Butch Bagabuyo leaving Kamloops Law Courts on April 17. (Image credit: CFJC Today)
FIRST-DEGREE MURDER TRIAL

Bagabuyo trial: Abdullah was stabbed to death, says forensic pathologist

Jun 6, 2025 | 4:59 PM

VANCOUVER — Former Thompson Rivers University lecturer Mohd Abdullah was stabbed to death, according to forensic pathologist Dr. Farshaad Bilimoria.

Bilimoria testified in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday (June 6) in Vancouver, with former Kamloops lawyer Rogelio ‘Butch’ Bagabuyo on trial for the first-degree murder of Abdullah, his former client.

“Upon removing everything and assessing the body, I was able to identify 11 sharp-force injuries, which are a combination of stab wounds and slash wounds,” said Bilimoria, a forensic pathologist with the BC Coroners Service.

Bilimoria performed the post-mortem examination on March 22, 2022, at Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

He said the wounds are mostly on the left side of Abdullah’s body, with significant injuries to the heart, left lung and pericardium, which is the sac of tissue that surrounds the heart.

Blood was pooling in the left side of Abdullah’s chest and within the pericardium, and the stab wounds were significant enough to cause death, according to Bilimoria.

Abdullah’s body was in the fetal position and clothed when removed from a black storage bin during the examination, according to the forensic pathologist.

Bilimoria said the body was wrapped in multiple plastic sheets and ropes and no blood was in the bin after the corpse was removed from the bin.

He said one of the four ligatures found on the body was around Abdullah’s neck — a braided-metal piece of rope that crossed over at the back, with each end inserted into a piece of wood.

After the ligatures were removed from the body, so was the clothing.

A bloodstained shirt and a bloodstained facemask that partially covered Abdullah’s face were among items of clothing removed, according to Bilimoria, who noted the blood stains appear to be positioned on the upper left part of the shirt, which reflects the position of the significant injuries to the heart and left lung.

Bilimoria said the body had not decomposed at the time of examination and the state of rigor mortis (easily released for the post-mortem examination) did not enable him to offer an opinion on time of death.

Bagabuyo, now 57, is accused of killing 60-year-old Abdullah during a meeting at Bagabuyo’s downtown Kamloops law office on March 11, 2022.

Court has heard the two met that day to discuss a large sum of money – nearly $800,000 — they illegally hid from Abdullah’s ex-wife, and Abdullah was trying to recover the money in the months leading up to his death, becoming increasingly frustrated and frantic.

The trial is expected to conclude by June 20, with closing submissions to follow.