‘It doesn’t seem real’: Family of Surrey stabbing victim mourns teen’s death
Posted April 12, 2023 4:36 pm.
Last Updated April 13, 2023 11:57 am.
The family of a teenager who died after a stabbing on a Surrey bus on Tuesday evening is remembering him as a “good boy” from a loving family.
Ethan Bespflug, 17, is being identified as the victim in the homicide investigation, a close family friend confirmed to CityNews.
Read More: Surrey bus stabbing leaves 17-year-old dead, homicide team called in
Andrea Van Der Gracht, who describes herself as having been like an aunt to Ethan, says the teen was on his way to meet his mother at King George SkyTrain station when the stabbing took place.
“It doesn’t seem real,” she told CityNews on Wednesday. “Everybody is in shock. It just feels like utter disbelief that this could happen in our community.”
Van Der Gracht says Bespflug was the oldest of five kids in a family that lived in Abbotsford.
“Ethan was a good boy. He wasn’t into trouble in any sense. He came from a good family. His dad is a hard-working man who gets up every day and works from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and his mother is a loving mother. This is devastating. This will ruin not just their lives, but the lives of everybody he’s come in contact with,” she explained.
“He was smart, he did well in school, he helped around our yard. He was just good.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Van Der Gracht to help Bespflug’s family with funeral costs.
“This is a family that is in need. Obviously, this is not something that they were looking to have happen,” she said.
No suspects have been identified, nor have any arrests been made in connection with the stabbing death of a 17-year-old on a Coast Mountain Bus Company vehicle Tuesday evening on King George Boulevard.
Homicide investigators have also not said whether or not the incident appears to be targeted, only noting it does not appear to be connected to gang activity.
