Family says Saskatoon international student was killed at work
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Augustine Farley has a lot of questions about his brother-in-law’s brutal death, but none of them were answered when he attended court on Friday.
Last month, Alfred Okyere went to his night shift at DSL Underground, a utility construction company in Saskatoon’s north industrial area.
He never came home.
The 23-year-old international student from Ghana had been living in Saskatoon for only four months when he was stabbed multiple times while at work on Jan. 20. According to police, officers were called around 8 p.m. to a business in the 3900 block of Millar Avenue for a reported stabbing.
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Okyere’s co-worker, 53-year-old Troy Francis Leclair, was arrested that night in downtown Saskatoon. He remains in custody, charged with first-degree murder in the city’s first homicide of 2025.
“We want to know what happened,” Farley said outside Saskatoon provincial court after Leclair’s court appearance on Friday. A lawyer appeared on his behalf to set the case over to March 24.
Farley said Okyere, who lived with him, was less than a week into his new job when he was killed.
“Up until now, there is no reason why it happened,” he said.
Okyere came to Saskatoon in September to live with his sister while studying computer science at the University of Saskatchewan.
“He was a very friendly guy, very calm, very shy. He was not the kind of person who would be in an argument or a fight. A peaceful guy,” Farley said, adding Okyere attended church and was active in Saskatoon’s Ghanaian community.
“So this thing that happened to him has shocked all of us.”
Standing with Okyere’s family and friends outside the courthouse, Farley said the community support has been overwhelming. He said they hope for more information the next time they come to court.
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“As they say, justice delayed is justice denied. There’s nothing we can do at this moment, just to allow the due process to take place,” family friend Marvin Ankrah said.
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