LETHBRIDGE — RCMP allege a 77-year-old man who was abducted from his home was dismembered after being killed last weekend.
Court documents suggest the body parts of Otto (Bunty) Loose of Vulcan were found spread over different locations in a wooded area on Saturday, several days after he disappeared.
“Dismemberment . . . is part of the charge,” RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb confirmed on Tuesday night.
Police believe Loose was befriended over 18 months by someone who last week forced the elderly man from his home and took him to banks to withdraw money before he was killed.
An autopsy conducted Tuesday by the Calgary medical examiner’s office has classified Loose’s death as a homicide.
Tim Engel, 35, of Claresholm has been charged with first-degree murder and committing an indignity to a human body.
Engel made his first court appearance Tuesday and was denied bail. He is next to appear in court on Friday in Lethbridge.
His common-law wife, Bobbie-Joe Parks, 28, faces a single count of obstruction of justice and is free until she next appears in Claresholm court on Wednesday. She is reportedly eight months pregnant.
Engel was under house arrest at the time of Loose’s death.
Police say Engel had been charged with uttering threats, two counts of assault, kidnapping, assaulting with a weapon and overcoming resistance in connection to an unrelated domestic situation.