The two people suspected of killing a young Burnaby woman in a hit-and-run crash last week were on bail at the time of the accident, CTV News has learned.
Nicole Vrban, 18, and Ibrahim Ali, 25, were found Sunday in the B.C. Interior community of Creston, more than 700 kilometres from Wednesday’s crash scene.
Creston RCMP was alerted after the pair showed up at a local hotel, the Skimmerhorn Inn, around 1:30 a.m. covered in mud and blood. They claimed to have been involved in a single-vehicle crash.
“He had blood on his top forehead and she had speckles of mud all over her face,” said Shelly Haller, who works at the Skimmerhorn Inn. “They wanted a room, just for the two of them. They said they just were in an accident.”
Staff found the story suspicious, so they called RCMP. Officers believed the names being provided were false, and left to further assess the situation.
Mounties later returned to arrest the suspects after identifying the two as having an outstanding warrant for arrest, but the pair had already left the hotel.
Vrban and Ali were quickly located at another motel in the area, and were arrested without incident. Both were out on bail at the time of the crash, and warrants were out for their arrests.
Vrban was charged in January with robbery and assault with a weapon for an alleged knife attack on a man in Vancouver. Ali was charged in February with resisting or obstructing a peace officer and driving while prohibited.
Court documents say Ali – a reported UN-gang associate – sued the province and Corrections Canada for assaults behind bars at the hands of rival gang members.
Their charges are unrelated to the hit-and run-crash in Burnaby that killed 25-year-old Emily Sheane last week.
Sheane, an employee of Joe Fortes restaurant in Vancouver, was driving home from work when she was broadsided by a Range Rover that sped through a red light on Wednesday.
She died instantly.
Mounties said the luxury SUV was speeding at 100 kilometres an hour when it T-boned Sheane’s much smaller car.
Investigators said the Range Rover was “obtained fraudulently” but wasn’t stolen. No other information on the vehicle was released.
Burnaby RCMP says they are “fairly confident” Vrban and Ali are the suspects involved in the hit-and-run. They believe the pair obtained another car after they left Burnaby, and may have been involved in a second crash in the Creston area.
The investigation is ongoing, and the pair will next appear in court on Thursday morning.
But for now, Sheane’s family is preparing for their funeral as the memorial fund in her name continues to grow.
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Nafeesa Karim
