It may be coincidental, but Vancouver homicide investigators have been exceptionally busy in 2020 and 2021. 

The latest murder occurred on December 22. A 52-year-old man died in hospital after being stabbed outside the Hazelwood Hotel near the corner of East Hastings and Dunlevy streets.

No names have been released and no arrests have been made.

Police released this information less than two weeks after the 77-year-old caretaker of Tatlow Park, Justis Daniel, was found murdered in his home on the West Side of Vancouver.

The most recent killing was the 18th culpable homicide of 2021, two shy of the 20 culpable homicides in Vancouver in 2020.

If there are no more murders this year, it will result in an average of 19 culpable homicides per year in Vancouver in the first two years of COVID-19's existence.

From 2010 to 2019, there were 12.1 culpable homicides per year in Vancouver. The 2019 figure of 11 was slightly lower than the average for that decade.

Over that 10-year period, the lowest number was six in 2013 and the highest was 19 in 2017.

There were 10 homicides in 2010, 15 in 2011, eight in 2012, nine in 2014, 16 in 2015, 12 in 2016, and 15 in 2018.

Update

On the afternoon of December 23, Vancouver police identified the Downtown Eastside homicide victim as Fernand Regimbal.