On July 7, 2011, the body of 69 year old businessman Richard Oland, previously a Vice President with Moosehead Brewery, and member of one of New Brunswick’s most iconic families, was found in his office at his investment firm Far End Corporation on Canterbury street in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Discovered by his personal assistant, Richard had been bludgeoned to death.
A pillar in the community, it was no surprise that more than 450 people, including the then New Brunswick Premier David Alward, the Lieutenant-Governor, the mayor of Saint John and a veritable who’s who of New Brunswick’s elite showed up to pay their respects at his funeral.
The death was quickly ruled a homicide, but it would take over two years before police would charge a suspect. Who that suspect was, would shock this tight knit community.
This case would eventually be the subject of the longest trial in New Brunswick’s history. It would see a guilty verdict, an appeals court reversal, two Supreme Court of Canada appeals, and a new trial scheduled for 2018.
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