BURST
Whenever Kai Pavlovic showed up for Sunday school at the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in east Vancouver, he was “always smiling,” recalls Father Vuk Misilic.
“He was such a sweet guy,” Misilic said of the 11-year-old Burnaby boy who also attended Serbian-language classes and day camps offered by the church. “All kids are nice, but he was special. Not all kids like going to church, but he really loved it. You could see it in his face.”
The revelation by police earlier this week that the happy, little boy had been the victim of a homicide — and that two relatives had been charged with killing him — has stunned local parishioners and extended family and friends on several continents.
“This is a very tough time, something so very terrible,” Misilic said.
“It’s tragic, not just for Burnaby,” where many people of Serbian descent live, “but for the whole of Vancouver area.”
Police announced Kai was missing in September 2025. On Monday, RCMP revealed his remains had been found and that Branko Bijelic, 51, was charged with second-degree murder and with interfering with human remains and that Sarah Bijelic, 46, was charged with manslaughter.
Police have confirmed only that the couple are relatives of Kai. Police have not said when or where the body was found, nor how the boy died.
Branko Bijelic appeared in Vancouver provincial court on Friday, by video, wearing a red prison top, round wireframe glasses and a shaved head for a brief hearing. He was ordered held in custody and to return on Nov. 26, a remand that’s routine in any criminal case.
Sarah Bijelic appeared in court on Oct. 30 and again on Nov. 2. A court-ordered publication ban prevents Postmedia from disclosing details of the Nov. 2 proceedings.
Near Fraser Street and Marine Drive in Vancouver, St. Sava church serves as a spiritual and cultural hub for local residents of Serbian descent and has a large congregation.
It’s well attended on Sunday mornings, when parents celebrate the Divine Liturgy mass upstairs and the children gather in the basement for Sunday school, and then all come together again for fellowship over coffee and sweets.
Misilic said the busy nature of the weekly gatherings makes it impossible to regularly speak with everyone, and he didn’t know either of the two people charged.
And the couple hadn’t invited him nor his fellow pastor to their Burnaby apartment for the annual blessing, a January ritual that gives priests a chance to visit with parishioners one-on-one.
He said Kai usually attended church on Sundays with a woman alone but he stopped seeing them around Easter 2025.
But he remembers the first time he met Kai almost four years ago, when he and a woman arrived at the church for the first time. They were lighting the slim and fragrant beeswax tapers at the front of the church, a ritual prayer for the rest of departed loved ones.
The woman had told him that they were lighting the candle in memory of her husband, who had died in Montenegro before they moved to Vancouver.
Misilic said during the months after police announced Kai’s disappearance, police had been in touch with him and officers had visited the church more than once.
“They were looking for information and they used to come to church and talk to different people,” he said.
The news of the charges shocked the parish and some of the couples who socialized with the Bijelics told another priest, Father Marko Radmanovic, they searched their memories for any possible worrying signs.
“They told me, ‘Why didn’t we see, why we didn’t prevent this?’” said Radmanovic.
Misilic has been speaking by phone with Kai’s extended family in New Zealand, where his mother grew up, and in Montenegro, where Sarah Bijelic married her first husband. He died in 2022 of COVID complications, according to family members.
Misilic said he is consoling the family and helping them to prepare for a funeral planned for Montenegro, where Kai will be buried next to his father.
Helen Kok, the boy’s aunt in New Zealand, posted to her Facebook page that she will “forever have a huge Kai-shaped hole” in her heart.
“He was the light of my life, and (of) so many others. In his short time on this earth he brought joy, laughter, kindness and fun to everyone he met,” she wrote.
The case of Kai’s death dates back to Sept. 26, 2025, when Burnaby RCMP announced a missing person’s case after Kai’s overseas family, who had “grave concerns about his safety” because they hadn’t heard from him in the preceding year, asked police to check on him.
After several days of trying to locate him, Burnaby officers turned the case over to RCMP’s serious crimes unit.
A public plea was issued in late October 2025 for anyone knowing the whereabouts of Kai’s “caretaker,” an unidentified person police said at the time they believed to be with Kai. Police also wanted to speak to anyone who remembered any playdates, sports or extracurricular activities with Kai.
They said his family members, including his maternal grandmother from New Zealand, had travelled to B.C. to help with the search.
In June 2026, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took the lead in the case, and his remains were discovered after that.
That same month, Branko Bijelic filed a family court petition against Sarah Bijelic in B.C. Supreme Court, according to court files. The details of that are not public.
Kai’s maternal relatives called Kai a “bright, curious, outgoing and kind little boy who loves to climb trees, build forts and learn to sail,” and he was an animal lover who particularly adored horses, cats and dogs.
“Kai’s family in New Zealand love him dearly,” they said last year.
Misilic said the church will hold a memorial prayer service called a Panakyda, reserved for funerals and other solemn affairs, for Kai on Nov. 13.
“We cling on to that faith that he’s still alive somewhere and that sustains me,” he said.
With files from Postmedia News