Man Asked Lawyer to Hide His Money, Ended Up Dead

A Canadian man asked a lawyer for help hiding his money; the lawyer ended up hiding his body. Former lawyer Rogelio "Butch" Bagabuyo was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2022 stabbing death of 60-year-old client Mohd Abdullah, a Thompson Rivers University instructor. Justice Kathleen Ker, delivering her decision in Kamloops, British Columbia, called Bagabuyo a "fraudster" and said the evidence showed the killing was both intentional and carefully prepared, the CBC reports. The conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

During the trial, the court heard that Abdullah hired Bagabuyo in Kamloops in 2016 and that the pair illegally parked more than $780,000 Canadian (around $570,000 US) with the lawyer to keep it out of reach during Abdullah's separation from his wife. By 2018, prosecutors said, the money was gone—spent by Bagabuyo on his own expenses, leaving him unable to repay his client. Even after Abdullah's wife died in 2019, Bagabuyo allegedly persuaded him to leave the funds in place, claiming they still needed protection from her estate. According to Ker, once Abdullah began pressing harder for his money, Bagabuyo realized "the jig was about to be up" and spent over a week preparing to kill him.

With no eyewitnesses, the case relied on circumstantial evidence: surveillance video of Bagabuyo buying a plastic storage tote later used to conceal Abdullah's body, purchases of plastic wrap, a propane tank, and a hacksaw, gaps in his home security footage, and a written to-do list outlining steps around the March 11, 2022, meeting in Bagabuyo's office where Abdullah was killed. Abdullah was found with multiple stab wounds, his body wrapped in plastic and stuffed in the tote. Bagabuyo admitted he killed Abdullah but argued it was an unplanned confrontation that should be classified as manslaughter. Ker rejected that argument, ruling there was "no doubt" the murder was planned and deliberate.

She noted that just two hours elapsed between Abdullah approaching Bagabuyo's office and the lawyer smuggling his body out in the tote bag. She said the absence of defensive wounds on Abdullah also supported the "conclusion that a spontaneous, unplanned confrontation did not occur in this case," the Canadian Press reports. Police arrested Bagabuyo on March 18, 2022, a day after Abdullah's body was discovered inside the tote by the grandson of a friend Bagabuyo had asked to help rent a van and find a burial spot. The Law Society of British Columbia says Bagabuyo, who had been free on bail since July 2023, is no longer a lawyer.