Ex-husband guilty of murdering Tatjana Stefanski in B.C.

The ex-husband of Tatjana Stefanski has been found guilty of her 2024 murder, in a killing that left a rural British Columbia village in a state of fear when he was initially arrested then released on conditions.

Vitali Stefanski, who was convicted of second-degree murder, had told the B.C. Supreme Court jury in Kamloops that his ex-wife stabbed herself in his car.

In a closing statement, he said her death was “like a suicide.”

But the jury returned its unanimous verdict a day after receiving instructions on Thursday from Justice Bradford Smith.

Tatjana Stefanski’s body was found with numerous stab wounds off a rural forest service road near the village of Lumby, B.C., in April 2024.

The trial heard a bent and bloodied knife nearby had the DNA of both Tatjana and Vitali Stefanski, while police testified that he emerged shoeless from the forest and confessed to the killing before gesturing in the direction of the body.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2026.