Missing Cypress County councillor found dead, wife charged with homicide

By James Tubb on October 16, 2021.

Medicine Hat News

The wife of a Cypress County councillor has been charged with his murder one week after he was reported missing.

Alfred “Alf” Belyea was the subject of a missing person investigation that launched following the Thanksgiving weekend. At the time RCMP told reporters that he was last seen on Oct. 8 after telling his wife, Deborah Belyea, he was leaving their residence near Suffield to go visiting.

On Saturday, she was charged with second-degree homicide and causing an indignity to a human body.
No other information was released by the RCMP detachment in Redcliff, other than the body of the 72-year-old man had been located.

The joint statement with RCMP Major Crimes Unit said Deborah Belyea, 68, is remanded in custody and will next appear in Medicine Hat Provincial Court on Monday, Oct. 18.

RCMP officials told the News on Friday that there was no new information on the search, but several additional units were joining the investigation.

Belyea had represented the ward of Suffield-Jenner on the western edge of Cypress County since 2014. He had recently moved to the area after retiring as a public works manager in British Columbia and ran in the byelection to fill the seat that year.

He was the only candidate to be nominated in the current municipal election that concludes Monday, and was acclaimed to another term. A byelection will be needed to fill the seat at a future date.

Belyea is the second Cypress County councillor to die while in office in the last two months.
Former reeve Darcy Geigle died following a medical event at his home near Walsh on August 29.

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