Editor's note: This story contains graphic details. Discretion is advised
Accused killer Hunter Van Mackelberg denied knowing or having ever met murder victim Kalix Langenau after being arrested and interrogated by RCMP officers following the 19-year-old’s death.
A week-and-a-half into Van Mackelberg’s second-degree murder trial, on Nov. 2, the court heard portions of two separate, recorded interviews the accused had with police after being arrested as a suspect in Langenau’s homicide in February 2020.
“I guarantee I have no information because I don’t even know the guy,” Van Mackelberg said in a recorded interview with an RCMP staff sergeant on Feb. 20, 2020, shortly after he was arrested.
Van Mackelberg, now 20 years old, is accused of killing Langenau on Feb. 15, 2020. According to the agreed statement of facts for the three-week trial, Langenau was shot in the back of the head by a shotgun. His body was found on Feb. 17 in a Balzac field near CrossIron Mills mall, and Van Mackelberg was arrested shortly afterward.
Crown prosecutor Ron Simenik’s argument is that Van Mackelberg followed his girlfriend Madeline Kot to the Balzac Costco, where she was meeting Langenau, whom she had previously dated. The agreed facts indicated Kot and Langenau had exchanged roughly 50 texts and a phone call that night, eventually agreeing to meet up in person.
It was after Kot and Langenau’s meeting that an angry Van Mackelberg confronted Langenau, according to the crown’s argument.
In his first recorded interview with police on Feb. 20, 2020 in Airdrie’s Municipal Enforcement and RCMP headquarters, Van Mackelberg said he did not know why he was linked to the murder, claiming he had never even met Langenau in person.
“All I know about him is he dated my girlfriend now,” Van Mackelberg said. “That’s it. I’ve never seen him. That’s really all the information I’ve got.”
It's an assertion that differed from others who have testified at the trial, including Kot and some of Van Mackelberg’s friends, who spoke to his disliking of Langenau when they took to the stand last week.
Speaking to police after he had been arrested, Van Mackelberg said he had been at a nightclub in Calgary on the night of Langenau’s death, returning to his Airdrie home at around 10:30 p.m. After that, he claimed he watched a movie and then went to sleep, waking up at around 10 a.m. the following morning.
In a separate interview on Feb. 24, Van Mackelberg had an hours-long recorded conversation with another police officer. During the lengthy conversation, much of which was played in court, Van Mackelberg talked about some of the familial struggles he had endured in his life, and his estranged relationship with his mother.
“Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a violent person,” he said, adding his goal is to “get out of here, and live a normal life,” with a house, job, kids, and animals.
When asked, he also denied having ever been in Langenau’s vehicle, or vice-versa.
“I don't even know what he drives,” Van Mackelberg said. “I don't know him from Adam.”
