Mountie stabbed in Mr. Big operation
The man arrested last week north of Kamloops in connection to the alleged stabbing of an undercover police officer pleaded guilty last month to stabbing his girlfriend — who is now missing.
KTW has obtained Alberta court documents showing 24-year-old Mark Lindsay entered a guilty plea in an Edmonton courtroom on Aug. 12 to one count of assault with a weapon.
The incident occurred on June 22, 2011, when Lindsay stabbed his girlfriend, Dana Turner, in the head with a paring knife.
Lindsay spent 50 days in jail prior to his guilty plea and was handed a sentence of time served, in addition to being placed on a conditional sentence order and an 18-month probation term.
He was released from custody on Aug. 12.
Turner, 31, was reported missing a few days later. She was last seen on Aug. 14 at a motel in Edmonton.
KTW has learned Lindsay was arrested by Kamloops RCMP in the early-morning hours of Wednesday, Sept. 21, near McLure, about 45 kilometres north of Kamloops.
He's alleged to have stabbed an undercover Alberta RCMP officer and stolen a truck the two men were travelling in, apparently as part of an RCMP Mr. Big investigation.
The incident is alleged to have taken place in Barriere.
Suspects in murder cases are sometimes targeted by the RCMP for so-called Mr. Big operations, in which undercover officers pretend to be members of a criminal organization in an attempt to gain the trust of the suspect.
Posing as criminals, the officers attempt to recruit their target into a fictitious gang.
Typically, the suspect travels across Canada performing tasks for the group — often involving moving packages and sometimes depicting staged violence.
The operations generally culminate in a meeting with a "boss" — Mr. Big — where the suspect is asked to come clean about any previous crimes.
Police have not publicly named Lindsay a suspect in Turner's disappearance.
He is charged in Kamloops provincial court with one count of robbery, in relation to the alleged theft of the truck and trailer, and one count of possession of a weapon.
At the time of the alleged incident in Barriere, he was also on a condition barring him from possessing any weapons stemming from the guilty plea in August.
Last Friday (Sept. 23), RCMP in Alberta issued a press release stating they'd found Turner's vehicle, but wouldn't say when or where it was located.
Lindsay was slated to appear in Kamloops provincial court this morning (Sept. 26) for a bail hearing, but that hearing has been set for Oct 3.
— with files from Byron Christopher in Edmonton
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