Two Murder Suspects Found After Mysterious Plane Crash In Canada

A plane crash in Canada is still under investigation — but authorities have released the names of two murder suspects who were reportedly on board.

Gene Karl Lahrkamp, 36, is among four dead after a small private plane mysteriously crashed in the hinterlands near Sioux Lookout in northwestern Ontario, according to CBC News. Authorities with the Ontario Provincial Police are still trying to piece together how the deceased passengers knew one another and what caused the crash that searchers found in the early hours of Saturday morning.

There were no survivors on board.

Lahrkamp, a suspected international hitman, became a fugitive after he and Matthew Dupre, 36, were accused of the murder of India-born Jimi “Slice” Sandhu — an alleged member of the British Columbia-based Abbotsford Gang — in February. According to the Bangkok Post, Sandhu was gunned down at a Rawai Beach resort parking lot on Phuket Island in Thailand by two men wearing hoodies.

Both Lahrkamp and Dupre were ex-military men who had begun working for private security firms, according to the Vancouver Sun.

Dupre is currently in Alberta, awaiting extradition in Thailand for Sandhu’s murder.

A spokesperson for the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia said Lahrkamp had no active criminal warrants for crimes in Canada, according to the Post. The CFSEU-BC was, however, assisting Thai Police in its attempt to apprehend Lahrkamp, according to the CBC.

Per CTV News, a $100,000 reward for information leading to Lahrkamp’s arrest was offered just three days before the crash, when Lahrkamp was placed second on Canada’s list of most-wanted fugitives.

Also identified in the wreckage was Duncan Bailey, 27, who had ties to the Indo-Canadian street gang known as the Independent Soldiers, according to the CBC. Bailey had been released on bail on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for the shooting of Coquitlam resident Mir Aali Hussain, 42.

Hussain was first gunned down on Oct. 6, 2020 while carrying an infant as he left the Bells and Whistles pub in Dunbar, Vancouver, but survived the attack, according to the Vancouver Sun. Hussain was eventually found shot to death in an alley near his white Toyota in May 2021.

His murder remains unsolved.

Prosecutors told CBC that an arrest warrant was issued for Bailey on April 26.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation by officials with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, according to the CBC. Searches commenced Saturday morning when the small aircraft failed to arrive at Marathon, Ontario, after flying out from Dryden, Ontario — nearly 400 miles west — shortly after 9:00 p.m. on April 29.

The plane’s emergency locator transponder began sending signals about 60 miles east of Dryden.

The plane, a four-seater Piper PA 28-140, is reportedly owned by a woman from Richmond, British Columbia.

On Tuesday, officials publicly released the deceased pilot’s name as Abhivan Handa, 26, of Richmond. The following day, police released the name of the fourth passenger as Hankun Hong, 27, also of Richmond.

Hong was also a pilot on the aircraft, according to the Sun.

“We aren’t familiar with the individuals that were on the plane,” CFSEU-BC Sgt. Brenda Winpenny told CBC. “What were the circumstances around why Gene Lahrkamp was on that plane?”

On Thursday, Lahrkamp’s uncle, Wilf Lahrkamp, spoke to reporters, claiming Lahrkamp was struggling to financially make ends meet in the months leading up to Sandhu’s murder, according to the Sun. He’d heard about the plane crash while listening to the radio.

“I don’t know exactly what he was up to,” said the uncle. “It was already a thought that he had killed somebody, right? It was already news to us.”

How the passengers on board knew one another also remains under investigation.