Burnaby RCMP investigating after desecration of memorial for homicide victims
Posted September 2, 2026 7:50 am.
Christine Angelis has been tending to her late daughter’s memorial for years. Every week, she mows the grass, straightens signage, and tidies up the notes and mementos left by friends and family. But last weekend, that ritual was shattered.
“When I came here, it was so traumatic,” she said. “It was completely destroyed, there was glass everywhere.”
Angelis says the carefully maintained site was trashed, with sentimental keepsakes thrown into a nearby dumpster. She says the destruction was foreshadowed by a cruel letter, telling her she needed to get help and move on.
“I found a note in a ziplock duct-taped to the front of her picture,” she said.
“These people were sick and tired of looking at the memorial and that I needed to take it down or it would be removed.”
The memorial is situated outside Alpha Secondary in Burnaby, in the exact location where Kiesha Garie and her fiancé, Umair Kasim, were found dead in 2022, victims of a double homicide that, nearly four years later, remains unsolved.
“It’s hard because I don’t understand how people don’t realize that kind of loss, you can never move forward from.”
Angelis has since rebuilt the memorial, but the Burnaby RCMP is investigating the destruction and appealing to the public for any witnesses or information that could help identify who did it.
Danika Hetman was a long-time friend of Kiesha. She says she’s heard from a number of community members who have appreciated the thoughtfulness and care behind the memorial and were aghast about what happened.
Hetman says this is the last thing Kiesha’s memory deserved.
“It’s disheartening to see it completely trashed, and not even just taken down,” she said.
“She was just overall the most caring person I’ve probably ever met. I always say that she was literally too good for Earth.”
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says it’s still actively investigating the deaths of both Kiesha and her partner.
