CALGARY – February 6 was one of the happiest days of Ryan Lane’s life.
That afternoon, Lane took his four-year-old daughter to Chuck E. Cheese. It was the first time he’d seen his daughter in two years. It was also the last day he was seen alive.
Tim Rempel, his wife Sheena Cuthill and his brother Will Rempel, are all accused of first-degree murder in Lane’s death.
Police said they believed Lane was killed while embroiled in a custody dispute with Sheena over the daughter they shared.
READ MORE: Ryan Lane murder suspect assaulted in Calgary Remand Centre
On Monday, all three entered pleas of not guilty.
A jury heard the Crown’s theory that Lane was murdered to keep him away from his daughter.The prosecution alleged Cuthill encouraged her husband Tim and his brother to carry out the murder plot.
Court heard that just before midnight Lane received a call from someone promising to help him get custody of his daughter. Bruce Lane told court he worried something bad could happen if his son went to meet the mystery caller.
“Ryan, don’t do anything stupid, think of what you are doing,” Bruce Lane testified he told his son.
Lane insisted on going, telling his father, “the guy told me to come alone.”
Bruce Lane decided to follow Ryan as he drove to the meeting spot at a strip mall on Country Hills Boulevard NW. Lane witnessed Ryan get into someone’s red truck. When the truck drove off, he called police.
“I called the cops…I said, ‘somebody has taken my son.'”
That was the last time Lane was seen alive.
The Crown alleges Will Rempel was driving the red truck, with Tim following in a red Jeep.
Police used the cell phone records for the Rempel brothers to narrow down an area to search northeast of Calgary. For months police scoured a 13,000-acre zone near Beiseker. Lane’s remains were eventually found in a burn barrel in an old gravel pit in that area.
Court heard Will’s truck was washed and sold at an Airdrie salvage yard for scrap.
Two of the accused spoke exclusively with Global News before they were arrested.
Cuthill admitted she wasn’t happy to have Lane back in her daughter’s life.
“I was very upset…of course I was upset. He hadn’t seen her in how long and all of sudden wanted something to do with her.”
Reporter asks: “Were you upset enough to want him to disappear?”
“No,” Cuthill said. “I mean I said I wish he’d go away many times but I say that about a lot of people. No I didn’t want that. I didn’t wish that upon Ryan.”
Will Rempel denied any involvement in Lane’s murder.
“With all due respect, I realize you have a job to do. I have not kidnapped anyone. I have not killed anyone and I can say that in absolute good conscience ma’am,” he said in February 2012.
The trial is scheduled for six weeks.
The jury is made up of eight women and four men.
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