B.C. woman who killed, dismembered ex-boyfriend gets life, no parole eligibility for 12 years

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details and may not be suitable for all readers. Discretion is advised.

A B.C. woman who was found guilty of killing her ex-boyfriend and then dismembering him and dumping his body parts around Vancouver Island has been sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 12 years.

Paris Laroche was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree murder last July as well as interfering with a body. She was originally charged in March 2022 with first-degree murder.

2:00 Mother of murder victim Sidney Mantee addresses killer Paris Laroche in court

Crown counsel had asked for parole eligibility to be set at 15 years while Laroche’s defence had asked for the minimum of 10 years.

Sidney Joseph Mantee, Laroche’s boyfriend, was initially reported missing in October 2020.

The couple were together for six years and were separated at the time of the murder but still sharing an apartment and sleeping in separate rooms.

At the trial, the court heard that Laroche bludgeoned 32-year-old Mantee with a hammer, then slit his throat while he slept. She then gutted and drained his body as if it were a deer carcass.

Laroche told undercover officers she heard an owl hooting early that morning, which she interpreted as a sign the time had come. Laroche, who was 24 at the time, had watched videos on how to gut animals and stored Mantee’s dismembered body in her freezer.

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She then stuffed his remains in a backpack and disposed of him around Vancouver Island over several months.

On Thursday, the court heard that previously, Laroche had told police that Mantee berated her, hit her and choked her. She had told police that Mantee had also threatened to kill her and her friends if she left him.

Laroche also said that the evening before Mantee was killed, she found that he had abused her cat and said that he had done it before.

“She knew perfectly well what she was doing,” Supreme Court Justice Baird said on Thursday. “She was not mentally ill or intoxicated. She was not provoked in the legal sense of that term.”

2:08 Verdict in death and dismemberment murder trial of young Nanaimo woman

During the trial last July, the court heard from Laroche’s former employer and friend Terrylynn Boyle who testified about a phone call with the accused following her arrest in 2022.

“I came right out and asked her if she had done it, and she said ‘Yes,’” Boyle told the court.

Boyle further testified that Laroche had said Mantee had threatened to kill her family and friends and thrown her cat against a wall.

“She just wanted him to go to sleep,” Boyle told the court. “She got on top of him with a hammer and hit him over the head.”

The verdict in the judge-only trial hinged on whether the killing was in self-defence.

Justice Baird accepted that there was a history of abuse and that Laroche believed her boyfriend would follow through on his threats, but rejected the idea she was defending herself, as Mantee was asleep when he was killed.

“I find that this killing was an act of vengeance, probably fuelled by a multitude of past transgressions but in particular because she thought Mr. Mantee had harmed her cat the night before,” Baird said.

“The violence of her attack was extreme and unmistakably punitive. I do not accept that at the material time, it had anything to do with thoughts of self-preservation or the protection of others. It was a matter instead of revenge.”

2:03 Trial underway for Nanaimo woman accused of murdering ex-boyfriend

Mantee’s mother, Emma, read a victim impact statement in court last week.

She called Laroche a “mother’s worst nightmare” and said that her son’s death “tore (her) to pieces.”

“You are the most despicable person I’ve ever come across,” Mantee said.

“You did not make a victim out of me. You made me a stronger woman.”

She said her son is in a better place without Laroche and told her son’s former girlfriend that she is evil and has no heart.

Laroche does not have a previous criminal record, or any history of violence, and has been in custody since March 2022 so she’s expected to receive credit for time served.

According to an expert report, she has never been diagnosed with mental illness and is a low risk for violent reoffending.

-with files from Rumina Daya and Simon Little