Family horrified after grave of N.B. murder victim found burned 

Two people have been charged with 2nd-degree murder in connection with the March 2023 killing of Lucas Solomon-Polchies. Just over a year later, his family found his grave burned.

The family of a New Brunswick murder victim says they are devastated after finding the grave of their lost loved one vandalized last week.

Lenore Polchies, mother of Lucas Solomon-Polchies who was killed just over a year ago, says when she arrived to the graveyard on Wednesday evening where her son is buried she found everything had been burned.

“I come here almost every night to say goodnight,” she told Global on Sunday. “It was all burned. And I just dropped to the ground.”

Lucas was found along a highway just after 4 a.m. on March 12, 2023, in Lincoln, N.B., with a gunshot wound. He died in hospital.

The New Brunswick RCMP Major Crimes Unit determined Polchies’ death was a homicide. Two people, Joshua Raines, 47, and Samantha Butler, 21, were charged the following month with second-degree murder in connection with his death.

“It’s bad enough that he got murdered. We’re still waiting to go to court for that,” Polchies said. “And to come to find him burned? Not physically, but still. It’s a mother’s nightmare to just see that.”

Lucas is buried on the grounds of St. Ann’s Catholic Church on the Kingsclear First Nation reserve.

A blurry picture provided to Global from Lucas’ sister, Kayla Solomon, taken of the burned grave shows the land in front of the plot completely burned and turned black. Solomon said it smelled like propane.