WATCH ABOVE: Doug Leslie, Loren’s father, speaks on BC1.
VANCOUVER – When it came time to read his victim impact statement in a Prince George courtroom, Doug Leslie opted to have his read by someone else.
“There’s parts that I didn’t feel that I could read,” said Doug.
His daughter, Loren Donn Leslie, is the youngest victim of Cody Legebokoff, who has now been convicted in the murders of three women and 15-year-old Loren.
“Everybody that knew Loren knew her as a special child and a special adolescent,” said Doug. “Her compassion for everybody was unreal. The loss that everybody had when Loren was taken away from us, I felt the big impact of me not being able to be there for her and of course we can’t be everywhere at once.”
“That was a real big impact on me. Having him murder my daughter and me not being able to do anything about it.”
Doug said he knows Legebokoff will spend the rest of his life in jail.
“In the meantime, we know where Loren is and she’s still working wonders,” he said. “I feel her everyday.”
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Loren was last seen Nov. 27, 2010 and her body was found later that day, the same day Legebokoff was arrested. An RCMP officer had pulled Legebokoff over after he pulled onto the highway in Prince George from a logging road. When the officer traced the tracks from Legebokoff’s truck he found Loren’s body.
“We have to just go down the road positively and try to, try to hope to make sure this doesn’t happen again to anybody else,” said Doug.
He said when he heard the guilty verdict on Thursday, the tension just flowed out of his body and while it closes this chapter in his life, there will never be complete closure.
“Life is precious and when it’s lost at a tender age there isn’t any closure,” said Doug. “There’s thought of, like I said, hoping it won’t happen again to somebody else.”
The family has started the Loren Donn Leslie foundation and they work to bring in programs of youth empowerment to communities that do not have any money for them.
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