KSS student Katelin Bevan was killed in a car crash in Kelowna, May 26, 2021.

Image Credit: GOFUNDME/Katelin Bevan Kelowna Memorial Fund

In May of 2021, three Kelowna families were robbed of ever seeing their teenage children grow up.

On the brink of adulthood, and mere days away from high school graduation, Katelin Bevan, Ryan Thomson, and Samara Haverko were killed in a car crash. In the early hours of the morning, at the intersection of Gordon Drive and Cook Road, the 2009 Honda Civic became airborne and sheared in half, killing the three instantly.

A recently released BC Coroners report confirmed that Katelin was behind the wheel, driving at a high rate of speed, and very drunk.

However, this story starts eight months before Katelin died, when an event happened that threw the once happy and outgoing teen into a severe depression and caused her intense anxiety.

It's a story of child luring, not in the traditional sense with candy and strange cars, but of older men luring teenage girls by procurement of alcohol and promises of fun.

A year after Katelin's death, her mother, Carmen Bevan, filed a lawsuit against a 31-year-old man she alleges sexually assaulted her daughter, after lying to Carmen about who he was.

The details are laid out in a Notice of Claim filed at the Kelowna courthouse in August 2022.

The court documents say that in the summer of 2020, when Katelin was 17 years old, she met a then 31-year-old man after her shift working in a fast food restaurant.

Over the next few weeks, the man began texting and messaging Katelin asking to meet up.

She was not comfortable meeting up with him and was concerned about his age, the court documents say.

However, she did later agree to go and see him.

According to the notice of claim, Katelin told her mom she was going to a barbeque at a friend's house. It was Carmen's standard practice that she would call the friends' parents where her children were heading to make sure all was OK.

Katelin gave her mom a number to call.

However, when she called the number, it wasn't Katelin's friend's parents.

"(Carmen) called the phone number that had been provided and spoke with (the man). (He) stated that he was the father of Katelin's friend, that his daughter was having a few friends over for a barbeque, and that he would be there to monitor the children to ensure that they were safe," the court document reads. "(Bevan) explained... that she never let her children attend at a residence where she had not first either met or spoken directly with the parents. (He) confirmed on two separate occasions during the initial conversation that he would monitor the children and that he would keep Katelin safe."

Later that evening Katelin spoke to her mom and asked if she could stay the night. Carmen asked to speak to the parent to confirm all was OK.

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In the court documents, Carmen alleges that the 31-year-old "deliberately misrepresented" himself by then telling her he was the parent and it was fine that Katelin stayed the night.

At 9:30 the following morning, Carmen's husband, Troy Bevan, turned up at the house where his daughter was supposed to be only to find two adult men drinking hard liquor in the living room. They didn't know who Katelin was, or where she might be.

A frantic search took place.

Katelin wasn't answering her phone, and her Snapchat account, which allowed Carmen to track her daughter, was shut down. In a panic, 911 was called.

More than an hour later, Katelin arrived at her parents house in a rideshare.

"Katelin was clearly intoxicated, disturbed, and upset," the Notice of Claim reads.

She went to work and Carmen visited a few hours later, her daughter visibly upset and shaking.

The two went out for dinner when Katelin was done work, and she told her mother what happened.

Katelin said the voice at the end of the phone wasn't her friend's parent, but 31-year-old Aaron Husak.

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She said Husak and his friends had encouraged her to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, including a mixed drink with an unknown white powder in it.

At one point during the night, Katelin said she told him she wanted to go home because she was too drunk but he refused to take her home.

He had rough sexual intercourse with her multiple times during the night, which left bruises all over her arms and legs.

The next morning he made her dance naked and filmed it. He then shared it with his friends.

Katelin told her mother that at some point during the night at a liquor store, she tried to tell staff she was under duress and to call 911. She also faked being able to walk to buy herself some time. It appears neither tactic helped.

The mother and daughter went to Kelowna General Hospital and Katelin had a sexual assault assessment performed.

"Katelin was extremely embarrassed and upset during the hospital visit, and was in significant pain during the assessment," the court document reads.

Several days later, they went to the RCMP.

The BC Prosecution Service confirmed that no charges were laid in this case.  

"The prosecutor reviewed the file materials and concluded that the charge assessment standard was not met. In these circumstances, not laying charges is the appropriate course of action," the BC Prosecution Service told iNFOnews.ca

It's typical procedure for the Crown not to give precise reasons why charges aren't being laid.

Husak denies all the allegations against him.

His lawyer, Greg Allen, told iNFOnews.ca the Notice of Claim contained a number of misstatements, including that a charge was laid when it wasn't.

"Mr. Husak denies all of the allegations... and looks forward to his day in court to clear his name," the lawyer said.

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The court documents say that following the alleged sexual assault, Katelin changed from being a good student with good friends and a solid relationship with her family to having debilitating anxiety attacks and mental health issues which she began to manage with alcohol.

Her anxiety kept her away from high school and she finished her graduating year being schooled at home.

Eight months after the alleged assault and a week before her graduation from Kelowna Secondary School, she died in the car crash.

The community mourned following the crash and an online fundraiser raised $80,000.

Carmen went through significant mental health struggles as a result of what happened to her daughter.

A little more than a year after Katelin's death, Carmen initiated the lawsuit against Husak, alleging fraudulent misrepresentation and causing negligent infliction of mental distress.

The court documents say after the events, Carmen missed work and was unable to sleep. She was prescribed medication to deal with anxiety, depression, and the associated trauma.

"She became fearful and closed off in otherwise normal social situations," the Notice of Claim reads. "Since Katelin's death, all of the losses that arose as a result of the incidents... compounded significantly and (Carmen's) life has been irreversibly damaged."

In March 2023, for complex legal reasons, Carmen's case against Husak for fraudulent misrepresentation was rejected by the BC Supreme Court.

However, on Sept. 12, a panel of three judges at the BC Court of Appeal overruled the lower court's decision, allowing the court case to move forward.

"Canadian negligence law now clearly recognizes the existence of a common law duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing foreseeable mental injury to sufficiently proximate others," Justice Gail Dickson said in the decision.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

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