Laura Szendrei's Father

I was going to write about the Laura Szendrei murder even though it had nothing to do with organized crime because it was so outrageous. A pretty young girl beaten to death in broad daylight for no reason. No enemies. No sexual assault. No sense.

Then we heard that Hells Angels showed up at the funeral in coulours and were caught on video racing through traffic in colours at high speeds. Whenever the Hells Angels do anything with colours on it raises red flags. No different than if the UN, Red Scorpions or Independent Soldiers were to attend a funeral in their gang colours.

Then we hear that not only does the father happen to have a few friends who are Hells Angels, he was photographed posing in East Van support gear. We all know that when people pose with Hells Angels or Hells Angels support gear on facebook, it has real meaning in the world of organized crime.

Now this picture is innocent enough. He's posing with his daughter for a photo with a few of her friends and happens to be wearing support gear. However, someone sent the Vancouver Province a photo which they posted in their printed edition, not on the web site which was very different.

In that photo he was standing above his daughter and some of her friends who were sitting at a table. He was clearly posing and showing off his support gear as he was scowling at the camera trying to look mean. It was somewhat bizarre. Why on earth would a grown man idolize an organized crime group and brag about it to a group of young girls. Strange indeed.

I can understand some of the outrage the vocal pr reps for the Hells Angels have expressed over speculation over their involvement in the murder. However, they have to accept responsibility for what the group they support does and the knee jerk reaction that group creates within the public whenever they parade around in colours trying to intimidate people.

If you want to go to a funeral to support a friend's loss then feel free. But don't wear gang colours at the funeral. That is disrespectful. Gangs do that as a sign of support implying that their gang will retaliate which in turn implies that the motive for the funeral was gang related.

Now I will admit, notwithstanding the Hells Angels presence at the funeral and the father posing in support gear, I think it is unlikely the Hells Angels were responsible for her murder. I think it's more likely they were trying to send a message to her murderer. Although I say unlikely, it's still very strange.

Did Hells Angels show up at Juel Stanton's funeral? I know they showed up at a UN funeral where they were accused of hiring someone to commit the murder. The Hells Angels are such compulsive liars it's hard to know what the truth is even on the rare occasion they may be telling it.

The bottom line is that this murder is yet another local tragedy. Losing a child to murder is horrible. Someone knows something. If you know anything about Laura Szendrei’s murder, Geoff Meisner’s murder or Lindsay Buziak’s murder, please contact the police or call Crimestoppers at 1 800 222-8477.

Suspect arrested in Laura Szendrei's murder