FILE PHOTO.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Crown prosecutors allege that Peter Michael Visintainer murdered 79-year-old Wolf-Ingo Rudolf Beyer when Beyer discovered Visintainer at his rural property deep in the hills off Westside Road.

Today, Aug. 5, Visintainer, 63, appeared at the Vernon courthouse on the first day of his month-long trial for first-degree murder.

The court heard how Beyer was stabbed in the chest three times and hit on the head with a hammer before mushroom pickers, who were camping nearby, discovered his body on a rural backroad on the Okanagan Indian Band.

The precise details of what took place in May 2022 have not yet been heard in court, but Crown prosecutor Margaret Cissell said the Crown's theory is that Beyer found Visintainer at his rural Six Mile Creek property shortly before he was killed.

The witness who discovered Beyer's body had set up camp in the hills to pick wild mushrooms and was driving back into town to pick up supplies when the vehicle they were driving was hit by a unique white Chevy flatbed truck. The truck was owned by Beyer but was alleged to have been driven by Visintainer.

Visintainer took off in the truck, and the mushroom pickers then noticed a body in the ditch, covered in rubber mats.

Beyer's legs were bound, and he had abrasions over his body.

Over the next 24 hours, the unique truck was captured on video surveillance at multiple locations ranging from West Kelowna to Grinrod.

A good friend of Beyer noticed the truck in Vernon the next day and called 911. Visintainer was arrested outside Walmart soon afterwards. He has remained in custody since.

The trial is scheduled to last until the end of the month, although it will continue on as a medical report for Visintainer won't be ready until the end of September.

The Crown said it will call nine civilian witnesses, 13 police officers and three experts including a toxicologist and a forensic pathologist.

No details about Visintainer's life were given, but court records show he has early convictions in BC for mischief, drunk driving and uttering threats in Vernon and Kelowna around 15 years ago. In 2011, he spent a month in jail for domestic violence.

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