INSIDE TODAY

HOMELAND HORROR WATCHING THE CARNAGE IN KIEV FROM KAMLOOPS

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KTW

CLOWNING AROUND TRU’S ACTORS WORKSHOP TAKES THE STAGE

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Friday, February 21, 2014 X Volume 27 No. 21 �— Kamloops, B.C., Canada X 30 cents at Newsstands

WHAT’S HAPPENINGTHIS WEEKEND

X�ARTS SECTION /B1

WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY KAMLOOPS THIS WEEKFR

IDAY

STONE COLDSTUNNER ICE CREAM SCOOPED FROM TIM HORTONS

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EAAAAAAKKKK P”

”

He was my best friend, best friend and brother. It’s like knowing no one’s ever going to get that close

to you again. He knew things that no one else will.

CIABATTA BACONCHEESEBURGER

©2014 Wendy’s International, LLC.

www.kamloopsthisweek.com FRIDAY, February 21, 2014 � A15

By Adam WilliamsSTAFF REPORTER

adam@kamloopsthisweek.com

IT WAS THREE days before Stuart Richey’s 21st birthday —

Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013 — that his life changed forever.

He was in Burns Lake at the time — a forest-fire fighter in his summers, he was work-ing in the area — when he got the call.

It was early, around five in the morning.

He heard his moth-er’s voice on the other end of the phone — his brother Connor had been in an accident.

Stuart should hurry.Connor and Stuart

were born three minutes apart, Connor being the elder. They were close, as most twins usually are, and the news was devastating.

“I was angry,” Stuart

says. “I was very angry — I was punching my bed, screaming.”

Connor had been in Vancouver watching a Whitecaps soccer game with his girlfriend. He had been standing on a SkyTrain platform at East Broadway and Commercial Drive waiting for the train that would take him home.

He leaned against a railing on the edge of the platform — a rail-ing that, at 42 inches tall, is now the subject of an ongoing coroner’s investigation — and fell over it, dropping 40 feet to the concrete below.

It was a freak acci-dent.

Connor was taken to Vancouver General Hospital with a trau-matic head injury and broken bones in his neck, wrist and pelvis.

Stuart made the two-hour trip to Prince George where he caught a plane to Vancouver. It was a relatively short flight — a little more than an hour direct — but felt like the longest he had ever taken.

***

Just hours earlier,

at 8:40 p.m., at home in Roberts Creek — a Sunshine Coast com-munity of 3,000, half-way between the town of Gibsons and the District of Sechelt — Stuart and Connor’s mother Jan received a similar phone call.

The caller ID read Vancouver General Hospital, but it wasn’t an unusual number for the former volleyball player to see on the display. Jan dealt with

complications from two hip surgeries and figured the call was a reminder for an upcom-ing appointment — the hospital always seemed to call at the strangest of times.

But when Jan answered the phone and learned the real reason for the call, she col-lapsed into hysterics.

“You go into com-plete panic mode, thinking all the worst things and worst sce-narios,” she says. “It’s interesting because I can replay that whole night, basically minute by minute almost. Even though it was constant stuff, it just comes back to you so clearly.

“It’s still really hard to believe . . . it’s just really hard to believe.”

She and husband George had a little more than an hour to

catch the last ferry to Vancouver.

She recalls feeling lucky — had it been just a few weeks later, the ferry would have switched to its winter hours.

They made it to the Langdale ferry ramp in time — frantically making arrangements with family members and friends on the way — and settled in for the hour-long trip to Horseshoe Bay, as Connor lay in a hospital bed just 50 kilometres away.

***

Connor was a golfer,

a good one at that. He had been sched-

uled to leave for Texas the following week, attending Ranger College on a golf scholarship. He was a

physical specimen — a dedicated athlete who golfed two rounds a day, went to the gym to work out in between and still found time to hit the driving range before the day was out.

But now, he was lying in a hospital bed in VGH as family and friends flocked in from around the country — his sister Kyla came from Winnipeg, where she was playing volley-ball with Team Canada.

Stuart’s room-mate and fellow WolfPack player Matt Krueger came in from Abbotsford. Others from the Coast made the trip — everyone wanted to see Connor, everyone wanted their time with him.

For Stuart, it was the worst.

FRID

AY

Sports: Marty Hastings �• 250-374-7467 (ext. 235)

sports@kamloopsthisweek.com

SPORTS

Twin brothers Connor (left) and Stuart Richey in vacation mode. Connor was killed in a freak accident last summer at a SkyTrain station in Vancouver. Stuart, a TRU WolfPack volleyball player, is doing his best to cope with the loss, with teammates, family and friends helping him along the way. Connor was 20 when he died.

Dealing with the loss of a lifetimeTRU volleyball player Stuart Richey suffering through death of twin brother

Connor Richey planned to attend Ranger College in Texas on a golf scholarship. The accident that took his life occured a week before he was scheduled to head south. X�See HE WAS A16

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SPORTS

“I was telling my friends to come say bye,” Stuart says, fight-ing back tears. “It was a sleepless night, for sure.”

He had arrived at VGH at 11 a.m. on Sunday, a little more than 12 hours after Connor fell. Stuart sat with his older brother, told him how much he loved him.

The family wrote goodbye letters to Connor, reading them to him before the doctors came to get him so his organs could be donat-ed. Jan says reading those letters was one of the most anguishing, heart-wrenching experi-ence a family could go through.

They knew early on that it was unlikely Connor would survive his injuries — he had almost no brain func-tion.

Connor never regained consciousness and, at 2:15 p.m. on Aug. 11, the doctors declared him legally dead.

“He was my best friend — best friend and brother,” Stuart says.

“It’s like knowing no one’s ever going to get that close to you again. He knew things that no one else will.”

That was the day Stuart’s life changed forever. Losing a sibling is hard enough, but los-ing a twin is a different kind of loss entirely.

Connor had always been there for him, always a friend to play

with, always someone to talk to.

He didn’t feel like he could talk to anyone now, certainly not about Connor. Six months after his brother’s acci-dent, he still doesn’t talk about it much.

“Up here, no one knew who he was,” Stuart says. “So, it was like not really being alone, but sort of alone, in the sense that no one really knows who he was, what I’m going through.”

There was a time when he wasn’t sure he was going to come back to TRU. In the days following Connor’s ser-vice — a memorial at the Sechelt Golf Course that drew more than 800 mourners — Stuart and his parents tried to decide what was best

for him. Should he stay in

Roberts Creek? Go travel?

In the end, they decided he’d return to TRU, to his friends and his volleyball team, his regular routines and his business degree. They hoped routines would help Stuart cope and get him through the tough days.

He says he came back because he, too, thought it was best to return to his routines but, in a sense, he also came back for Connor.

“The fact that we were so athletic grow-ing up, too, I thought he’d want me playing instead of just sitting around doing nothing,” Stuart says.

‘He was my best friend — best friend and brother’

Stuart Richey and the TRU WolfPack are competing in the Canada West Final Four conference championship tournament this weekend in Langley. Allen Douglas/KTW

The Richey twins, donning matching outfits, prepare to brave the water.

X�From A15

X�See RICHEYS A17

CRIME STOPPERS IS SUPPORTED BY

HIT AND RUN IN HOTEL PARKING LOT

CRIME OF THE WEEK HOME BROKEN INTO

DURING THE DAY

BULLETS DAMAGE VEHICLES

K A M LO O P S C r i m e S t o p p e r s W A N T E D

A suspect vehicle was seen smashing into a parked vehicle at the West end of the Coast Hotel parking lot on Rogers Way, at approximately 1050 am on Sunday February the 2nd. The suspect vehicle hit the other vehicle hard enough to know there had been a collision. The suspect driver, instead of getting out to examine

the damage, the person just drove off out of the parking lot.

This suspect vehicle was seen by a witness but they could not get a licence plate, they did describe the suspect vehicle, as a 3 / 4 ton, white pickup truck, they were unsure of the make or model of the truck but said it had the word “Lowen” on the side.

The suspect’s vehicle had signifi cant damage to them and would be easily noticed by someone seeing the truck.

If you have any information on this hit and run or know the whereabouts of this suspect vehicle, please contact Crime Stoppers, you will receive a cash reward upon the arrest of the suspect.

On Wednesday February 12th a home owner on the 400 block of Alexander St. was shock to fi nd their house had been broken into. The home owner was out of the house from noon to one o’clock to get groceries, when they came back, the house had been searched through. The suspects may have been watching the home for the owner to leave, the suspects forced open a basement side door, that gave them full access to the entire house.

Once inside the suspects were selective in what they took, only taking a small amount of cash and some personal identifi cation.

This is a good reminder for everyone to be aware of who is in your neighbourhood, if you see someone suspicious call the police right away, don’t be a victim to these thieves.

If you have any information on this break and enter please contact Crime Stoppers only your information will be used never your name.

MUG SHOTS

Early Monday morning, between 5:10 and 5:15 am, February 17th, a security guard was patrolling near the Toyota Car dealership on Caribou Place, when he heard several gun shots coming from Hillside Dr. The shots were directed towards several vehicles on the dealership car lot, a further inspection found that four

vehicles had been hit by bullets. The RCMP forensic unit attended and located shell casings from where the shots were fi red from, as well they retrieved bullets from the vehicles that had been struck by the bullets. This act of vandalism is not only senseless, it is very dangerous to the public. Although it was early in

the morning, there are people in the area on Hillside Dr or Caribou Place, someone may seen the suspects or a suspicious vehicle nearby.

If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact Crime Stoppers, you will remain anonymous and will never have to go to court.

www.kamloopscrimestoppers.ca

BARTKOWSKI, STEVEN BERNDBirth date: 71-05-06Age: 42Caucasian maleHeight: 173 cm (5’08”)Weight: 82kg (181 lbs)Hair: brownEyes: blue

Wanted for: Breach of Released Conditions

MCLEAN, TYLER RONALDBirth date: 86-11-29Age: 27Caucasian maleHeight: 188 cm (6’02”)Weight: 079 kg, (175 lbs)Hair: blondeEyes: blue

Wanted for: Personation and Obstruction

RONNING, JENNIFERBirth date: 1977-08-19Age: 36Caucasian femaleHeight: 165 cm (5’05”)Weight: 59 kg, (130 lbs)Hair: BlondeEyes: Hazel

Wanted for: Possession of a Controlled Substance, Driving While Impaired, Breach of Release Conditions

If you know where any of these people are, call Crime Stoppersat 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). The tip line pays up to $2,000 for information

leading to the arrest of fugitives. Remember, Crime Stoppers just wants your information, not your name. Crime doesn’t pay, but Crime Stoppers does.

This Program is jointly sponsored by Kamloops Crime Stoppers and Kamloops This Week.People featured are wanted on arrest warrants not vacated as of 3pm on Wed, Feb 19, 2014

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www.kamloopsthisweek.com FRIDAY, February 21, 2014 � A17

SPORTS

Jan and George are proud of their children for continuing on with their lives despite the loss of Connor. They’re doing everything they can to support Stuart and Kyla and the last year has made all of them realize the importance of fam-ily and cherishing every moment together.

“I’m so proud of him that he came to school,” Jan says, hold-ing back tears. “He’s playing. He’s playing phenomenally well.”

Stuart’s sister Kyla also returned to volleyball after Connor passed away. She now plays professionally in Turkey.

“Both of them could have just said, ‘Forget it,’ and packed it in,” Jan says.

But, they didn’t, even though there were days when they certainly wanted to — they used sport as a means of coping with the tragedy.

There were days when getting out of bed seemed like too much, days when he thought about giving up, calling his parents and asking them to come get him and take him back to Roberts Creek.

But then the afternoon would roll around and it was time to go to

volleyball practice.Volleyball helped him get

through those dark days, surround-ed by positive teammates, their work ethic and dedication.

“It’s been helpful,” said Stuart, whose WolfPack squad is compet-ing in the Canada West Final Four conference championship tourna-ment this weekend in Langley.

TRU head coach Pat Hennelly says Stuart has had a resurgence this season, as has the rest of the WolfPack. With Stuart now in his fourth season, Jan has seen her son’s team play for years — but there’s a little something extra this season, a greater sense of team.

“He won’t take credit for that, but I do think it has a little bit to do with — even though they’re not overtly saying anything to Stuart — they’re like, ‘OK, well if Stuart can come to practice after what he’s gone through, why am

I complaining?’” Jan says.

*** It’s been six months since

Connor’s accident — since the day Stuart’s life changed forever — and things haven’t really gotten easier.

People told him they would, that things would improve, each day would be a little bit easier than the last, but it hasn’t happened yet.

“I think I’ve just gotten better at putting a face on and managing it a bit better, not in the sense that it has gotten better,” Stuart says.

“I don’t think it gets better. I think it changes,” his mother adds.

“I think you move sideways. It’s fluid.

“We’re changed and, if there’s a positive that will come out of it . . . it changes who you are and hopefully it will change us in a positive way.”

Stuart says he’s different now.He was once money-hungry,

always saving, always wanting to earn more. Now, he hardly sees the point; when his friends talk about money he’s of the mind there are more important things in life. Things were the same with school — how could he care about business ethics after losing his best friend?

The family takes some comfort in the fact Connor’s organs were donated following his accident — his lungs to a boy with cystic fibro-sis, his kidneys to someone in kid-ney failure, dependent on dialysis.

His liver, eyes and pancreas were also given to others.

“That’s not something we had ever discussed,” Jan says of the donation. “It just seemed like he was an athlete in his prime and that, if he could help other people, it just seemed to be a logical conclusion.”

Connor’s grandmother thought his shoulders should have been donated as well — he had great shoulders.

“I haven’t thought about it a lot, but I certainly feel that it wasn’t a complete waste, his death,” Jan says. “I think the thought that peo-ple benefitted from this, there has to be some positive.”

The Richeys also used the trag-edy to start a memorial fund — the Connor Richey Legacy Fund. They’ve received $13,000 in dona-tions so far and are looking at what to do with the money. They know the fund will have something to do with golf, maybe using the money to help kids access the game — Connor would have liked that.

They’ll also be hosting a golf tournament in Connor’s memory this summer at the Sechelt Golf Course. A few members of the WolfPack might make the trip out, listening as the family shares their memories of Connor — the Thanksgiving dinner plates with gravy in the place of vegetables, the way he always knew exactly how to make his brother lose his temper, the way Stuart used to have to act as Connor’s translator when they were kids, when he had a speech impediment and Stuart was the only one who could understand him.

Then they’ll play the game he loved and remember him.

Richeys using volleyball to honour ConnorX�From A16

Sporty siblings Stuart (left), Kyla and Connor Richey. Kyla plays volleyball professionally in Turkey. Connor is never far from the minds of Stuart and Kyla.

Donations to the Connor Richey Legacy Fund can be made at any

credit union in B.C.

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