Mother of Kamloops murder victim says ‘mistaken identity’ makes a difference | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
Subscribe

Would you like to subscribe to our newsletter?

Current Conditions Clear  4.8°C

Kamloops News

Mother of Kamloops murder victim says ‘mistaken identity’ makes a difference

Rex Gill was one of two men gunned down outside of Kamloops hotels in two separate shooting incidents last month. He is pictured here with his mother, Marie Nobles, in Dec 2018. Police believe his murder may have been a case of mistaken identity.
Image Credit: Marie Noble

KAMLOOPS — Rex Gill was the type of kid who would pick his mom fresh flowers whenever he was out for a walk.

He always made sure never to pick them from his mom’s garden but any flower that was poking out by a neighbour’s fence was fair game.

“He would tell me I was as pretty as the flowers he gave me,” says his mom Marie Nobles.

Nobles had three boys and Rex was the youngest.

“He was my babe,” she says. “He lived the closest to me.”

Roughly three weeks ago, Nobles found out her son was killed in a targeted shooting outside a Kamloops hotel. The incident occurred roughly two hours after a man was found shot outside the Super 8 motel in Valleyview.

Police linked the two homicides together because they occurred within hours of each other and believed organized crime was behind the two murders.

But this week, the picture became clearer. Kamloops RCMP said Gill’s homicide may have been a case of mistaken identity.

The man killed in the first shooting, Cody Mathieu, was known to police as a participant in the local drug trade however, Gill was not. He doesn't have anything more than traffic violations in B.C.

For Nobles, she says yesterday’s announcement brought her right back to when she found out her son was dead.

Police say Gill, who was from Penticton, was staying with a work crew in Kamloops at the time of his murder outside the Comfort Inn and Suites in Aberdeen.

Kamloops RCMP were called out to the Comfort Inn and Suites at around 8:50 a.m. on Jan. 23 in Aberdeen. A man was transported to the hospital after suffering gunshot wounds. He later died of his injuries.
Kamloops RCMP were called out to the Comfort Inn and Suites at around 8:50 a.m. on Jan. 23 in Aberdeen. A man was transported to the hospital after suffering gunshot wounds. He later died of his injuries.

Nobles says her son had recently been laid off from the oil patch and offered to help a friend who needed an extra person to help with a siding job.

“One of the guys that was supposed to go cancelled out and [Rex] was free so he went to help,” she says. “That was Rex: Somebody needs a hand, he was there.”

Nobles says she is grateful RCMP are finally getting around to clearing her son’s name.

“It was hard to go through his memorial with that hanging over our heads knowing that it was a lie and not being able to do anything about it,” she says. “It was hard for his kids, other kids are mean.”

Nobles says for the most part people have been supportive.

“There’s the odd [person] that whatever the police say well that’s gospel and it doesn’t matter what his family knows or what his friends know,” she says.

Nobles says by speaking out, she hopes to share some insight into the person Gill was directly from the person who raised him.

She wants people to know who her son was, everything from the little boy who loved to bring her flowers to the man who loved his kids more than anything.

Nobles remembers a time right before Gill turned three and it had been raining hard and the creek near their house had swollen and the current was running fast. She noticed Rex was nowhere to be found.

“I lost [Rex]. I looked all around the house and complex where we lived on and I was frantic, especially when I noticed his little fishing rod was not where it was supposed to be,” she says.

Nobles says she started running towards the creek when she heard ‘mommy, I can’t get my hook’ and there was Rex sitting up in a big old tree.

“He had been fishing in a big mud puddle because he knew he wasn’t allowed to cross the street and got his line hook [stuck] in the tree,” she says.

As a teenager, whenever Nobles would drop off Rex at high school, he always made sure to give her a hug and a kiss goodbye. She remembers one time, some of his friends saw him and started to harass him about it.

“He turned to them and said ‘Are you sure your mom and dad are going to be there when you get home?’’’ Nobles recalls.

The next day Nobles says she received a call from one of the boy’s mother thanking her for raising Rex to help others to do the right thing.

“Her son had hugged her and told her he loved her,” she says. "Many times I was told how much of gentlemen my boys were."

Gill had four kids. Nobles says he would do whatever he could to make sure his kids were happy.

“He was an awesome dad,” she says. “He was just a loving, caring person and his kids were number one.”

Since her son's death, Nobles says she feels like she has been living through a nightmare.

"It's like my whole life blew up, the day my son was killed," she says. "I can't wake up from the nightmare."

Although she is thankful police have announced publicly her son's death may have been a case of mistaken identity, she says her journey of healing is far from over.

"Until the guy that killed him goes to jail, it's not over," she says.

Whenever she thinks about her youngest son, there is one thing that comes to mind right away.

"His infectious smile," she says. A poem was read at Gill's funeral about his smile.

"Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu, when someone smiles at me today, I started smiling too," she says. "That poem was Rex."


To contact a reporter for this story, email Karen Edwards or call (250) 819-3723 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.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2019
iNFOnews

  • Popular kelowna News
View Site in: Desktop | Mobile