True crime doc premieres

A three-part true crime documentary series about a high-profile murder case that played out in courthouses in Kamloops and Kelowna is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The 2010 death of Laura Letts-Beckett is the subject of In Cold Water: The Shelter Bay Mystery. The series began streaming on Tuesday.

Letts-Beckett drowned in Upper Arrow Lake near Revelstoke on Aug. 18, 2010. Her death was initially believed to have been an accident.

Peter Beckett, a former city councillor in his hometown of Napier, New Zealand, was arrested in August 2011 and charged in his wife’s death. He stood trial twice — first in Kamloops, which resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial, and then in Kelowna, where he was convicted of first-degree murder.

Beckett appealed his conviction on a number of grounds, including claims a prosecutor made improper submissions to the jury and the judge erred in providing instructions. The court agreed and overturned Beckett’s conviction, but the Crown appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Crown wanted the court to overturn Beckett’s appeal and reimpose his conviction. In 2021, the high court announced it would not hear the Crown’s appeal, making Beckett a free man. No reasons were given.

Questions remain

Through both trials, prosecutors contended Beckett killed his wife out of greed, hoping to cash in on life insurance payouts and her teachers' pension.

No physical evidence of Beckett’s involvement in his wife’s death was presented at either trial. The case against him was entirely circumstantial.

Beckett has steadfastly maintained his innocence throughout, claiming Letts simply fell off the boat and drowned before he could save her.

Beckett spent more than nine years in prison between his arrest in the summer of 2011 and his release on bail a few days before Christmas in 2020.

Castanet Kamloops news director Tim Petruk, who covered the Beckett case while working as a reporter at Kamloops This Week, worked as an associate producer on the project.