The family of a man who was murdered in Port Alberni four years ago are hoping for long-overdue answers after an individual linked to the apartment where his body was found faced a series of convictions this fall.
Melinda Camille Martin, 34, has been released from a Lower Mainland prison after serving sentences for several violent crimes including assault against peace officers, brandishing an imitation gun and slashing the neck of a liquor store employee during a botched theft.
The Tla-o-qui-aht mother has spent the last few years in prison or in hospital following a series of offences which started, according to court records, with an assault on a family member on Christmas Day 2020.
But according to court records, her criminal history goes as far back as 2009 when she was sentenced to 90 days after being found guilty of assault causing bodily harm.
On Christmas Day 2020 Martin was arrested after she attacked and injured a younger, disabled family member. But it would take more than two years before she was sentenced to 90 days jail time for that crime.
During the following spring, RCMP were called to a residence in the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ community of Hitatcu for a domestic disturbance. On May 8, 2021 Martin and her partner, Jonathan Thompson, were said to be intoxicated and fighting. An injured Thompson was removed from the residence and charged with obstruction.
When police tried to make contact with Martin, a confrontation ensued that ended with her being shot multiple times by officers. Police were cleared of any wrongdoing but two charges of aggravated assault on peace officers and one count of brandishing an imitation firearm were filed against Martin.
Martin faced a judge on November 6, 2025 to plead guilty to those charges. The court heard that after Thompson was removed from the scene, Martin emerged from a bedroom yelling at officers and pointing what appeared to be a handgun at one of them. She was shot by police officers. Severely injured, she was taken by ambulance to hospital where she recovered after several months.
Martin was charged with two counts of assaulting peace officers and use of an imitation firearm during the commission of an offence for the Hitatcu incident.
Jonathan Thompson died of an overdose shortly after the shooting.
Family hopes for charges in 2021 homicide
According to Terrance Mack’s sister Allison Russ, her brother was found dead in a Port Alberni apartment rented to Melinda Martin in 2021. She said the family was notified on May 9 that the 33-year-old’s body had been identified and that the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation member had been deceased for up to two weeks before his remains were discovered. Police determined his death to be the result of a homicide.
Mack’s family are frustrated by the lack of progress in their relative’s case. It was determined that Mack died of head injuries suffered during a beating. He was the father of two children.
The day before Mack’s body was found, calls to 911 started coming in from Hitacu. Police were directed to a unit at the end of a triplex on Albert Street where Martin, who was 30 at the time, and Thompson were said to be intoxicated and causing a disturbance.
Wilson Jack, Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Tyee Ha’wilth, occupied the middle unit of the triplex. He remembers arriving home that day and wondering what all the police cars and ambulances were doing in the village. He recalls asking his wife at the time what was going on but she didn’t know.
“So, I went out to look,” he recalled.
Jack heard shouting then someone yelling, “Drop the weapon!”
Then Jack ducked back into his home as multiple shots rang out. He said it was lucky for him that the triplex walls were made of insulated concrete forms.
“Holy cow, you could hear the shots ricochet off the walls,” he shared.
He distinctly remembers being able to tell when the shots were hitting Melinda’s body.
“They sounded different,” he recalled.
He said his sliding glass door was shattered from the gunfire.
“It was lucky nobody was working at the band office that day,” he said, as shots were fired in that general direction.
When things got quiet, Jack said he looked outside and saw a police officer slumped to his knees.
“I asked if he was okay and he said he was okay and he stood up,” said Jack.
“Everyone thought she was dead,” he added.
The ambulance slowly, cautiously entered and examined Melinda, who had been shot six times.
“She’s breathing!” someone yelled.
Jack said emergency personnel worked franticly to get Martin packaged up for transport.
“You could see all the bandages on her body, where she was shot,” he recalled.
Jack alleges that the couple had been harassing him and damaging his property, kicking his fences down.
“They were not right in the mind…drugs, I think,” said Jack.
But more than four years went by before Martin was sentenced for what happened that day. She spent four months in hospital, recovering from her wounds.
And then on Aug. 9, 2022 Martin was caught stealing from a Port Alberni liquor store on Third Avenue. When confronted, Martin attacked the store employee with a sharp instrument, slashing her neck. Martin fled and was found later that day at a Port Alberni residence where she was arrested.
In February 2023 the judge handed down a 901-day sentence to Martin for the liquor store attack.
While she was in custody, Martin was transported to Abbotsford Regional General Hospital to treat her gunshot injuries. At the hospital she clashed with police officers and was charged with assaulting peace officers and uttering threats for an incident on June 4, 2024. For that she was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a lifetime firearm prohibition. Sentencing took place November 10, 2025.
On November 6, 2025, Martin was sentenced to 33 days in jail for the Hitatcu assaults against peace officers. With time served, Martin, in effect, was given three additional days to serve.
A person who knows her told Ha-Shilth-Sa that Martin was spotted in the Port Alberni Walmart on November 30.
The Mack family were not aware of Martin’s sentencing hearings in November. They continue to wait for any charges to be laid in Terrance’s murder. Police have not publicly disclosed any suspects.
“His daughter (now age 16) is taking it hard,” said Allison Russ of her niece.
She said the family has Terrance’s cremains and hope to have a small ceremony in his memory.
“But it feels like we should wait,” added Russ, referencing any future court proceedings.
