Man accused of murdering his neighbours over Yorkie
Robert Freeman, 83, allegedly killed John Kavaloff and Valerie Smith at Chilliwack River Valley trailer park in 2023
(Update Jan. 11, 2025: The word "barking" removed from the headline. One commenter who said they lived in the park stated that the dog would bark all day long when the couple were away. But a reliable source shared a photo of Suzie the Yorkie in question and tells me that the incident was not about Suzie's barking per se, but apparently the dog would frequently use Freeman's yard to relieve herself. The nature of what exactly the dog was doing that drove the alleged killer to do what he did is somewhat irrelevant. Nothing the dog could have done warranted murder. - PJH)
On Sept. 13, 2023, family members of John Kavaloff and Valerie Smith were horrified to learn the couple living peacefully in the Baker Trails Trailer Park in the Chilliwack River Valley were murdered in cold blood.
The horror became even more surreal when they found out the alleged killer was their neighbour, 83-year-old Robert Amede Freeman, and that the murders were over a dog.
"My parents were completely innocent, loving people – cherished grandparents – whose lives were tragically cut short by a mentally unstable [neighbour], all because of a grudge over their beloved Yorkie."
That from Travis Finnigan in a Sept. 13, 2024 public Facebook post on the one-year anniversary of the murders of his parents. Finnigan went on to decry the fact that Freeman was out on bail that was granted eight days after his arrest.
"Over the past year, our family has endured not only the immense pain of losing Valerie and John but also the ongoing frustration and heartbreak of a justice system that continues to fail us."
As many victims of crime do, Finnigan also expressed his frustration with a criminal justice system that is at best slow and complicated, but often plodding, mind-boggling and cruel.
"Justice remains agonizingly out of reach," Finnigan wrote. "In the meantime, we are forced to live with the unbearable truth that Bob Freeman is living freely in our community, with no restrictions – no curfew, no ankle bracelet – while our parents are gone forever. He gets to spend holidays, birthdays, and family moments with his loved ones, while we are left with the devastating reality of my parents being ripped from our lives. Their absence leaves an unfillable void in the lives of their family, friends, and grandchildren."
"We demand justice, not just for Valerie and John, but for every family that has been betrayed by a system that values the rights of criminals over the safety and peace of victims."
Demand he might, but the case is not out of the ordinary regarding how it is playing out. The case is proceeding through the BC Supreme Court in Chilliwack as normally as any homicide.
Freeman was charged with two counts of second-degree murder one day after the killing, on Sept. 14, 2023, in what IHIT spokesman Sgt. Timothy Pierotti called "an isolated incident between neighbours."
Freeman's latest court appearance was on Jan. 6, 2025 at which a pre-trial conference was scheduled for Jan. 10 with his next appearance to set a next date on Jan. 20.
A reliable source contacted me to say the incident was not about the dog, Suzie, barking but that the elderly dog would frequently relieve itself in Freeman's yard.
"It wasn’t actually about barking but she was 14 years old and I know she sometimes would go into his very small yard, if you would call it that, and squat," they said. "She had so many seizures that she would squat a lot without anything really anything coming out."
(Note: It should be made clear to long-time Chilliwack residents and readers of the local newspapers that the murder suspect Robert Freeman is not the man with the same name who was a long-time Chilliwack Progress reporter, who sadly died in 2019 in Ontario not long after his retirement - PJH)
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Paul J. Henderson
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