By Keith Lacey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter PENTICTON HERALD
The high-profile trial of a man facing two counts of first-degree murder in relation to the killing of two brothers in Naramata continued Friday in front of a jury in Vancouver.
Wade William Cudmore, 35, is charged in the 2021 killings of Carlo and Erick Fryer, both from Kamloops. Their bodies were found by hikers in a remote area near Naramata in May of 2021.
Cudmore pleaded not guilty in B.C. Supreme Court on June 3. The trial, which was moved to Vancouver for security reasons, is scheduled to run over 46 days until the end of August.
On June 9, 2021, less than a month after the bodies of the Fryer brothers were found, Cudmore’s mother, Kathy Richardson, 57, was found dead in her Naramata home. Her son was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the Fryer deaths the following day.
Following his arrest, Cudmore was denied bail and has been behind bars since. He is being represented by defence counsel Jordan Watt.
Cudmore’s co-accused, Anthony Graham, remains at large and was the subject of a missing-person bulletin issued in November 2021 by the RCMP in his hometown of Prince George.
Meanwhile, charges were laid against Ekene Dillichuwu Anigbo and Jalen Nimai Falk in connection to Richardson’s death. Each is facing one count of first-degree murder. No trial date has been set for Anigbo and Falk in the Richardson killing.
Mounties previously described all three deaths — the Fryer brothers and Richardson — as being linked “to gang and drug activities, with alleged criminal activities not limited to Naramata, but other areas of B. C., including Northern B.C. and the Lower Mainland.”
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