A Mountie has testified that a “very dishevelled” man later identified as murder suspect Vitali Stefanski appeared by a British Columbia roadside as his bloodstained car was being towed away, telling officers he’d murdered his ex-wife and had tried to kill himself.
Const. Neil Horne told the jury in Stefanski’s second-degree murder trial in Kamloops that he was surprised by the man, who had messy hair and was shoeless with his toes poking out of his socks when he was seen by two officers who were trailing behind a tow truck heading back to Lumby, B.C.
Horne says the man spoke unprompted and in a matter-of-fact manner on the morning of April 14, 2024, as he confessed to the killing, gesturing to indicate his ex-wife Tatjana Stefanski’s body was not nearby but down the forest road.
He says Vitali Stefanski showed the officers a “one-inch incision” to his abdomen and revealed a knife before placing it on the ground in front of the officers.
Horne says Stefanski was arrested for murder by another officer at the scene, Const. Nick Prystupa, and Tatjana Stefanski’s body was found several kilometres away that day.
Vitali Stefanski has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 44-year-old ex-wife, who had been reported abducted the day before.
On cross-examination, defence lawyer Tony Lagemaat suggested to Horne that he had been in his car and had not heard the murder confession or any conversation between the accused and the arresting officer, but Horne disagreed.
He had testified on direct examination that he and Prystupa both exited their police vehicles at a distance where they could hear the suspect at a normal volume.
Horne said the officers encountered Stefanski about 1.5 kilometres from where the Audi was found, which was six kilometres from the location of the body.
Crown lawyer Rigel Tessmann told the B.C. Supreme Court last week that a bent and bloodied knife that carried both Tatjana and Vitali Stefanski’s DNA was near her body.
He said she had suffered 21 “sharp force wounds” to her legs, arms and hands as well as seven stab wounds to her chest and ribs that injured her heart and lungs and led to her death.
The defence has not yet told the jury its theory of events.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2026.
By Brieanna Charlebois | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
