B.C. MAN CHARGED IN 7 DRUG SLAYINGS

VANCOUVER (CP) - A career criminal on day parole from a life sentence has
been charged with the drug trade-related killings of seven people in the
mid-1990s.

Robert Bruce Moyes, 47, faces seven counts of first-degree murder involving
the deaths of a suburban Burnaby couple in 1995, and five people at a
Fraser Valley farm the following year.

Moyes was already in custody when police charged him Tuesday after a
massive investigation involving the RCMP, city police in Abbotsford, B.C.,
and Vancouver, as well as the B.C. Organized Crime Agency.

"This complex investigation into organized crime and the large scale
importation and distribution of cocaine had national and international
implications," police said today.

Police expect to arrest others in the case soon.

"Investigators are looking at those imminent arrests within the next week,"
said Const. Shinder Kirk, a spokesman for Abbotsford police.

Eugene Uyeyama, 35, and his wife Michelle, 30, were killed in their
suburban Burnaby residence in December 1995.

In September 1996, five people were killed at an Abbostford rural property
in the Fraser Valley, about 80 kilometres east of Vancouver.

They were: Raymond Graves, 70, his wife Sonto Graves, 56, David Sangha, 37,
Daryl Klassen, 30, and Teresa Klassen, 30.

At the time of their deaths, the Graves were charged with the attempted
murder of a Chilliwack, B.C., man. They'd been arrested after a police
standoff at their farm.

Police suggested at the time the five Abbotsford murders were executions
carried out by hired killers who likely left town before police discovered
the bodies.

Two of the victims were apparently shot and three were killed with knives.

Police, who at the peak had 37 investigators on the case, would not
elaborate on the organized-crime connections in the murders.

But at the time of the killings, Klassen's acquaintances in Winkler - a
staunchly Mennonite community 115 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg - said
Klassen had become involved with drugs and bikers.

"He did spend some time in jail, very short," Remple said today. "But I
think that was for a driving record or something like that, never for drugs."

Remple was shocked when told police had charged someone in the murders
because after so many years, the family had almost given up.

"The way I have to deal with it and my family, we didn't want to dwell on
it," she said.

"We knew that there was someone out there. I guess with our religion it
was, it's going to come out for him (the killer) in the end, no matter if
he gets arrested or not."

The family prefers to remember the younger Daryl at home in Winkler, the
boy who protected a girl at school from bullies.

"He was my brother and he was great to us," said Remple. "Sure they get in
a bad crowd and they do this, but you know another side of them."

Remple said her mother, who suffered a heart attack after Daryl's murder,
cried after learning of the charges.

"But it's not like she's been praying and praying for this to happen
because it's not going to bring Daryl back," said Remple.

She said the family's only regret is their father did not live to see
charges laid. He pushed for the investigation to continue, even driving to
British Columbia.

"He got sick very shortly after and died of a brain tumour in 2000," said
Remple.