Who killed Dean Coulter?

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This article was published 10/12/2017 (3069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Liz Hayward another Christmas means another chance to do what she loves most, and spend time with family, friends and the people she loves.

Hayward also has no doubt the holidays will once again be a difficult time, because it will be another Christmas that she won’t get to spend with her son Dean.

“I find each Christmas just seems to get harder, and the last three or four years in particular,” 77-year old Hayward said over the phone from her home in the southwestern Manitoba town of Virden.

“Like it just seems like everything is just starting to weigh down on you more and more over time.”

Winter is setting in throughout rural Manitoba, and for Liz the cold days and dark nights are a reminder of a warm and sunny summer morning nine years ago, when her son Dean Coulter stood outside of his rural Manitoba home and was shot dead.

“The feelings have come back again with the holidays and the cold weather,” Liz said. “I have one piece of the family that’s always missing, and that’s what’s so difficult.”

Now, almost a decade after her son’s death, Liz suffers with the questions, because she and so many others have been stuck wondering why anyone would want to kill Dean, a man she said was easy-going, funny and good to everyone he knew and everyone he met.

“I’ve asked myself over and over so many times, why would anyone hate Dean to this extent where they would want to take his life?” she said.

June 30, 2008, the day 44-year-old Dean Coulter was killed, started with the sun shining and Dean taking an early morning horseback ride with his wife, Wendy, by their home in the RM of Pipestone.

A picture taken that morning shows Dean sitting on his horse just hours before his life would be taken.

Later that morning Dean and his wife returned from their ride to their home.

Dean decided he would take his ATV out and give it a wash in the yard. As Dean stood outside cleaning his quad, he was shot dead.

‘The feelings have come back again with the holidays and the cold weather. I have one piece of the family that’s always missing, and that’s what’s so difficult’– Liz Hayward

Police said it was Dean’s wife who found his body outside their home around 10:15 a.m. They said she called police soon after she found Dean.

RCMP say almost a decade later investigators are still working to figure out who killed Dean that summer morning, and why.

Dean’s younger brother, Dallas Coulter, who also lives in Pipestone, said for many years after Dean’s death there has been shock and sadness, he also said he, his mom and others in his family have for a very long time had their own suspicions about who killed Dean, and a belief that his killing was no random act.

According to Dallas, since the murder, one of the firearms that was normally housed in a gun case in Dean and Wendy’s home and was registered to Dean has been missing, and he does not know if it has ever been found by investigators.

“They were up here again this summer searching for stuff,” Dallas said.

Dallas said he has always believed the case will move forward if officers find that missing gun, because he believes it is the gun that was used to shoot his brother.

In an email, the case’s lead investigator, Cpl. Mike Pleskacz, of the RCMP Historical Case Unit said RCMP are still actively working on the case

“It is considered a historical homicide due to the length of time since it occurred. However, it is not considered cold,” Pleskacz said. “Police are actively following up on leads in the investigation.”

Pleskacz confirmed Dean’s body was found by his wife Wendy around 10:15 a.m. on June 30, 2008 on the couple’s property.

Dean had been shot, but Pleskacz would not say where on his body or how many times he’d been shot stating “The cause of death is confirmed to be by a firearm, however police cannot release details as to the injury(s).”

Dallas said he knows Dean’s children were home sleeping when Dean was shot, but Pleskacz would not confirm who was or wasn’t home when Dean was killed.

“Police will not confirm the whereabouts of his family members at this time,” Pleskacz said.

He would also not confirm if Wendy as well as the two children were questioned by police, but he did say “generally speaking family members are interviewed as normal procedure in any homicide investigation.”

Pleskacz also would not confirm a gun was found to be missing from the property after the killing simply stating “Police cannot comment on those specifics as this is an ongoing investigation.”

He did, however, confirm RCMP investigators searched the area around the property last summer, and the search included looking for evidence underwater.

“Police were in the area this past August with the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team looking for evidence,” Pleskacz said. “However, the results of that search cannot be released at this time.”

Pleskacz added Wendy was one of the last people to see Dean alive that morning.

“Dean was working in and around his farm the morning preceding his death. His wife was one of the persons to last see him alive, but police are still asking anyone from the public to come forward with information pertaining to Dean’s activities prior to his death that morning,” Pleskacz said.

“The Historical Case Unit is still looking for information pertaining to Dean’s homicide. Police are hopeful that someone will come forward with information that can assist us in bringing Dean’s killer to justice.”

After Dean died, Liz took in her two grandchildren and Wendy, but in October of that year, Wendy and the kids packed up and moved to Alberta where they are all still believed to be living.

Making the situation more difficult for Liz in the last few years has been the fact she now has no contact with the two grandchildren who also lost their father in 2008.

“It really hurts my mom because there has been no contact in the last couple of years with the grandchildren,” Dallas said. “And it’s always just hard for her because this isn’t supposed to happen. You’re not supposed to outlive your kids.”

For Liz the bond she shared with Dean was always strong because her first husband passed away when Dean was only two-years-old, and before his younger brother and his half-sister Diane were born.

“Dean and I were always quite close, and I think it’s because Dean was alive when his dad died, so in some ways we both lost him,” Liz said.

Liz said she doesn’t know what would change if a killer were arrested and charged with her son’s murder, but she said she still holds out hope that one day she finds out the reason someone felt they had to take her son’s life.

“It’s hard to say ahead of time what you would feel in that moment if it were to actually happen, but I really do think it would be closure,” Liz said.

Liz is now getting ready to spend Christmas with many of the people she loves, but she knows in the back of her own mind there is one person who will be missing, just as it has been for the last nine years.

Dean will always be a missing piece and a piece I can never get back,” Liz said. “I lost a part of me that day.”

Anyone with information regarding the Dean Coulter homicide case is asked to call the RCMP tip line at 204-984-6447, or Manitoba Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Dave Baxter is a freelance reporter, photographer and editor who writes about Manitoba crimes for the Sunday Special.

crimefilesmanitoba@gmail.com

Twitter:@davebbbaxter