Friends and family of Trina Hunt gathered outside the Port Coquitlam court Wednesday (March 5) ahead of what was supposed to be the first court appearance of Iain Hunt, who was charged with indignity to human remains in relation to his wife's death.
However, Iain Hunt's court appearance was pushed back to April 23.
"You wait for years, holding on to hope that the justice system will do things right, and you hear people say that the justice system fails British Columbians again and again," Stephanie Ibbott said. Ibbott, who is married to Trina's cousin, said they know nothing about the reasoning for the delay.
"I think I'm still processing the court delay, but the message that we want to serve and why we are holding the rally still today is that if the delay came from his side, you can delay it all you want, but we are going to show up and fight for Trina every time because you stole her voice and we are Trina's voice now and we are going to be loud."
About 30 people were gathered on the steps of the courthouse, with signs featuring the colour purple and tulips that read "justice for Trina" and "IHIT we are still counting on you."
"Purple was a colour Trina loved and she loved tulips, so when she first went missing, we were trying to come up as a family a symbol for her," Ibbott said, adding purple represents domestic violence awareness.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced Feb. 4 that Iain Hunt, 52, was facing one count of indignity to human remains in relation to the death of Trina.
Trina, 48, was reported missing to Port Moody Police Department on Jan. 18, 2021. There was an extensive search by police, Trina's family and the community in the following weeks. On March 29, 2021, investigators found a body near Hope and the remains were later confirmed to be Trina's.
When IHIT Sgt. Freda Fong spoke to media on Feb. 4, she said the date of the indignity to human remains offence is believed to be on or around Jan. 16, 2021, two days before Iain Hunt reported her missing. Fong added she couldn't go into the details of the gap in time of the offence date and when Trina was reported missing.
Fong said she also couldn't comment on how Trina died, but said it would be revealed in the court proceedings.
No one has been charged in the cause of Trina's death, but Fong said there "wouldn't be a lot of active leads left to exhaust" in the investigation. She added that if homicide police were to get further tips to their information line, they "would not be closed off to that."
Despite that, Ibbott said Trina's friends and family are still hoping that someone will be charged in the cause of her death.
"I truly know that they (the police) did an amazing job. They did all that they could do. They worked so hard on this ... I think that they submitted what they had and now the charges are a result of what the Crown has decided."
She added part of their rally was directed toward the B.C. Prosecution Service.
Ibbott said in the days after Trina went missing, a family member of Iain's told her family that they just needed to be a little more patient.
"I never felt like patience was a necessity when you were searching for your family member that went for a walk in the woods and just simply never came back, so that's haunted me," she said.
"I just want to say that we can get a little bit more patient while we wait for the murder charges."
