Mounties close in on trucker beating suspect(s)

VALEMOUNT, B.C. — Remember the Good Samaritan trucker who was beaten up by the people he stopped to help last fall?

The cops says they are now zeroing in on some suspects but they need witnesses to fit the final pieces of the case together.

According to the Kamloops Daily News, the RCMP are urging anybody who was on the Yellowhead Highway near Valemount the night of September 28 to get in touch, especially if you can remember anything out of the ordinary happening.

The police number is 250 566-4466.

"We have suspects. We’re still looking for witnesses. We’re still looking to link our suspect to the crime," Const. Simon Bentley told the paper.

The incident centers around 67-year-old owner-operator Alex Fraser.

He was viciously beaten and left for dead on the side of the highway near Blue River, B.C. after he stopped his truck to help what appeared to be two men standing next to a stranded car on the side of the road.

He says that when he walked towards them he heard someone shout "you truckers are all alike!" and was hit on the back of the head and knocked out by what he believes was a third attacker.
When he woke up, Fraser says, he was covered in blood and the men were gone. He says he blacked out several more times while staggering to get to his truck.

He drove to town, where others called 911.

The next thing he remembers was waking in a hospital, injured and shaken so badly that he has since abandoned driving.
Not only are police looking for witnesses, there’s about $30,000 in reward money available for whoever helps reel in the assailants.

A third was raised by the the North American Trucker’s Guild, a third by the British Columbia Trucking Association and another $10 grand came from the Canadian Trucking Alliance.  

You can contribute at any TD Canada Trust. Just tell them you’re donating to Branch 9146 Account 6280407.