Shoplifting report in Halifax leads to arrest of Texas homicide suspect
Derek Cameron Whisenand, 28, has been on the lam in Canada since late June
A man wanted for homicide in Texas was arrested Monday afternoon after an alleged shoplifting incident at a business in Halifax.
In a statement, Halifax Regional Police said they apprehended Derek Cameron Whisenand, 28, who was the subject of a Canada-wide warrant.
Police say they received a call at 12:44 p.m. AT about alleged shoplifting by a man at a business in the 200 block of Chain Lake Drive in the Bayers Lake Business Park. When officers arrived and tried to arrest the man, he fled. Police said the officers followed him on foot and arrested him at 1:15 p.m.
Whisenand was not armed when he was arrested, but police say he did have a dog with him. The dog has been turned over to a shelter.
Halifax police said officers with Canada Border Services have now taken Whisenand into custody.
RCMP have been looking for Whisenand since he entered Canada illegally near Haskett, Man. — just north of Walhalla, N.D. — sometime during the week of June 24. His vehicle was found in the state about three kilometres from the Canadian border.
He's a suspect in the homicide of 78-year old Burton Duane Sanborn in Eastland County, Texas, about 170 kilometres southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The preliminary autopsy showed Sanborn suffered severe head trauma, according to local television station KTXS.
Prior to his arrest, the last known sighting of Whisenand was in Winnipeg on June 26.
Whisenand was also believed to be linked to the murder of a young tourist couple in British Columbia that happened a few weeks after he was sighted in Winnipeg, but two teenage boys admitted to those murders before killing themselves.
The Eastland County Sheriff's Office declined to comment, but said it will be putting out a press release.
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