The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor RCMP have arrested a Flin Flon resident in connection with the apparent stabbing death of a man over the weekend. Mitchell Whitbread, 25, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of John Kellighan (Kelli) Eyres, also of Flin Flon. Whitbread was scheduled to appear in The Pas Provincial Court on Monday. He is considered innocent unless proven guilty. RCMP said they responded to a call of an apparent stabbing at a Flin Flon residence shortly before 3 a.m. on Saturday. Eyres was subsequently taken to the Flin Flon General Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday in Winnipeg. Details were not available at press time. Flin Flon RCMP were continuing their investigation Monday with help from the Winnipeg RCMP Serious Crime Unit, the Winnipeg RCMP and Thompson Major Crime Units, and The Pas RCMP Forensic Identification Section. Yellow police tape sealed off the multi-unit home at 16 Hill St. near the Co-op while Mounties continued to guard the crime scene as of Monday. Police released no further details on the incident. This is the second homicide charge Flin Flon RCMP have laid in less than seven months. Last October 31, RCMP said, Flin Flon resident James Noel Desmarais, 45, confessed to the murder of Raylene Dawn Grant, also of Flin Flon. Police said they found the body of Grant, 21, in a room at the Royal Hotel after Desmarais told them where she was. Desmarais was charged with second-degree murder and was scheduled to make his latest court appearance in The Pas on Monday. Prior to Monday, he had yet to enter a plea. Todd Rambow, Crown attorney in the Desmarais case, told The Reminder that Desmarais' first two lawyers sought and received permission to bow out of the case. Rambow could not speculate on the lawyers' motivation. Prior to the incident last October, the last confirmed homicide in Flin Flon occurred in June 2005. At that time, Robert Tyson Morin, 25, died of a knife wound to the throat that severed his carotid artery. It happened at a rental home on Main St. A Creighton man was later convicted of manslaughter in the case.
