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.
done that through forensics, and also you just have to look at his
[Legebokoff’s] age in comparison to the victims,” RCMP Insp. Brendan
Fitzpatrick said.
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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