Nov
29th

Port Coquitlam man charged with murder.

Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, November 26, 2007

A Port Coquitlam man has been charged with the murder of a man whose body was found last year in Abbotsford.

Jimmy Clifford Benoit, 26, was arrested and charged with the murder of Joy Anthony Mendoza who went missing from his Surrey home last year, the integrated homicide investigation squad said in a press release Monday.

Mendoza was a student attending the B.C. Institute of Technology when he vanished.

A farmer found his body Feb. 21, 2006, in a ditch on Marion Road north of Campbell Road in rural Abbotsford, police said at the time. The discovery was made by an Abbotsford farmer while tending his field.

Police said at the time of the murder Benoit lived in Abbotsford.

“It was learned through the investigation that Benoit was a drug-buying client of Mendoza’s who was involved as a dealer in a ‘dial-a-dope’ operation. This is yet another example of how the drug underworld can have a devastating ending,” the police press release said.

Benoit was to appear in Chilliwack Provincial Court Monday for his first appearance.