A Richmond businessman who disappeared 10 years ago in the midst of a gangland-style hit will be memorialized with a 180-kilogram steel statue inside the Olympic oval.
Police believe that Ned Mander - the 28-year-old son of an affluent Richmond family - was kidnapped and murdered in October 2001 after leaving his Surrey bathroom products store.
According to police, Mander was an innocent victim used to lure Rick Bhatti, a Surrey school teacher, to the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple in Newton. Bhatti died in a shower of bullets, and Mander was likely killed later that night, police say. His body was never found.
Speculation in the underworld was whether Mander, Bhatti and Gary Sidhu, a man who died soon after, were killed in connection to either a drug deal that went bad or a personal feud.
Two years ago - while seeking fresh tips - the RCMP held a news conference clearing Mander of any wrongdoing.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie said the RCMP's endorsement opened the way for Richmond council to accept a proposal from Mander's family, who wished to commission a metal sculpture of a volleyball player in Mander's name at the oval.
A public art panel accepted the plan and council signed off on it in spring. The Manders will pay for the statue.
The statue incorporates Mander's high school volleyball jersey number and his "good facial structure," according to the artist.
The statue is being constructed by Cory Fuhr, whose iconic Speed Skater sculpture is one of the most popular attractions at the Richmond oval, Brodie said.
In a 2004 interview published in the Vancouver Sun, former Richmond gangster Bal Buttar, who was second-in-command to notorious deceased Indo-Canadian gang boss Bindy Johal, alleged that Mander, Bhatti and Sidhu weren't gangsters but dupes of others.
Its understood the family will unveil the statue at the oval in the fall.
Brodie was asked if he is ready to face criticism of the appropriateness of the Mander statue in Richmond's high-profile Olympic site, or lingering questions about Mander's associations.
"What I know is what I'm told by the RCMP," Brodie said. "They had no reason to believe Ned was implicated . . . in something nefarious at the time. That he was a good person basically in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and paid the ultimate price for it."
