A contractor told the double-murder trial of Wade William Cudmore July 23 he called police after seeing two suspicious vehicles on a forest road outside Naramata.
The road was in the area where the bodies of Carlo and Erick Fryer were found in May of 2021 by two hikers.
The 35-year-old’s trial on two counts of first-degree murder is being heard by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown with a jury in Vancouver.
The accused sat at the back of the secure courtroom in the prisoner’s dock on Tuesday with three sheriffs in the room.
As the contractor spoke, Cudmore sat up paying close attention. When a police officer returned to the stand to go through video evidence, Cudmore sat with his hands clasped, looking at the floor.
Also charged in the killings is Anthony Graham. He remains at large, with a warrant outstanding for his arrest.
Crown prosecutor Alex Willms told Brown in his case opening that the Fryer brothers died as a result of blunt force injuries, stabbings and shotgun wounds.
Near their bodies, on the other side of Naramata Forest Service Road on May 10, 2021, investigators found a shotgun, a knife and a roofing hammer, that Willms said DNA experts can link to Cudmore.
Willms also said GPS data from a Ford F-350, which ICBC records show belonged to Graham, had been in the exact area of the Fryers’ bodies for approximately 15 minutes early in the morning of May 10.
They later left, and further footage showed the F-350 and a grey Cobalt driving together up a different nearby forest service road, leading to where Erick Fryer’s Cobalt car was found ditched.
Witness William Miller had crews clearing land in the area for a development, he told the court July 23.
He said he saw an F-350 and a smaller, light-coloured car moving fast on the Arawana forest service road not far from Naramata.
He said the vehicles were being driven erratically, and that something was not right about the situation.
“Why are these guys ripping up here so fast?” he said he asked himself before he called a friend in the RCMP to report the incident.
He said he followed the vehicles to a gated area where he saw them stopped. The cars moved on as he approached.
He said he thought they were trying to dump the truck.
An F-350 was later found burned.
A month after the Fryer brothers were killed, Cudmore's mother, Kathy Richardson, was found dead in her Naramata home.
That led to the April 2023 arrest and charging of Ekene Dillichuwu Anigbo and Jalen Falk, both alleged to be Lower Mainland gang members. They remain behind bars as they await trial.
Cudmore sought but was refused bail and has been in custody since his arrest.
The case is on day 34 of an estimated 58 days of trial.
