Prince George man linked to three cold case murders

A 21-year-old Prince George man already awaiting trial for the slaying of a teenage girl has been charged with killing three more women in northern B.C. since 2009.

Cody Alan Legebokoff was arrested last Friday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder at the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre, where he is awaiting trial in the November 2010 homicide of 15-year-old Loren Donn Leslie from Fraser Lake, RCMP say.

The new murder charges are for the deaths of Jill Stacey Stuchenko and Cynthia Frances Maas, both 35, and Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23.

Police have ruled out a connection between Legebokoff and the E-Pana investigation into a dozen mostly aboriginal women who went missing or were killed on the Highway of Tears. Those deaths date back to the 1970s and the most recent was in 2006.

Legebokoff -­­ described by those who know him as a regular young man who played hockey and liked snowboarding – now faces the label of “serial killer.”

The killings for which Legebokoff faces charges took place in a one-year period when he was aged 19 to 20.

He grew up in the tiny logging community of Fort St. James and was known as an avid user of social media, where he sometimes used the moniker 1CountryBoy.

The charges come after a 10-month coordinated investigation dubbed E-Prelude. The probe involved investigators from the North District major crime unit and the Prince George detachment serious crime unit, as well as police resources from the United States, Fitzpatrick said.

Legebokoff was initially arrested for Leslie’s murder when RCMP officers decided to check a suspicious pickup truck pulling on to the highway out of an unused logging road 22 kilometres north of Vanderhoof.

An officer with the B.C. Conservation Service helped search the road because initially police thought they might have a poaching incident. Leslie’s body was found on the logging road.

Until then, Fitzpatrick said, Legebokoff was not on the police “radar screen at all.”

He had no criminal record and no serious involvement with the police and was well-regarded by his Prince George employer, Fitzpatrick noted.

All three of the victims named in the new murder charges were living in Prince George.

Stuchenko was reported missing on Oct. 22, 2009, and her body was found four days later in a Prince George gravel pit near Moore’s Meadow, a popular spot for walking and jogging.

Maas was reported missing by her mother on Sept. 23, 2010, and her body was found on Oct. 9 in LC Gunn Park, on the outskirts of Prince George.

Montgomery’s body has not been found, said Fitzpatrick.

Maas had recently been living in Prince George – and was last seen in the summer of 2010 – but was from Quesnel, 120 kilometres south of Prince George.

At least two of the women who were murdered – Stuchenko and Maas – had worked in Prince George’s sex trade, according to earlier police reports.

Maas’s body was found when RCMP were patrolling LC Gunn Park while following up on missing person files. The park overlooks the Fraser River and is known to be frequented by sex trade workers.

The Maas family released a statement on Monday, saying Cynthia was a poster child for vulnerability in society.

“Murders do not just harm families, but our society is harmed as we forget and are numbed by senseless violence perpetrated against women portrayed as deserving of death,” the family said.

The women were loved by family and friends, the RCMP noted while releasing the new charges. Both Maas and Stuchenko were mothers, and Stuchenko was a talented singer, said police.

The RCMP met with the families of the victims Sunday to tell them of the impending charges. “It was evident by our meeting yesterday these women were all very vibrant, talented and loving,” said Fitzpatrick.

Carrier Sekani Tribal Council chief David Luggi, who attended the RCMP news conference Monday morning in Prince George, said even though the police have found no connection with the Highway of Tears, the new charges are “a good step forward.”

During a break in the Missing Women Inquiry in Vancouver on Monday, Rick Frey said he sympathizes with the families along on the Highway of Tears.

“Our hearts go out to them,” said Frey, the father of Marnie Frey, one of Robert Pickton’s murder victims.

In the Legebokoff case, the RCMP would not say how they broke open the case.

But Fitzpatrick said the crime scenes were examined using the latest forensic methods.

Search warrants were also executed at two Prince George residences associated to Legebokoff.

The black 2004 half-ton GMC pickup truck Legebokoff was driving when Leslie was murdered was also painstakingly examined, said police.

Loren Leslie’s grandmother Kathleen Leslie, 79, grew up with Legebokoff’s grandfather Roy Goodwin in nearby Fraser Lake. She said that although she doesn’t know the alleged killer, her relationship with his family made Monday’s charges especially hard to digest.

“I was absolutely shocked when my son phoned me yesterday – and again my first thought was for these other parents,” said Leslie. “It’s horrendous,” she said.

“I can’t even imagine what they’re going through – to raise a child and from a good home and then all of a sudden this happens.”

Kathleen added, “I lost two sons, one at 24 with hypothermia and one at 49 with cancer. As bad as that was, I’d say this was 100 times worse.”

Meanwhile, Loren Leslie’s father Doug expressed relief as he met with the other victims’ families for the RCMP announcement of charges in Prince George.

“I actually feel pretty good about the outcome, it ties a lot of things together knowing that Loren’s case was a catalyst in breaking the other ones …,” Doug said.

Doug said police did not tell the families whether other charges will be laid, just that “the investigation is not over.”

The RCMP said Legebokoff used social media and online dating to correspond with friends, associates, potential girlfriends and others.

RCMP noted that Legebokoff also lived in Lethbridge between June 2008 and August 2009.

Police say they are interested in talking to anyone with information on Legebokoff, particularly between the dates of October 2009 and November 2010.

Originally from Fort St. James, Legebokoff moved from Lethbridge to Prince George in August 2009, RCMP say. 

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