A 34-year-old man has been found not criminally responsible for an unprovoked stabbing in Beacon Hill Park that almost killed a Victoria man 10 years ago.
Paul Cowie was charged with the aggravated assault of a 48-year-old man found in the park near Dallas Road just after midnight on Jan. 12, 2014. The victim, who had life-threatening stab wounds to his head, face and chest, was taken to hospital, where he remained for 10 days.
On June 30, 2023, a provincial court judge found Cowie not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder. The B.C. Review Board has ordered that Cowie be detained in the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam and that his case be reviewed in one year.
At the time of the attack, Victoria police detectives and forensic identification officers conducted an extensive investigation and collected DNA evidence from the crime scene. There was a public appeal for information and a release of a sketch of the suspect.
In 2018, the case was reviewed by major crime detectives. Due to technological advances in the collection of DNA evidence, they were able to submit a DNA profile of the suspect to a national DNA information repository in the U.S. maintained by the FBI that allows state and local crime laboratories to store and compare DNA profiles from crime-scene evidence and convicted offenders.
The DNA submitted matched Cowie.
Victoria police learned that after the stabbing, Cowie fled Vancouver Island and went to Alberta. He stole a Parks Canada vehicle and drove it unlawfully across the border where he was arrested by park rangers in Yellowstone National Park.
After his arrest, Cowie’s DNA was taken and submitted to the national DNA repository, known as CODIS or the Combined DNA Index System.
In November 2019, Victoria police officers located Cowie in Brandon, Man. They travelled there and arrested and interviewed Cowie with the assistance of the Brandon Police Service.
“I’m incredibly proud of the effort and determination of our officers to identify the suspect in this investigation,” said Victoria Police Chief Del Manak.
“Despite several years having passed since the incident, our officers remained focused on solving this file, and ultimately it was that prolonged effort, teamwork, and problem solving that led to the arrest. This is also a great demonstration of coordination across sections at VicPD as well as with agencies both nationally and internationally, and the remarkable power of DNA technology.”
