B.C. court hears about fatal attack on Surrey’s Tori Dunn

B.C. court hears about fatal attack on Surrey’s Tori Dunn

Published 8:11 pm Monday, October 5, 2026

The man accused of murdering Surrey’s Tori Dunn pleaded not guilty on Monday morning in New Westminster Supreme Court.

Adam Troy Mann, who was charged with second-degree murder on June 28, 2024 in connection with Dunn’s death, appeared in court Monday (Oct. 5) in a light-coloured, collared shirt, sporting a full beard.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Layton is presiding over the trial, which is expected to last about three weeks.

Several of Dunn’s family members were in attendance on Day 1 of the trial, remaining somber and stoic throughout the day’s proceedings, where the jury and court heard first from Trafford Wace, Dunn’s partner at the time of her death.

After giving an opening statement, Crown counsel Sarah Fullbrook led Wace, who was dressed in a dark suit and tie, through describing the unit in the Port Kells-area home that he shared with Dunn, and locating which rooms were where, as well as entrances and exits.

Wace, 34, described the space he and Dunn shared together and the rest of the house, as well as his and Dunn’s relationship, and what they had done the weekend of June 15-16, 2024.

They had gone to a wedding the first night, court heard, then travelled to Wace’s grandmother’s house in South Surrey before returning home around 8:30 or 9 p.m. on June 16. After bringing in some Amazon packages, the couple settled in for the night,

“We sat on the couch … we were cuddling, watching TV,” Wace said. “She was kind of falling asleep against my shoulder. I had to get up to use the washroom … she was half-awake.”

Fullbrook asked Wace to tell the court what happened next.

“I am using the toilet and I hear Tori say something — it was not quite clear … then she screamed, then another scream,” Wace shared. “I jumped up and ran out of the bathroom to where she was.”

Wace estimated he was in the bathroom maybe five minutes before he heard Dunn scream.

“I went down the hallway to where top of stairs were, (and) I see a man up against wall with Tori in front of him,” he said. “I said, ‘Who the f*** are you?’ He said, ‘Holy shit,’” then went to the opposite side of the couch and to a sliding door nearby.

Wace described Mann as he said he remembered him that night, dressed in a light grey hoodie, a white shirt, with a stubbly beard and toque, around six feet tall. He had something “shiny” in his hand, Wace answered, when asked if he had noticed if Mann was carrying anything.

“He ran to the sliding door … he was fumbling around with it. I asked Tori what was going on, and she said, ‘He f***ing stabbed me. I went around back to make sure he left,” Wace said, noting he also grabbed a kitchen knife, as “I didn’t see him leave the house.”

As Wace described calling 9-1-1 and following their first aid instructions to try to help Dunn, several of Dunn’s family members reached for the tissues provided, holding hands and rubbing each others’ backs to comfort each other.

“Police were giving me instructions what to do … she was telling me that she thought she was dying,” Wace said, describing the wounds he saw on Dunn, which included one to her stomach.

Wace was then questioned about anything that he noticed missing from the home, particularly, a kitchen knife with a carbon steel blade that Wace said was gone. He remembered having last seen it on the kitchen counter.

He told the court Dunn had lost consciousness, but regained it once she was carried outside for police and first responders to care for her.

“She was rolling around on the ground saying how badly it hurt,” Wace shared.

Fullbrook asked Wace some more questions about the home and description of entries and exits, as well as Dunn’s iPhone, before it was defence counsel Paul McMurray’s turn.

McMurray also guided Wace through describing his and Dunn’s residence, and focused mainly on Wace’s initial description of Mann, who is half-Black and half-Indigenous, as white. He noted Wace had made reference to Mann reminding him of NHL hockey player Connor McDavid and a YouTube celebrity named Shane Dawson, and Wace agreed he had noted those two men in trying to describe Mann’s appearance.

McMurray then entered photos of McDavid and Dawson as evidence exhibits.

Both McMurray and Fullbrook asked Wace whether he and Dunn had locked the front door behind them after bringing in their delivery packages, but he said he couldn’t recall.

Mann, who was on probation at the time of Dunn’s murder, mainly looked straight ahead, occasionally taking sips of water from a cup provided.

One of the first Surrey Police Service officers to attend the scene was next to testify, sharing more details about that night, and told court the reason Dunn was moved outside was because they didn’t know where the person who assaulted Dunn was.

“We were not sure where the threat was at that time … the house had not been cleared at this time, it was not a safe space,” he told Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston.

He recalled Wace as being “frantic … in a lot of distress.”

The trial resumes Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.

None of the allegations against Mann have been proven in court.