EXCLUSIVE: Did a cartel kill this young Canadian woman? W5 investigates a murder mystery

W5's Avery Haines traces the route Kiara Agnew took on the night she was killed at a resort in Mexico, and speaks to the hotel cleaner who discovered her.

The full W5 Avery Haines Investigates documentary If I’m Ever Found Dead premieres Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV, Crave and our CTV News YouTube channel.

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions that may be disturbing for some readers

When Kiara Agnew was discovered brutally beaten on March 3, 2023, her boyfriend, Ryan Friesen, was found sleeping next to her dead body.

He was immediately arrested and charged with her murder, the one and only suspect actively investigated. But Ryan was found not guilty in Sept. 2024, by a judge-only trial in Mexico. He has maintained his innocence ever since, leaving the question of who killed Kiara unanswered.

“My desire for justice is unwavering, and I hope that those truly responsible are identified and held fully accountable for their actions,” Ryan said in a recent statement to W5.

In an attempt to unravel the mystery of Kiara’s murder, W5 travelled to Mexico in a fact-finding mission that led us face-to-face with the Sinaloa Cartel.

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Retracing of events

The night of Kiara’s murder began at the hotel bar of the five-star Grand Sunset Princess Hotel in Playa del Carmen. Surveillance cameras from inside the resort bar show Kiara and Ryan leaving at midnight.

Throughout the W5 investigation, one of Kiara’s family members shared what Ryan claimed happened next: Kiara and Ryan returned to their room, they argued, and Ryan fell asleep. He awoke at 2:30 a.m. and Kiara was gone.

According to Kiara’s stepfather, Ricky Matchett, Ryan claimed to hear Kiara screaming and followed her cries to the laundry room, where he beat on the locked door, and someone opened it.

“He said that she was sitting there on the floor… saying that she was raped. And he said that there was three to four people in the room.”

Ricky said he asked Ryan three times how he ended up on the floor next to Kiara, but he couldn’t answer that.

W5 retraced the exact steps from Kiara and Ryan’s hotel room to the laundry room where they were found. It is a six-minute walk past numerous other rooms and down two flights of stairs.

The cleaner, whom W5 located, used to work at the resort and was the first person to make the gruesome discovery of their bodies at 2:55 a.m.

He recalled that the wall outside the laundry room had blood on it and that the surrounding floor was covered in blood, and it looked like there had been a struggle there. He added that Kiara’s shoe was on the floor, and the door -- which Ryan claimed was locked -- was partially open and didn’t have a lock on it.

Bloodstains on his clothing, hands and feet

The cleaner said he found Ryan and Kiara lying side by side -- his feet at her head -- and that Kiara was fully clothed.

He said that Kiara was lifeless, that they had to shake Ryan to wake him up, and that he appeared drunk. The cleaner claims Ryan attempted to run up the stairs but was held until police arrived.

W5 also obtained the police report from the first officer who arrived at the scene. His notes describe Ryan as having “blood stains on his clothing, hands, and feet.”

A diagram included in the report shows cuts on Ryan’s right hand and foot, swelling of the left hand, and a bite mark on his right hand.

Cartel execution?

In his interview, Kiara’s stepfather shared what he said is Ryan’s theory on who killed Kiara: “It was the cartel… that the actual resort owed the cartel money and wouldn’t pay them, and they made an example by finding somebody and doing this to them.”

The Sinaloa Cartel has a firm grip on the territory surrounding the Grand Sunset Princess Hotel in Playa del Carmen. Local businesses must pay a so-called “cartel tax” to be able to operate in their territory. Refusal to do so can result in robberies, vandalism, assaults, kidnappings, or murder.

‘No, no, no, that’s a lie’

To find out whether the cartel might be responsible for Kiara’s murder, W5 met face-to-face with a long-standing member of the Sinaloa cartel on a rooftop in Playa Del Carmen.

“The cartel have the control of everything,” Alberto, whose real identity is concealed, said in an interview with W5.

When asked about Ryan’s claims that Kiara was targeted in order to send a message to the resort, he denied it.

“No, no, no, that’s a lie. That’s a lie. The cartel don’t get in the hotels. And I know that story... That’s a lie… The cartel had nothing to do with that,” said Alberto.

Alberto didn’t deny that there is a tax or cartel violence in the area but added that tourists are only harmed if they are caught in the crossfire or doing business with the cartel.

He said that when cartels want to send a message, it’s very public, not on a resort in a laundry room in the middle of the night.

Verdict pending review

W5 has learned that Ryan’s not guilty verdict from his judge-only trial in Mexico is under review. An independent magistrate will make a decision any day as to either uphold, modify or reverse the verdict.

The magistrate’s decision can be appealed to a higher court by either side.

While in Mexico, W5 attended a weekly media availability with senior officials from the state police, military, and the prosecutor’s office.

When asked about Kiara’s murder, the state Deputy Prosecutor, Aroshi Lugo Arana, responded that she believes it was established beyond any reasonable doubt that the crime was committed by Ryan.

She added that she is confident the verdict will be overturned, that Ryan will be declared guilty, and brought back to Mexico to be sentenced for what she called a “deeply deplorable act against Kiara.”

This is part three of a three-part series investigating the murder of Kiara Agnew.

Part 1: Not-guilty verdict in murder of Canadian may be overturned

Part 2: Canadian at centre of girlfriend’s murder mystery in Mexico makes first public statement after verdict