Douglas Garland charged in triple homicide of boy and grandparents

CTV Calgary: Charges laid in triple homicide Douglas Garland is facing three murder charges in connection to the disappearance of a Calgary family. Elissa Carpenter reports.

A man who was a 'Person of Interest' in the disappearance of Nathan O'Brien and Alvin and Kathy Liknes is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in connection to their deaths.

Douglas Garland, 54, was arrested last week in an unrelated case and then released.

He was re-arrested early Monday in a field not far from the Airdrie property owned by his parents where police spent days searching for any sign of the missing family.

He was taken into the arrest processing unit in Calgary on Monday night and appeared before a justice of the peace sometime overnight.

Garland was transferred out of APU just after noon on Tuesday and will be held in custody.

On Monday, Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson said that the murder charges would be laid despite the fact that the trio’s bodies haven’t been found.

“The bodies of the victims have not been found and we continue to ask people to come forward with any information they may have,” said Hanson. “The preponderance of evidence is such that it has led our investigators to believe that they are dead.”

Hanson has pledged that police will find the bodies of the deceased. "We will be relentless on this, we know how important it is not only for the family but the community to have closure for this by identifying and locating the bodies."

He adds that the investigation has been difficult on everyone involved. "When we have taken the investigation to a point where we believe a homicide has occurred, that destroys families because the 'glimmer of hope' is gone. Now, there are those in the family that say they will retain that hope, that they may be alive and we totally understand that."

Hanson says the information has devastated the O’Brien and Liknes families.

“It’s extremely tragic. It’s devastated them. We’ve kept them apprised the whole time. I think it’s safe to say that even as the days went by, there’s always a hope, there’s always a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, with the laying of the charges we’ve taken that hope away from the family so they are devastated.”

Investigators are encouraging rural residents, business owners, and oil companies to go and check over their properties for anything suspicious and report anything that may help them with their investigation.

Garland is expected to appear in court on July 16.