The Crown expects 35 witnesses to be called in the second-degree murder trial of a Maple Ridge man accused of beating a 15-year-old hitch-hiker to death in Kamloops eight years ago.

Brian Townsend, 58, was charged with murder in 2006 after forensic evidence allegedly linked him to the slaying of Vivien Morzuch, a Quebec teen whose body was found in a ditch near Savona in July of 2000.

In her opening statement, prosecutor Sarah Firestone said the Crown’s witnesses will describe Morzuch’s experiences in the months leading up to his death, hitch-hiking across Canada and eventually finding himself in the Kamloops area days before allegedly meeting Townsend in Revelstoke.

Firestone said the 12-person jury will later hear about how, after the case had appeared to have turned cold, a thumb-print on a bloody piece of duct tape found alongside Morzuch’s body was matched to Townsend in 2005.

Firestone said that after Townsend denied to police any knowledge of the killing, Mounties decided to make “a significant investment” in attempting to get Townsend to testify.

In what she called “a piece of theatre,” Firestone said undercover cops posed as gangsters to gain the suspect’s trust.

“The undercover operation was designed to make Mr. Townsend think he was becoming part of a criminal organization,” she said.

Firestone said the fictional gangsters put Townsend to work, first having him move packages around the Lower Mainland and later sending him on more “important” jobs to other parts of Canada.

The jury heard that evidence will show Townsend later confessed to the Morzuch murder at a staged Kelowna meeting — which Firestone referred to as “a kind of a job interview” — with a supposed gang boss who was actually an undercover cop.

Firestone said video of the confession, captured on hidden camera, shows Townsend detailing the killing, saying he beat his victim — allegedly described as a hitch-hiker — with a bat, bound him and threw him out of his van.

The video is expected to be played during trial.

The first witness called Monday was an Ontario detective who arrested Morzuch a few weeks before his death.

York Regional Police Det. Joseph Amato-Gauci said he happened upon the teen and another boy near Canada’s Wonderland amusement park just before 9 a.m. on July 9, 2000.

“I observed two young men — or boys, actually — with knapsacks,” he said, adding that it was out of the norm to see teens on their own in that area on a Sunday morning.

The officer said he arrested Morzuch, who identified himself for the officer with a Montreal library card, for breaching his probation, and later found drug paraphernalia both in his pockets and his backpack.

Amato-Gauci described the teen, who he said spoke “poor English,” was polite and quiet.

“Appearance-wise, he had gone without a bath for some time,” he said.

“His demeanour toward me was he was not confrontational. He was a little reserved and he appeared to be trying to communicate with me as best he could.”

The officer testified that Morzuch was held in custody until July 13, 2000, when the charges against him were withdrawn and he was released.

A number of travellers who hitch-hiked with Morzuch in the weeks leading up to his death are expected to take the stand Monday afternoon.