A small B.C. community unused to violent crime is reeling after a 16-year-old girl was slain at a house party Wednesday night. RCMP have arrested another teenage girl in connection with the killing.
Police were called to a house on San Clemente Avenue in Peachland, a sleepy Okanagan Valley community of 5,000 people. When they arrived around 9:30 p.m. they found a young woman lying in the street bleeding from stab wounds.
Approximately 20 young people were drinking at the house when the stabbing occurred, said RCMP Const. Steve Holmes.
The victim was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Kelowna, about 30 kilometres away, where she died a short time later.
Later that night, police arrested a 16-year-old girl at her West Kelowna home in connection with the homicide. As of Thursday afternoon, she had not been charged.
Const. Holmes did not have any details about what happened at the house party.
"We're in the process of confirming and putting it all together," he said.
But he did say the girls knew each other, went to the same West Kelowna high school and that neither lived at the home in question, which according to a neighbour, is a well-known party house. Police are withholding the name of both the victim and the suspect because of their age.
On Thursday, blood stains were still visible in the roadway in front of the house.
David Mulhall, 67, lives across the street. He was sitting at home Wednesday night. "I heard a girl hysterically screaming, 'How could you do that?'" he said.
He added that he got up and looked out of his window to see a body lying at the end of his driveway. Police arrived shortly afterwards.
Mr. Mulhall said the house is frequently the site of "wild parties."
Another Peachland resident, Mark Hasselback, 54, said murder is the sort of thing that "doesn't happen here."
"It's not supposed to happen in small towns," he added. "We're used to grow-ops, this is British Columbia after all, but I can't remember any incidences of violence, let alone murder."
Peachland Mayor Keith Fielding described his town as "a very peaceful community and really closely knit."
He said news of the killing would likely hit residents hard. "Everybody I'm sure will find it distressing. We're certainly not used to this kind of thing."
There was no answer at the door of the house on Thursday, nor did any one answer the telephone number listed for the address.