Halloween Heartbreak: Investigating the 2011 Murder of Taylor Van Diest
On Halloween night 2011, 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest was brutally assaulted and murdered in Armstrong, British Columbia. DNA found under her fingernails would ultimately lead to finding her killer
Background
On October 31st, 2011, 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest was looking forward to enjoying some Halloween festivities with her friends and boyfriend in her hometown of Armstrong, British Columbia. Tragically for Taylor, that night would become a real-life nightmare, leaving her friends and family to pick up the pieces.
Taylor Van Diest was born on June 11th, 1993, to parents Marie and Raymond Van Diest. Taylor also had a twin sister, Kirstie Van Diest. The family lived in the rural community of Armstrong, British Columbia.
Taylor and her twin sister, Kirstie, are said to have especially loved Halloween for the costumes and socializing with friends. They also enjoyed going to their local pumpkin patch for pumpkin picking.
Halloween 2011
On October 31st, 2011, at around 6 p.m., 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest left her home near Pleasant Valley Road to meet with her boyfriend Colton and their friends Zoe and Clay for a night of Halloween merriment. Like most of the people out that night, she too was donning a costume- a zombie, splattered with blood and ripped clothing.
As she walked amongst the other Halloween revelers, she passed someone who made her feel uneasy. The feeling was so strong that she texted her boyfriend, saying she thought she was being “creeped” (someone watching or following her).
When Taylor failed to show up and no more texts came through, the fear began to settle in. Colton, Clay, and Zoe, all sensing that something was very wrong, decided to drive around the town to search for Taylor.
At 7:30 p.m., two teenagers found Taylor’s phone at the railway tracks. A little more than an hour later, at 8:45 p.m., Taylor’s friends made a horrific discovery: they found Taylor’s badly beaten body, battered and barely clinging onto life, discarded in a ditch near the railway tracks.
Taylor was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries - injuries so bad, the medics thought she had been hit by a train. Taylor had been violently beaten and strangled; she also had broken fingers and other defensive wounds. She had scratches down her neck where she had tried to pry her attacker's fingers from her throat; she even had her attacker’s DNA under her fingernails.
Taylor Van Diest succumbed to her injuries on November 1st, 2011. The cause of her death was due to “severe blunt force trauma” to her head.
Investigation and Manhunt
The DNA recovered from beneath Taylor's fingernails matched an unknown assailant from an unsolved attack on a sex worker, who was raped at knifepoint in 2005.
With this murky lead, investigators decided to create a sketch of the attacker based on the victim’s description. However, it begged the question of why this had not been done back in 2005.
On November 23rd, 2011, the police finally had a suspect: 25-year-old Matthew Foerster. However, by then, Foerster had fled the country.
In an effort to locate him, authorities tapped the mobile phone of his father, Stephen Foerster. For months, the police carefully listened to Stephen as he helped his son evade justice for his brutal crime, even going as far as to provide him with fake ID documentation so his son, who violently beat an innocent 18-year-old girl to death, could remain free.
On April 12th, 2012, Matthew Foerster, who had been living under a false identity, was located and arrested in Ontario. Foerster was returned to B.C. to face murder charges.
Confession
During questioning, Foerster admitted to killing Taylor Van Diest on Halloween night, stating that he had been drinking and smoking weed before he decided to go for a drive in search of a woman for ‘consensual sex’. He saw Taylor walking by herself near the railway tracks, and she became the victim of his violent pursuit.
Foerster admitted to beating Taylor across the head with a metal flashlight before strangling her with a shoelace. When Taylor’s body was found on that fateful night, a steel pipe was also found, which had been used in the vicious attack and caused her skull to fracture.
As authorities looked into Foerster’s past, they discovered a disturbing pattern of violence against women.
A Violent History
In the early hours of October 19th, 2004, Foerster broke into the home of his 19-year-old neighbor in the dead of the night as she slept. Foerster woke the woman and slammed her head into the wall with such force that her scalp split open in two places.
The terrified woman, who had blood gushing from her wounds, was ordered to follow Foerster down the hallway; eventually, Foerster left, and she called the police. She told them she recognized the man as Matthew Foerster, a friend of her brother.
Foerster was interviewed by the police, but was never charged because his father provided an alibi for him. The case remained cold for several years.
The next attack took place several months after the home invasion - Foerster paid a visit to an escort agency called “The Garden of Eden” in Kelowna. During a tour of the building, the woman, who was working alone, had a knife pulled on her by Foerster and was then sexually assaulted.
After the attack, Foerster fled the business, but the DNA he left behind was collected by the police and entered into a database - it was this DNA that matched the DNA found under Taylor Van Diest’s fingernails.
Under questioning, Foerster confessed to these attacks and disclosed his Father’s role in helping him evade capture.
Trial and Sentencing
In 2014, Matthew Foerster was convicted of the first-degree murder of Taylor Van Diest. However, due to errors in the trial judge’s instructions to the jury, Foerster was granted a retrial in 2017.
In June 2018, Foerster pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years.
The judge described the killing as “horrific,” and noted that the loss to the victim’s family was “incalculable.” During the sentencing hearing, Foerster read a statement apologizing for the pain he had caused. However, Taylor’s mother, Marie, dismissed the apology as “hollow” because he did not even mention Taylor by name.
Foerster claimed he was “only trying to have consensual sex” with Taylor and was therefore only guilty of manslaughter. He is currently serving his sentence in a high-security prison and is in ‘lock up’ for 21 hours of the day.
Foerster will have a chance to apply for parole in April 2029.
Matthew’s father, Stephen Foerster, was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, and ordered to pay a $100 fine after pleading guilty to helping his son evade capture.
In Memorium
The Taylor Jade Van Diest Memorial Trail is located in Armstrong, British Columbia, near the area where Taylor was last seen, and it includes paths adjacent to the railroad tracks. The trail was officially opened in 2019.
Taylor’s mother and her twin sister were involved in the creation and opening of the memorial. The trail includes signage and plaques detailing Taylor’s life, and serves as a public walking path, allowing visitors to reflect on her life and the impact of her loss on the community.
The memorial trail functions as a lasting tribute, ensuring that Taylor Van Diest’s life is remembered in the Armstrong community.
Sources:
Sthankiya Anita, “Matthew Foerster Sentenced For Assaults on Two Women.” KamloopsBCNow, 17 December 2014, https://www.kamloopsbcnow.com/news/news/Local_News/14/12/17/Matthew_Foerster_Sentenced_For_Assaults_on_Two_Women
Stockon, Chrissy, “A Woman Sent Her BF A Chilling Halloween Text That She Was ‘Being Creeped’. It Was Her Last Text Message.” Thought Catalog, 17 September 2025, https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2021/10/a-woman-sent-her-bf-a-chilling-halloween-text-that-she-was-being-creeped-it-was-her-last-text-message/
Knox, Roger, “Police treat Armstrong death as homicide.” Vernon Morning Star, 1 November 2011, https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/news/police-treat-armstrong-death-as-homicide-5894909
RCMP, “Warning: Murder victim shown in zombie costume before her death”, CastNet, 3 November 2011, https://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/66881/Warning-Murder-victim-shown-in-zombie-costume-before-her-death
By The Staff, “Matthew Foerster sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years in slaying of Okanagan teenager.” Global News.ca 4 June 2018, https://globalnews.ca/news/4250833/accused-killer-back-in-vernon-court/
Deacon, Chantelle, “Life, no Parole 17 yrs.” Cast Net 5 June 2018, https://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/228060/Life-no-parole-17-yrs
The father should have received the same sentence as his son.