A body found in a ditch west of the city on Wednesday is connected to the triple homicide in Sage Hill earlier this week and police say it was a targeted attack.

Emergency crews were called to a vehicle fire in the 100 block of Sage Hill at about 7:00 a.m. Monday and three bodies were found in the car after crews doused the flames.

The bodies were identified as Glynnis Fox, Tiffany Ear and Cody Pfeiffer and police say it is possible the three were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“The two female victims that were involved in this, Miss Fox and Miss Ear, we believe came to know the other victims recently, very recently. So there isn’t a big history between them. I think that you could describe that relationship as being fleeting, and again, when  I say that they got caught up in this I think that what we’re saying is that it was just a matter of poor timing that this ultimately led to their untimely death,” said Acting Insp. Paul Wozney of the CPS Major Crimes Section.

The car the three were found in was registered to 26-year-old Hanock Afowerk and police say Afowerk’s body was recovered from a ditch near Highway 8 and Highway 22 on Wednesday.

All four deaths are being treated as homicides and police say that the victims suffered significant traumatic injuries.

“The brutality is with regards to the three bodies that were found in the vehicle. These bodies were, I think everybody has seen the images of the fire that was in the vehicle, that in itself, I think, there’s a brutal context to that. And then the, Mr. Afowerk, whose body was located on the west side of Calgary, again, there was a, there’s a certain brutality to how his body was dumped on the western outskirts of Calgary. There’s also parts of the investigation that I can’t speak to with regards to injuries to the bodies, that again, makes up part of the investigation, but I will say that it is certainly, has been surprising to some very seasoned investigators,” said Wozney.

Police say Fox and Ear were sisters and mothers and that they may have been caught up in a targeted attack on Afowerk.

“Whenever we do an investigation like this we conduct background checks on all of the victims and that takes a lot of time to do that. Based on our investigation to this point, checks in the community, some information that’s come in from the public, we’ve been able to piece that part of it together and we believe that Mr. Afowerk was the target of this,” said Wozney.

Cody Pfeiffer is known to police and court records show that he was convicted of possession of a firearm, drug trafficking and possession of stolen property in the last few years.

“He does have a criminal history but I also want to temper that by saying that matters not to us. We’re concerned about people that are victims of homicide and we pursue every investigation with the same vigor,” said Wozney.

Investigators say they think a number of people are involved and continue to search for more crime scenes.

“We’re investigating the possibility of several crime scenes, again that forms part of the investigation, but I can’t get into the specifics of locations or anything like that,” Wozney added.

They say the homicides were brutal and ruthless and are appealing to the public for any information on the case.

Anyone who may have information that could assist the investigation is asked to contact the police non-emergency number at 403-266-1234, or Crime Stoppers anonymously using either of the following methods:

TALK: 1-800-222-8477
TYPE: www.calgarycrimestoppers.org