A BC man who told hospital staff he killed two people and wanted to hurt others wasn’t arrested and charged until more than a month after he first confessed, court documents show.

Mitchell McIntyre has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Julia Howe in Creston, BC on February 6, 2022. Howe was shot in the head.

pre-trial court documents the day after Howe’s death, McIntyre went to the RCMP detachment in Creston to tell police they had to take him into custody.

After being hospitalized several times over the next month, he confessed again – this time to the murders of Howe and another person, whom he named David Creamly.

Police arrested McIntyre on March 16, 2022, in Howe’s death, at which time a man named David Creamer was cremated and all of his belongings were removed from his home in Kimberley, B.C.—after officials ruled his death there was an accident and he fell and hit his head.

Creamer died on February 6, 2022, the same day Howe was shot in the head.

The tangled web of a case, which is being heard by a judge alone this week, tells how police eventually charged McIntyre in one of the two deaths.

“I will harm myself and possibly others”

A BC Supreme Court decision by Justice Paul Riley outlines what happened in this case.

Riley ruled as part of the preliminary proceedings called a voir direin which the judge hears from both the prosecutors and the defense about what evidence may be considered admissible at trial.

On February 7, 2022, the day after the deaths of Howe and Creamer, McIntyre arrived at the RCMP detachment in Cranbrook saying he wanted to be arrested and jailed, according to the court order.

Officers said they could not arrest McIntyre without a reason to do so and spoke with him for several hours while he asked for a lawyer and to be taken into custody.

An RCMP corporal who was on duty at the time told McIntyre he seemed like “a good guy” and they wanted to help him.

“Mr. McIntyre responded that he was not a good guy. He needed to be arrested and jailed,” court documents state.

McIntyre is also reported to have told police: “They have to take me into custody because I’m going to hurt myself and possibly others.” He was eventually taken to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital in Cranbrook under the Mental Health Act.

The court ruling said the death of Howe, who was found in a pool of blood on her bathroom floor, was not initially considered suspicious.

Just two days later, after an autopsy was carried out, police found a bullet in his head and began investigating the death of the woman who the court heard was a neighbor of McIntyre’s.

Confessions to doctors

Over the course of a month, McIntyre was in and out of East Kootenay Regional Hospital’s mental health unit, the court decision said. All the while, they say, he told doctors his violent thoughts – and then confessed to killing Howe and another man.

On February 12, 2022, a psychiatrist recorded McIntyre saying that he shot Howe, shot his former friend “David Creamly”, who had betrayed him in the past, and turned himself in to the police.

But doctors weren’t sure whether to treat McIntyre’s confessions as fact, especially since he also talked about hearing voices in his head, court documents state.

“Mr. McIntyre was still under the ‘delusional belief’ that he had killed his neighbor (Howe) and his friend,” according to the doctor’s notes from Feb. 13, which were recounted in court documents.

“When informed that there had been no report of a murder in the Kimberley, Mr McIntyre responded with apparent shock or bewilderment.”

“No matter how bad”

RCMP were in intermittent contact with the doctors treating McIntyre while investigating Howe’s death, according to the court order, and eventually requested to review McIntyre’s medical records.

During this time, he was interviewed by at least three doctors, one of whom said McIntyre told them he was “pretty sure” he “killed that woman”.

On Feb. 18, one of McIntyre’s psychiatrists said he was unwilling to release him and that he should spend time in a forensic psychiatric unit, according to the court order.

“In terms of the potential safety risk to others, that’s how serious it could get,” the doctor was quoted as saying in the decision to a police officer.

“He claims to have killed two people and there’s this list of potential people he’s thinking of killing.”

It took until March 8 for police to check medical records and realize that McIntyre had confessed to Creamer’s death.

The court decision recounts how police were frustrated by doctors for not providing information about Creamer’s death sooner.

The judge wrote that the doctors were “attempting to respect the boundaries of patient confidentiality and to exercise independent judgment regarding the medical treatment of Mr. McIntyre in an unusual situation.”

During voir dire proceedings, McIntyre’s defense attorneys said prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that his hospital confessions were made freely and voluntarily.

Ultimately, Riley decided to enter all of McIntyre’s police admissions and his hospital statements through February 18, 2022, into evidence.

“The story didn’t really make sense,” says Creamer’s daughter

Creamer’s daughter, Taylor Creamer, told CBC News that investigators never took her father’s death seriously.

She said her father was found on Feb. 6 on his couch without his phone, which should have been a sign for them to investigate further.

“The story didn’t really make sense … for him to be on the couch, but he still fell and hit his head,” she said.

“Why don’t you put two and two together? Why don’t you do your job investigating these things? How often do these things happen that you overlook them?” she added.

Taylor Creamer says she now wants answers about her father’s death and the delays in its investigation.

CBC News has reached out to the RCMP to find out if they are considering charges in the death of David Creamer and their response to his daughter’s allegations.

A spokesman later confirmed that no charges were being considered in relation to Creamer’s death.

“(Officers) went above and beyond to progress the investigation,” the spokesman said, adding that factors beyond their control meant no charges could be laid.

McIntyre’s trial is scheduled to continue until Nov. 22.