Not criminally responsible verdict determined in Vernon murder case

Jun 1, 2026 | 1:18 PM

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains content some reader’s may find graphic or disturbing

A man accused of murder has been found not criminally responsible due to a mental illness.

Peter Visintainer, charged in the death of Wolf Beyer in May of 2022, appeared in Vernon court Monday to hear the verdict.

The justice agreed with the Crown’s findings, that the accused killed Beyer in an altercation where the victim was stabbed and bludgeoned to death at a property on Six Mile Creek Road.

However, an independent psychiatric review done during the course of the trial found Visintainer was suffering from Schizophrenia Affective Disorder.

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Due to this disorder, Visintainer was under a delusion that he was a prophet of God, and was being pursued and poisoned by a Devil’s Army and Hell’s Angels.

Visintainer had made his way up to the Six Mile Creek Road and onto Beyer’s property. The two men encountered each other there, and Visintainer reportedly believed Beyer was part of the Devil’s Army, even seeing the other man’s face contort into that of “a gremlin with razor sharp teeth.” The two men got into an altercation, in which Visintainer elbowed the victim in the head, stabbed him with a knife, and bludgeoned him with the end of a hatchet.

Visintainer then attached the body of Beyer to the victim’s own truck and dragged the victim behind, until deciding to pull over and dispose of the body on the side of the road, which he then covered with black rubber mats. During this, another vehicle approached and Visintainer pulled ahead of it, hit the brakes, backed up into the other truck, then sped off. The occupants of the other vehicle lost track of Visintainer, so returned to the site of the crash where they called 911 to report a hit and run, and then found the body.

Visintainer was found in Vernon with the victim’s truck a few days later, and when arrested, was still under the delusion that the Devil’s Army was after him.

Due to the mental illness Visintainer was suffering from, the court found he was not criminally responsible for the death of Beyer.

Visintainer, who had been in custody since the arrest, will be moved to a psychiatric hospital for further detention and reviews. The court also imposed a firearm prohibition and a DNA order.

More details to come…

by Liam Verster

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