Family of B.C. murder suspect says Oscar Arfmann fought mental illness

VANCOUVER — A family member of an Alberta man charged with the first-degree murder of a British Columbia police officer say the accused had been struggling since losing his wife five years ago.

In a statement, 65-year-old Oscar Arfmann’s sister-in-law says he “was really never the same” after his wife died in 2013.

It says Arfmann was admitted to hospital in St. Paul, a town northeast of Edmonton, in July 2015 for a mental evaluation, but he was released three days later.

Arfmann is charged in the death of Const. John Davidson in the Vancouver suburb of Abbotsford earlier this week.

The 53-year-old officer with 24 years on the job was critically injured while responding to a report of a possible stolen vehicle and shots fired at members of the public.

Arfmann’s family says it wants to extend its deepest condolences to Davidson’s family and the Abbotsford Police Department.

Arfmann remained in hospital on Tuesday and British Columbia’s civilian agency that investigates police actions resulting in serious harm or death has said it’s believed he was shot.

The statement released by Arfmann’s sister-in-law on behalf of the family says Arfmann continued to struggle with mental health issues after being released from hospital in 2015.

“Family members had tried to seek help for him but he refused to go to the doctor,” the statement says.

Hope Arfmann said she married Oscar when she was 18 but the marriage lasted less than three years because he was emotionally abusive.

The couple lived in the small hamlet of Sunnybrook, Alta., and also on a farm near Millet, where she said he would hunt small rodents and birds.

“The birds deserted the area, the squirrels, the gophers — anybody and everybody spread the word: stay away from that area,” she said.

She said their split was tense and she suffered a medical condition that caused blackouts when she felt distressed.

“I wanted to leave and he decided to keep me from doing that,” she explained. “I had been cutting up a roast at the table to make him a last lunch. And he says, ‘well, you ain’t going unless I let you go, and I ain’t letting you go.’ And that’s all I heard. When my sensibility came back, there was a knife in the wall.”

However, she said the incident had been enough to bring about a change of mind on his part. She said in no time at all, he had packed up her belongings and driven her into Edmonton.

After their split, their contact was limited, though they had a son together who she later gave up for adoption. Hope said after their divorce was made final by a Wetaskiwin court in the summer of 1975, Oscar married a woman named Patricia.

“I heard by the bye that they were still like honeymooners after 40 years,” she said. “I was tickled pink. He married the right person the second time. For some reason, they clicked.”

She said Oscar took Patricia’s death hard.

“The only thing that he really loved was Patricia,” she said.

— With files from Gwen Dambrofsky in Edmonton.

Beth Leighton, The Canadian Press