The image of Timmy Douglas Engel, 35, in police custody is familiar to Prince George residents.
Engel is accused of a gruesome set of crimes in Alberta - the killing, and dismemberment of 77-year-old Otto (Bunty) Loose near the town of Vulcan, with
indications of robbery involved.
Engel is in custody at the High River, Alberta RCMP detachment.
He also knows the layout of the Prince George RCMP detachment and Prince George Regional Correctional Centre. He moved to Alberta about five years ago after a string of incidents here. The most serious led to a criminal conviction in 2007. Provincial court judge Dan Weatherly sentenced him to 214 days in prison plus a year of probation for a break-and-enter committed in April 2005.
"After his release, he feared for his life from elements in the drug trade and went to Calgary," defense counsel Rob Climie said at the time.
"He went there not to avoid dealing with the charges here, but to avoid bodily harm."
Other charges he had faced in the Prince George area included theft, mischief, obstructing a peace officer, and failure to appear for court. These incidents date back to 1999.
Engel did not leave his brushes with the law behind, after his move to Alberta. Police arrested him on homicide allegations during a scheduled meeting with corrections personnel as part of bail conditions he was under on another matter - accusations of domestic offences from a previous relationship.
His current partner, Bobbie-Jo Parks, is originally from B.C. as well.
According to her Facebook profile: "I'm living in a small town in southern Alberta. I spend most of my time running after my five-year-old. I'm a single mother and a starving artist."
She and Timmy Engel were reportedly living together in Claresholm, about an hour from Vulcan. It was in Claresholm that police are said to have located the various body parts of Loose after his disappearance earlier this month.
Parks is now charged with obstruction of the police
investigation into the Loose case.
Prince George police told The Citizen that Engel was not known to be a suspect of any sort of crime in this area since he moved away.
