The mom of 19-year-old Richie Todd, victim of a homicide in Williams Lake on May 5, 2022, is appealing to anyone with information about his death to contact the RCMP.
“It’s really hard. I’m trying to be strong,” said Lenny Billy. “If anyone has information I hope they will come forward. I’m hoping for justice.”
On the evening of Thursday, May 5, after 11 p.m. Todd was found laying on the road in the 300 block of Midnight Drive suffering from stab wounds.
People driving by stopped and blocked off the area with vehicles while they waited for emergency crews to arrive.
Todd was transferred to the hospital, but died as a result of his injuries.
Billy said Todd turned 19 on March 10 and was “really kind-hearted, always happy and outgoing.”
As a child he lived at Tl’entiqox First Nation with his mom, but later went into the care of the Ministry of Children and Family development.
He loved camping and fishing with his foster parents and was an ‘outdoors’ person, she said.
“He never liked being inside. He was always outside walking and visiting friends.”
Billy moved to Kamloops and said her son, who also went by Richie Billyboy, had returned to live in Williams Lake and was trying to go back and finish high school.
The last time she saw him was when he helped her move to a new place in Kamloops.
A few days before she found out he had been killed, she became worried about his whereabouts. She had received a text message from him asking to borrow some money and when she responded a few days later did he did not reply.
“I started asking my daughter who lives in Williams Lake if she had seen him, and started asking other people, and no one had seen him. I even posted in on Facebook.”
Billy is staying with her sisters at Tl’etinqox while she waits to hear back from the B.C. Coroners Service and the RCMP with information about her son’s death. Todd leaves behind two brothers and three sisters and was predeceased by his father.
Friends and family have been fundraising for the family and once his body was released she planned to bring him to Tl’etinqox.
RCMP have released no new details on the homicide since the initial news release on May 7. They have canvassed the neighbourhood and asked anyone with dashcam or video surveillance footage from that evening to please contact the police.
Members of the RCMP North District Major Crime Unit continue to lead the investigation working with the Williams Lake detachment.
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