Former Nelsonite Jennifer Cusworth's cold case murder trial begins in Kelowna court
By Nelson Daily Editor
A 20-year-old cold case of the murder of a former Nelson resident is now seeing the light of day in a Kelowna courtroom, the CBC reported Friday.
On Thursday the trial began as footage was shown in a Kelowna courtroom of investigators lifting former LV Rogers graduate Jennifer Cusworth’s body from a ditch on Swamp Road, on the outskirts of Kelowna, in October, 1993.
Forty-three year-old father of four, Neil George Snelson, is now facing trial on a charge of first-degree murder in relation to the death of Cusworth.
Former Nelson area residents and Jennifer’s parents, Jean and Terry Cusworth, are in Kelowna for the trial.
Cusworth, a graduate of LV Rogers who was studying social work at Okanagan University College, went missing from a house party Kelowna on Oct.16, 1993 and was never seen alive again.
Her body turned up in the ditch of a residential driveway 24-hours later and Kelowna RCMP had been investigating the incident for the past 18 years, until Snelson was arrested two years ago.
At the time, police said Snelson was one of the 150 people at the house party from which Cusworth disappeared. According to the police, they had allegedly found DNA on an object at the murder scene matched with Snelson’s.
New technology has allowed police to match DNA collected, implicating the husband and father of four. A practicing Christian, Snelson was a congregant and a bassist in the “praise team” at First Lutheran Church in Kelowna.
The Cusworths lived in Crescent Valley for a number of years while Jennifer, their only daughter, was going to high school in Nelson and Jean worked in the local school system as a principal.
Shortly before her death they moved to Victoria and Jennifer moved to Kelowna to attend Okanagan University College to study social work at age 19.
