THE family of 19-year-old homicide victim Tanner Krupa of Edmonton is appealing to the public on the sixth anniversary of his death.
On August 20, 2017, at approximately 5 a.m., Surrey RCMP responded to a report of a disturbance in the 6900-block of 127A Street. Frontline police officers found a 19-year-old man, the victim of a stabbing, unresponsive. The man had succumbed to his injuries.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) took conduct of the investigation and began working in partnership with Surrey RCMP, the BC Coroner’s Service and the Integrated Forensic Identification Section (IFIS).
The victim of this crime was Krupa.
Krupa, a recent graduate of Edmonton’s Archbishop O’Leary High School, had began working as a directional driller, while saving money for university where he planned to study kinesiology. Having been offered work in B.C., Krupa travelled to Surrey to work for a company laying fiber-optic lines. It was three days into his second deployment, that his life was tragically cut short.
Now, six years later, Kim Krupa, Tanner’s mother, is still looking for answers.
“It’s something you can never in your whole life imagine, that you would burying a 19-year-old child,” says Kim Krupa. “We have not one idea what happened to our boy and it’s six years. And we really wanna know what happened to him and for somebody that knows something to please come forward and give us those answers.”
Tanner’s family and friends have developed a website to tell his story in the hopes that someone with information about his murder will come forward. The website is www.whathappenedtotanner.com
“We started a charity; every year we go down to the less fortunate in Edmonton and we hand out ‘Tanner’s Totes.’ We put toiletries, blankets, hats, mitts. Anything that they might need throughout the year,” says Kim Krupa. “I just want to carry Tanner’s legacy on and do good and try and love and try and be compassionate and try and give back.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT information line at 1-877-551- IHIT (4448), or by email at ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.