VANCOUVER – Doug Leslie writes to his daughter Loren on his blog as if she’s just away for the weekend.
“Loren, lots happening sweetie, we are working on scholarships,” he wrote earlier this month. “I am very proud of you sweetie, but I miss you bad and love you lots. Love Dad.”
While the reality of his 15-year-old daughter’s murder has been difficult to absorb since her death last November, Leslie said he wasn’t really surprised that the man accused in Loren’s death now faces three more first-degree murder charges.
Leslie, 58, was told by police that two bodies had been flown to Pennsylvania to be examined by a forensic expert, including his daughter’s. He said he assumed there might be a connection between those deaths.
“That was in my mind, but it wasn’t something that I really thought about. Then the rest didn’t really surprise me. If there are two there could be 10,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Fort Fraser, B.C.
Cody Legebokoff, 21, has been charged with killing all four women.
Besides Leslie, Legebokoff is charged with killing three Prince George, B.C., women. Jill Stuchenko, 35, was the first to vanish in October 2009, while Cynthia Mass and Natasha Montgomery were reported missing on the same day in September last year.
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Leslie’s body was found on the side of a logging road last November in northern B.C.
Legebokoff was arrested shortly after an officer watched his truck leaving that same logging road outside of Stuart Lake. He was charged with her murder days later.
Leslie said Loren may have been an acquaintance of Legebokoff’s.
“She had a circle of friends in Prince George that she spent lots of time with in the previous year before her death.”
He said there appeared to be some social activities between that group and Legebokoff’s friends.
“That’s how I think she got to know him. I don’t know if she ever got face to face with him until that night. I can’t answer that.”
Leslie said the families of the murdered women were told on the weekend about charges being laid. A day later, police announced the charges to the media and asked for the public’s help in pinpointing Legebokoff’s movements in the last few years.
“It’s hard enough with what has gone on so far and the families involved, including his family,” he said of Legebokoff’s relations.
“I really wouldn’t want to be his family, they must be going through hell. He comes from a good family. It’s not like he comes from a bunch of hoodlums or anything.”
Loren, who was legally blind, had been living with her mother in Vanderhoof at the time of her murder.
Leslie said his daughter was a mentor to other students in the school and he has started a campaign to help other children stay safe and get peer support.
“She was well thought of and lots of kids looked up to her.”
He has started the Loren Donn Leslie Foundation to “spread the word of Loren,” in hopes that other’s don’t become victims.
Awareness is the first step towards safety and if people aren’t aware of the dangers, the consequence could be death, he said.
“There’s nothing I can do to change what’s already been done. The only thing I know that I can do is to move forward and try to make a difference.”
While Loren is gone, Leslie said his daughter’s spirit has never left. Those feelings are evident in the “Love Dad” notes he writes to her.
“Loren, Thanksgiving, hmmm, well, all in all, we do have a lot to be thankful for. You not being here is just not one of them,” he wrote Thanksgiving weekend.
“I so do wish you were here right now but you’re not. Sometimes it really puzzles me, how are we going to make it through.”
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