Wanted man reported missing after 2009 airport fire, pronounced dead and $9 million in life insurance payout

WARNING: This article contains details of allegations of suicide and sexual assault.

Nearly fifteen years after flames burst into flames in a hangar at an airport in northern British Columbia on a cold winter day, the mystery is what happened to the man who has since gone missing – a man who had 16 multi-million-dollar life insurance policies and was later charged with sexual assault in another province – took a possible final turn.

On Wednesday, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Carla Forth officially declared the man dead.

One sec no remains of 55-year-old Vernon Martin were ever foundForth said the evidence largely supported the view that he was killed in fire in a hangar at Prince George Airport on December 19, 2009. And, as Forth stated, he was probably there to end his life.

Her ruling came after Martin’s three brothers filed a motion to declare the 55-year-old’s death, which resulted in a life insurance payout of about $9 million. The four brothers owned several companies with offices in the hangar where the fire occurred.

For announced Martin’s death in accordance with the Act on the presumption of death on the balance of probabilities.

In her ruling, Forth revealed that in the days before the fire, Martin twice faced allegations of sexual misconduct. Five months after the fire, one of his sisters found a fireproof filing cabinet in his office filled with a will written three days before the fire and a handwritten letter that Forth had labeled a “suicide note.”

“I don’t know how to say ‘I’M SORRY’ enough for what I’ve done to all of you. I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me,” we read.

The memo appeared to specify how some of Martin’s holdings, such as stocks, trucks and investments, were to be paid out, according to Forth’s decision.

“I’m a really bad person. I really don’t know why I did what I did. I can’t give a simple (?) answer. I start with good intentions, but everything has taken me (too) far. Please forgive me if you can,” the note reads.

“I love you all.”

Allegations made a few days before the fire

Forth also described the two days leading up to Martin’s disappearance.

On December 17, 2009, three of Martin’s siblings made allegations against him that he had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with multiple teenage boys approximately 20 years earlier.

“(Martin) did not deny the allegations, but attempted to clarify and minimize them,” Forth wrote.

She said Martin disclosed to his siblings that he was being sued by two complainants and was in settlement talks with them.

“(Martin) expressed remorse for the trouble he caused his family.”

The next day he met with the parents of the boys he allegedly assaulted, and “he appeared calm and not upset,” Forth wrote.

The next morning, December 19, 2009, Martin asked one of his sisters where his old will was and asked her to destroy it. Forth found that her sister did not want to do it, and told her brother to tear it up himself.

“(Martin) told (his sister) that he had prepared a new will and would put it on her desk for her to put away,” Forth’s ruling reads.

The siblings were then drinking coffee in the kitchen of one of Martin’s brothers – where he was staying – when someone known to the family arrived at the house and accused Martin of sexually assaulting their son when he was a teenager.

“They threatened to call the police and arrest (Martin). The couple’s son, now an adult, wanted to meet (Martin) that evening. The confrontation lasted about an hour and (Martin) did not protest. He remained silent and looked defeated. After the meeting, (Martin) sat in the kitchen and refused to talk,” Forth wrote.

Martin was charged with two historic sexual assault offenses in Alberta a year after the fire.

One of the sisters testified that she was worried about Martin after the confrontation and called his family doctor, who agreed to come to the house and see him that afternoon.

But before the doctor arrived, Martin told his siblings that he was going to the hangar office for an hour.

According to Forth, a manager at another company saw him there around 1:30 p.m. An hour later, smoke was first reported coming from a second-story window.

When firefighters arrived, they found one office so full of smoke that they couldn’t see inside. They began removing equipment from the hangar but were forced to evacuate when flames spread to the roof. Firefighters did not search the entire building because they were told there was no one inside, Forth said.

She said two of Martin’s brothers drove to the hangar when they heard about the fire and tried to call his cell phone, but it went to voicemail.

Around 6:00 p.m. the hangar collapsed. The cause of the fire was never determined.

A long and exhausting search ends in failure

Forth described years of fruitless efforts by his family, police and insurance companies, one of which even hired a private investigator, to find any trace of Martin.

His truck, abandoned outside the hangar, contained his passport, ID card, credit cards and other items. The RCMP did not investigate the hangar until the spring, after the site had thawed.

When a forensic anthropology expert searched the site several months after the fire, he reported finding no human remains after eight days of combing through the rubble. However, another expert’s report showed that the remains may have simply been missed. In her ruling, Forth gave greater weight to the second report.

A Mountie team also searched the area surrounding the hangar but found no sign of Martin. Searches of his credit card records, flight passenger lists, car rentals and taxi inquiries yielded no results.

The forensic accountant further said there was no evidence that Martin secretly obtained money from his personal accounts or business interests before or after the fire.

The husband of one of Martin’s cousins ​​said in an affidavit that he certainly saw Martin in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Lloydminster, Alta., in the late summer or early fall after the fire, but Forth said that was a mistake.

She admitted that there was a motive for Martin’s disappearance after the allegations against him were revealed. But she also noted 14 years of fruitless searching and what she described as Martin’s general inability to live the easy way. His siblings said his health was poor and he could not walk far.

Forth also rejected theories that Martin played foul play or that he faked his own death.

“(He) was unaware that his family knew of the alleged sexual abuse allegations until … just two days before his disappearance,” she wrote.

“It doesn’t make much sense that (Martin) would be able to orchestrate his disappearance at such a short notice. A more likely explanation is that when (he) found out that his family members had been told about his past, he decided that his life was not worth living…”

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