Murder charges dropped in grisly Walpole Island slaying

Murder charges dropped in grisly Walpole Island slaying

Shortly after two men were sentenced for their roles in killing, burning and dismembering Windsor’s Oyebode Oyenuga on Walpole Island in 2021, murder charges against two other accused have been dropped.

Shortly after two men were sentenced for their roles in killing, burning and dismembering Windsor’s Oyebode Oyenuga on Walpole Island in 2021, murder charges against two other accused have been dropped.

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Provincial police said little during a massive police probe – first of a suspicious death, later a homicide – on the First Nation between Sarnia and Chatham starting March 17, 2021, leaving residents with many unanswered questions. That veil of secrecy finally lifted just more than a week ago as two of eight accused in the case pleaded guilty and were sentenced.

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Rolf Agard, 34, who has ties to Windsor and Mississauga, received 12 years in prison Dec. 1 for kidnapping and manslaughter and Dejour Millington, 25, of Toronto, drew a 20-month jail term for offering an indignity to human remains.

Six other suspects were facing charges at the time, but that list is now down to four.

Nashaye Walker, 21, of North York, was arrested March 10, 2022, on a Canada-wide warrant and charged with first-degree murder.

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About two weeks later, Turuk Thomas, 21, of Kitchener, was arrested on unrelated charges in Sault Ste. Marie and transferred to provincial police in Lambton County, where he was wanted on an outstanding warrant and charged with first-degree murder.

But Friday, the Crown asked a Sarnia judge to drop all charges against Walker and Thomas.

That same day, charges against another accused, Zy’Shaun Lawrence, 20, of Kitchener, were adjourned until February. Lawrence was arrested and charged on Oct. 13, 2021, with being an accessory after the fact to murder and committing an indignity to a dead body.

Charges against three other suspects are also still before the courts.

Oyenuga, 25, also known as Bode, was confirmed by police as a homicide victim in June 2021, nearly three months after his remains were found and four months after his family first reported him missing. Eight people were charged in his death between August 2021 and March 2022.

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Oyebode Oyenuga (Obituary)

Little was known about the case over the last 2.5 years until a Sarnia court heard an agreed statement of facts after Agard’s and Millington’s guilty pleas.

Oyenuga, who was dealing with a substance-abuse issue, puts the group of suspects through the Windsor drug subculture, the statement said. He fought Agard in a fit of jealousy over a woman on Feb. 2, 2021, and the group allegedly hatched a plan to teach him a lesson.

While passed out on drugs later that night, Oyenuga, a University of Windsor computer science student, was driven in his white 2015 BMW to Walpole Island while a second car followed, the statement said. He was shot multiple times in the head in an area near Pump House Road and his body dragged into a brushy area and burned.

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Walpole Island homicide probe
OPP officers investigate in a marshy area in the south end of Walpole Island First Nation on March 18, 2021, a day after the remains of Oyebode (Bode) Oyenuga, 25, of Windsor, were found by Walpole Island police. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News) Photo by Ellwood Shreve /Ellwood Shreve/The Daily News

Later, his body was dismembered, put in garbage bags and tossed near Dynamite Cut Road, about two to three kilometers from the shooting scene, the statement said. His BMW was driven to a covered parking garage in Kitchener and wiped down.

Oyenuga’s family reported him missing to Windsor police three days later, the statement said. Police went public with a plea to help find him in early March.

On March 17, 2021, Walpole Island police found the burned and dismembered remains, the statement said. Oyenuga’s identity was confirmed by DNA testing at the Center of Forensic Sciences in Toronto.

In April 2021, investigators found the shooting and burning site, where they recovered human bone fragments, three nine-millimeter shell casings and a cellphone, the statement said. A major witness came forward soon after.

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@ObserverTerry

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