This website is being relocated. For updated information, go to mindytran.com

My name is David Ambrose. I was a resident of Kelowna from 1980 - 1995. I am only one of several witnesses to the abduction of Mindy Tran that you have never heard about. For additional information on any of the topics, click the tabs on the left or the highlighted links. For a brief overview of the evidence leading to the conclusion, just stay on the main pages and click next at the bottom.

On the evening of Mindy's disappearance. I saw a man crossing a road close to where Mindy had been abducted and mistaking him for a former acquaintance of mine, (referred to as suspect B) stopped to speak with him.  Suspect B looked quite similar to the prime suspect Shannon Murrin, and lived only one block away. I was surprised when the man I stopped to speak with attempted to conceal his identity from me and fled with the suitcase he was carrying into the trees on the south side of Springfield road. Approximately 1/2 an hour later, by chance, I again saw this same person returning from the same area and decided to follow him in my vehicle in order to confirm his identity. His destination turned out to be 1420 Collison road which was not suspect B's residence. I left the area shortly afterwards unaware that a little girl had just been abducted. The person carrying the suitcase saw me and knew that I had followed him to his destination. Several other people at that residence, and in that neighborhood also saw my vehicle as I slowly drove around the Tran's neighborhood between 7:45 and 9:00 PM. To them, I would have appeared to be acting suspiciously.
see- see witness statement)

Mindy Tran's body was later found where this suspicious man had been heading with the suitcase. I was fully intending to tell this story to the police but had delayed doing so at the time due to extenuating circumstances. I recognized the lead RCMP investigator, and a photo of the prime suspect released by the RCMP caused me to to reflect upon past events. I began to ask my own questions about the suspect and his past association with some mutual acquaintances. I believe that the person I had followed was Shannon Murrin and that he was the person known to me in the past as the Kelowna rapist profiled in this news report from 1980.
see- original newspaper story
see- photo comparison

A vehicle matching the description of mine, an older Jeep Cherokee, was initially suspected in Mindy's abduction and reported on. This was quickly silenced by the police and in follow-up newspaper reports that stated. " there was no problem with the jeep in relation to the Tran case". Several months after Mindy's abduction, the public was again asked to provide vehicle descriptions at a field office set up in the Springfield road park area where Mindy's body had been found. Ron Griffiths, an RCMP Constable working the Tran investigation, was photographed at this site in 1995 collecting these vehicle reports.
see- photo 

During the fall of 1998 I was preparing to go to the police with what I knew and began speaking on a phone from my brothers residence about doing so. Shortly afterwards, in early 1999, I was assaulted and threatened by a person holding a knife to my throat during a home invasion. The motive was not robbery, but rather to deliver a death threat against me. The threat was very specific, "to not even think about ratting on anyone" or they would be back to cut me in half. The home invasion suspects claimed to be the RCMP, were dressed like an RCMP swat team, and are by all indications protected by the RCMP. The invasion suspects have also been identified as associates of suspect "B".
see- home invasion

At the time of the home invasion, I was staying with my brother who was unknowingly being falsely implicated in a Kelowna drug operation, code named Project Endocrine. The same Kelowna RCMP member, R.J. Griffiths, photographed obtaining witness reports for the Tran case in 1995, provided false evidence implicating my brother as a drug suspect in an affidavit applying for a wire tap. The false evidence in the affidavit provided a fictitious drug related motive for the home invasion in which my life had been threatened; the life of the very person Griffiths had just previously been searching for as a witness in Mindy's abduction. The vehicle I had been driving on the night of Mindy's abduction was up for sale and parked in front of my brothers house at the time of the invasion. This home invasion has been portrayed as drug related ever since. The drug investigation, known as Project Endocrine, became the subject of a CBC 5th Estate program filmed during 2000. Suspect "B' was also involved in, and protected by this Kelowna RCMP drug operation. The home invasion investigation was taken over by RCMP members also involved in the Mindy Tran investigation. This information is well documented in the RCMP investigation files. 
see-  project endocrine)

Surprisingly there may be an explanation for these strangely coincidental events, one that explains both the home invasion at my brother's residence and the flawed Tran murder investigation. The key to understanding the entire Tran case has never been publicly told. Aside from the fact that I had seen and been seen by the murder suspect, I also knew about Shannon Murrin from the past. I and others knew that he was an RCMP informant/agent, and his handler in the past was RCMP Sgt. Gary Tidsbury,  the lead investigator in Mindy Tran's murder investigation. Suspect "B" was also a long time member of this same informant/agent group handled by Gary Tidsbury. The RCMP knew that I had witnessed an event involving Murrin and Tidsbury in the 1981 disappearance of a girl  named "Elizabeth" believed to have been from the Campbell River area. These past events may provide the background to understanding what really happened in the Tran Investigation. Note:  An RCMP member has since privately confirmed that Elizabeth is listed as a missing person from Campbell River for 1981. 
see- past events)

I had been led to believe that the RCMP had conclusive evidence, including DNA, available to confirm the identity of Mindy Tran's killer. Given the apparent evidence, and my fear as a result of the death threats, I delayed going to the police believing that my testimony was not required. Immediately upon hearing that the DNA evidence had been washed from Mindy's clothes and that Murrin was subsequently acquitted, I became even more suspicious. With a missing girl from the past already on my conscience, and now this bizarre coincidence of encountering the same suspect thirteen years later while he was in the process of abducting a child, I felt personally obligated to give this information to the designated authorities no matter the danger.  

How do you know if the actions of the RCMP members involved are known to and authorized by their superiors unless you ask? Everyone would at first assume that some where within the RCMP, the media, the courts, or our government system, there would be some department that would not condone these actions and would investigate. I circulated flyers, publicly requested information, sent letters to politicians, contacted the media, and called for an inquiry. I even offered a cash reward for evidence of my vehicle having been reported to the Mindy Tran investigators. Surprisingly, the newspaper for the day containing the story and sketches of the first suspect vehicle, (mine), is one of the few newspapers missing from the Kelowna library archives. 
reward offered  
library records

I provided a preliminary statement outlining these past events directly to a Surrey RCMP member. I have not been allowed to sign or to even view the draft copy written by the RCMP member on my behalf. I had been led to believe that the RCMP would not be able to just ignore the new information given the amount of detail supplied. I was unaware at the time the statement was given, that the former Kelowna Superintendent from the time of the Tran investigation, had since taken over the Surrey Detachment. The Surrey RCMP apparently directed my information back to Kelowna's Supervisor, Sam McLeod, against my expressed concerns. No one within the RCMP has responded to or spoken to me since. 
see- Surry RCMP boss

If the events that obstructed me from becoming identified as a witness in Mindy Tran's case were merely co-incidental or accidental, the RCMP should have been investigating the new information provided to them. They did not even request the specific address of the location where I had followed the suspect to. I would have to assume that they already knew. This has become the subject of an Official Public Complaint against the RCMP, as well as a lawsuit filed by my brother against the RCMP. The RCMP Public Complaints Commission is in possession of evidence of these crimes. 
see- complaint

Given the continuing silence from the RCMP, and out of an increasing fear of what I had stumbled into, I began this website in order to leave a record as to where the evidence can be found should anything happen to me. My own personal involvement is not a requirement as the facts and the evidence speak for itself. I am not suicidal and will not disappear on my own. Arrangements have been made for additional information to be made known should I become unavailable for any reason. My fears are not unfounded, there were other witnesses who had also been obstructed from testifying, including a man who had reported this same suitcase carrying suspect to the RCMP just prior to him being found dead, shot in the head! 
see-investigation