The man involved in one of B.C.’s most notorious crimes almost three decades ago has been denied his first chance at parole.
Darren Huenemann, who was convicted and given a life sentence for being the ‘mastermind’ of the 1990 double murder of his mother Sharon and grandmother Doris Leatherbarrow, appeared before the parole board at his Quebec prison Tuesday.
But his parole request was denied.
The family of the victims is adamant he stay behind bars. “It’s was a brutal murder and they slaughtered two beautiful ladies,” said family member Ed Beketa.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Derik Lord was just a teenager when he and two other teens were convicted of killing his friend’s grandmother and mother in a murder-for-hire inheritance plot.
In October 1990, the bodies of 47-year-old Sharon and 69-year-old Doris were found in the kitchen of the elder woman’s home in Tsawwassen.
It was later discovered that Huenemann, who was 18 at the time, hired two classmates, David Muir and Derik Lord, both 17, to murder the two women for a part of a $4-million inheritance.
WATCH: Derik Lord seeks parole in double murder conviction
All three were found guilty of first-degree murder in 1992. Lord and Muir were both eligible for parole after 10 years because both were young offenders at the time of the murders. Muir served 10 years and is out on full parole while Lord, who has maintained his innocence, has been repeatedly turned down for parole.
Huenemann, who made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from prison in 1995, was not eligible for parole until he served 25 years.