outside (of the trailer) which was kind of confusing,” Jeffrey Jr. said, adding that if he led him here to help someone he wasn’t sure why wouldn’t take him directly to the person needing attention.

“When I opened the door I saw the victim there,” he said, adding that the trailer was a complete mess.

The situation went from trying to help someone to something completely different, Jeffrey said in his testimony.

“I panicked… I came out of the trailer and started screaming immediately,” Jeffrey Jr. said, adding he demanded the accused to get down on the ground.

“I restrained the accused until the police arrived,” he said, adding that he put a knee in the accused’s back and neck to hold him down.

Jeffrey Sr. and Louise who were still near their RV heard their son’s screams.

“I heard a blood-curdling scream, and I knew it was my son,” Jeffrey Sr. said adding he started running.

“My son had (the accused) on the ground and was crying and was very upset,” he said.

Jeffrey Sr. said he heard his son say, “how could you fucking do that, you fucking killed him” and told his dad to go into the trailer.

“Dad go in there, he’s dead,” Jeff Sr. quoted his son in his testimony. “That’s when I saw the body, it looked like he had been in a fight just from the position of the body.”

Jeffrey Sr. who was also a former paramedic, said he checked to see if he was still alive by pushing his fist into the deceased’s knee but there was no response.

When he came outside of the trailer, Jeffrey Sr. saw his wife was on the ground with the accused.

“My wife was on the ground trying to calm (the accused) down,’’ Jeffrey Sr. said.

Louise said her brain went into “mom-mode”.

She said the accused was frightened and kept saying Jeffrey Jr., who still had him restrained, was going to hurt him.

“I grabbed (the accused’s) hand and told him my name, I said this is my son J.J. and the police are on their way and everything is going to be O.K,” she said.

Louise said the accused was muttering chaotic things ranging from the Independent Soldiers —a gang in British Columbia — and mentioned that he was supposed to go fishing the next day.

“I thought (the accused) was schizophrenic or was on drugs,” she said.

The jury trial heard the cell phone recording Marbeiter took of the incident where the accused was being restrained by Jeffrey Jr. while Louise was trying to calm him down.

When Crown prosecutor Camille Cook played the recording, a man’s voice can be heard saying, “I bonked him, I thought I was a dead man… I felt threatened… I thought I was going to die.”

Marbeiter identified this man’s voice as Stephen Fraser.

More witnesses are expected to testify for Fraser’s second-degree murder trial today, Nov. 29.

The trial is expected to conclude by next week, according to the Crown.

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