‘It haunts me every day’: Mother renews plea for answers in son’s murder in Burnaby

13 years later, a mother is still looking for answers in the shooting death of her son.

25-year-old John Hanna was murdered in Burnaby on July 16, 2009. Burnaby RCMP was called to the area of Plum Avenue and Clinton Street (next to Clinton Elementary School) just before 4am for a report of gunshots and a vehicle fire.

Media reports at the time said police found a man, later identified as Hanna, inside the burned out vehicle, dead not from the fire but from gunshot wounds.

The investigation is still open, and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) says it’s still ready to action any and all leads that come in.

Hanna’s mother issued an emotional plea this week through IHIT for anyone with information to come forward as the anniversary of her son’s death approaches.

“I can’t move on, I can’t sleep, work or do anything without thinking about him and wanting to find out what really happened to him. I feel paralyzed. My life has been upside down since he passed. I need help. I need closure. My family needs closure. We deserve to get closure. We are asking for help and for anyone that knows anything to come forward and help me get the closure I need to move on,” she said.

“Johnny would want me and our family to move on but not knowing what happened to him is what haunts me every day. The pain and agony is something no mother should have to bear. From a mother of a murdered son, I need your help to solve this case. Big or small, all your tips can point us in the right direction.”

In a similar appeal for information four years after Hanna’s murder, his mother said her son had been lured into an unsafe situation by people he trusted.

“John did not deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth in this brutal manner. He just turned 25 and had so much of life waiting for him. The day we buried him was the day he was supposed to start university,” she said in 2013.

IHIT is asking anyone with information about Hanna’s murder to contact investigators at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448) or by email at [email protected].