Skip to content

Langley man committed for trial in decade-old Surrey killing

Investigation by Unsolved Homicide Unit led to charges
93580langleynew_west_courts_webversion

A 38-year-old Langley man has been ordered to stand trial for the June 12, 2000 murder of 27-year-old Vancouver resident Shayne Murray Preece in Surrey.

David Lawrence Robert Langlet will be tried by a B.C. Supreme Court Justice in New Westminster.

He is scheduled to make a brief appearance on Oct. 6 to set a date.

The order was made by a Surrey Provincial Court judge, following a preliminary hearing of the evidence that ended Sept. 15.

The same Surrey judge imposed a ban on publishing information disclosed during the prelimnary hearing.

Eleven years ago, Preece was discovered slumped in the back seat of a Jeep Cherokee in a Surrey restaurant parking lot.

It happened shortly before midnight near an all-night restaurant at 10194 152 Street.

Some customers had just stepped outside to smoke on the restaurant's outdoor patio when they heard several shots coming from the alley, near a garbage container.

Langlet has been in custody since he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

The case had been reopened by the Surrey RCMP Unsolved Homicide Unit, which is assigned to review and investigate murders that occurred before June 2003.

That was when the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation team took over homicide investigations in several Lower Mainland communities.

The Preece slaying is one of 72 unsolved Surrey murders, some as far back as 1967, under investigation.

One case that was solved involved the drowning of a four-month-old boy in a swimming pool in May of 2002.

Mother Jasvinder Kang claimed a panhandler had stolen her child from her basement suite and dumped him in the pool.

After the team conducted nearly 250 interviews, Kang was charged. She eventually pleaded guilty to infanticide and received the maximum sentence possible — a conditional term of two years less a day under house arrest plus three years probation.

 



Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
Read more