Nearly a decade after the death of Lisa Dudley and Guthrie McKay in their Mission Home, the BC Coroners Service has announced an inquest into their case will begin on June 11.
Thirty-seven-year-old Lisa Dudley and her partner, 33-year-old Guthrie McKay were shot inside their home in 2008. MacKay died at the scene, but Dudley lay dying at the scene for four days after Mounties failed to properly investigate the scene. She later died in hospital.
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Dudley’s stepfather, Mark Surakka, says it’s hard to explain how he’s feeling when it’s taken so long to get answers.
At the time of the incident, two Mounties responded to reports of shots fired in separate vehicles. Neither of them got out to investigate or spoke to neighbours.
Surakka said they had been promised an inquest years ago.
WATCH: Family seeks justice in 2008 Mission murders
“We wanted one right from the beginning, and they said ‘no,’ they did not want to have an inquest.”
But Surakka says that even as their request finally comes true, he doesn’t know what will come out of it.
“The coroner’s court can only make recommendations. There isn’t anything of substantive nature as far as charges or anything like that, they are not empowered to do that,” he said.
The BC Coroners says it didn’t want the inquest to interfere with criminal proceedings which ended last year.
Four men were eventually convicted, three on charges of first-degree murder and one on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
— With files from Jeremy Lye