Kiara Agnew was 23 years old when she left Canada for the very first time.
In March 2023, the Dawson Creek, British Columbia woman travelled to Playa del Carmen, Mexico to celebrate her birthday with her boyfriend. She sent happy videos home. Smiled from a resort balcony. Talked about food and the beach. Everything about the trip felt ordinary.
Less than twelve hours later, Kiara was found beaten to death in a laundry room at a five-star resort. Her boyfriend, Ryan Friesen, was discovered asleep beside her body.
Ryan was charged with femicide under Mexican law, and prosecutors told Kiara’s family the case was “open and shut.” But in September 2024, after a judge-only trial, he was found not guilty.
This episode walks through what happened next.
We examine the crime scene, the physical evidence, and the defence theory that shifted the case, including the DNA evidence that introduced reasonable doubt. We hear from Kiara’s sister about diary entries that documented years of escalating abuse, and we unpack Ryan’s version of events, including his claim that multiple attackers were responsible.
We also look at the questions that were never fully answered, including surveillance footage from the resort that Kiara’s family was led to believe existed but was never provided to them. In a case where timelines matter, that absence still looms large.
As protests spread across Canada, Kiara’s aunt organized the Justice for Kiara movement, pushing for accountability and for Kiara’s Law, a proposal calling for mandatory Canadian forensic autopsies in suspicious deaths abroad, stronger consular support for families, and Canadian jurisdiction in cases of Canadian-on-Canadian violence overseas.
Then, in an extremely rare move, a Mexican magistrate overturned the not-guilty verdict. Ryan Friesen remains free in Canada while his lawyers appeal, and his fate now rests with a three-judge panel in Mexico. If the new verdict is upheld, he could face up to 50 years in prison.
This is a story about unanswered questions. Conflicting truths. And a young woman whose first trip abroad ended in violence.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090631765773
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/ctv-w5-exclusive-not-guilty-verdict-in-murder-of-canadian-may-be-overturned/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canadian-man-found-not-guilty-of-killing-b-c-woman-in-mexico-1.7322127
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/kiara-agnew-obituary?id=51529082
https://www.scribd.com/document/985529747/Ryan-Friesen-Statement#google_vignette
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Her baby was in the 38th week of gestation? Then it could very well be alive, having been sold by either Richard or her sister.
Jailey and Sarah were half-siblings, not stepsisters.
No mobile phones in 1999? They were already widely available in 1997.
Core-a-see-den That’s how you pronounce the medicine
This doesn't sound like Munchausens to me. Sounds like plain old murder.
The guard dog's names were most likely Asenath (no R) and Beelzebub (instead of Beezelbub)...
A 52 year old isn't an "old man" - especially if his father's name is Burt Junior!
Some of the more persistent stalkers only see reason if they are being confronted by a large, no nonsense alpha-male type, as ridiculous as it may sound!
Heroin is not a "drug of choice"...
Most unluckiest? Ouch!
Münchhausen by proxy is more often found to be a male disorder? Go figure...🤔I'd have thought that it's a female thing.
"They had very different but similar personalities" 🤔⁉️Makes as much sense as a python suffocating two boys...
There is no Yugoslavian language, it was known as Serbo-Croatian back then, now it's Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian.
You don't need to take your phone apart to reboot 🙄using apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram instead of texting isn't an indicator of shady things per se, it's just cheaper.
Was Angela a born Schultz Shiers Barrentine or a née Schultz, widowed Shiers, remarried Barrentine?
Sean's death is eerily similar to the way Rebecca Zahau died - the same BS about a person committing suicide while their arms are immobilized.
Content creators are merely used as an excuse. People would see that more clearly if they'd start to think; there are toddlers who are barely able to string two words together but they will already blame someone else when caught with their hand in a cookie jar! "Slayer" was being used as a scapegoat (could've been "Mayhem" as well) by teenage boys who were, in all likelihood, behaving erratically long before they killed Elyse.
I wish parents would stop making their teenage kids go to rehab just because they smoked some weed - first of all, THC isn't addictive nor is there a need to "detox" your child. All you will accomplish is to destroy any remaining trust your kid had in you...and the fact that they will come in contact with patients who wish to get rid of bona fide addictions to alcohol, opioids or barbiturates. Those are the ones you need to worry about. If you want to experience the feeling of despair because you were the one who is responsible for a potential fateful meeting between your child and a lethal drug, just go ahead. You'll make them jump from the frying pan right into the fire.
PS: It's incite violence, not insight, Nikki!
While making the registry public may put sexual offenders at risk of being attacked by angry neighbors, the reason behind that anger is understandable - after all, those perps aren't non-violent offenders like thieves, con-men or burglars! It's a difficult question, indeed.