WARNING: This story contains details that some people may find disturbing.
A man who pleaded guilty to killing a British Columbia girl 14 years ago in Saskatchewan has been sentenced to life in prison.
Eduard Viktorovit Baranec pleaded guilty in May to manslaughter in the death of Katelyn Marie Noble, who went missing in 2007 near Radisson, Sask.
He was charged in 2018 with first-degree murder and offering an indignity to a human body.
Baranec, who is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, was sentenced Friday in a Saskatoon courtroom.
He is not eligible for parole for 10 years.
He received a five-year concurrent sentence for offering an indignity to a body.
Leona Noble said her daughter was a “kind and polite young girl who got caught up with the wrong people.”
“She had many aspirations to achieve and I believed in her,” she said in her victim impact statement.
Speaking to reporters outside Saskatoon’s Court of Queen’s Bench, Leona asked people to continue to watch for signs of her daughter in the rural area north of Radisson.
“She’s still out in the middle of the Mayfair area,” Leona said. “To bring her home would be awesome.
Noble was last seen on Aug. 27, 2007, in the Radisson, Sask., area.
The 15-year-old was from Mission, B.C.
She had moved to Radisson in late 2006 at the age of 14 to live with her boyfriend. They shared a house with Baranec.
In an agreed statement of facts, Baranec said he slit Noble’s throat and then buried her body.
The admission was made in December 2010 during a Mr. Big sting operation.
It took eight years for charges to be laid because the Crown has to operate on the presumption that a Mr. Big confession is inadmissible until each critical piece of evidence is corroborated, according to Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko.
“It wasn’t until 2018 that the undercover operation was able to get a statement from one of the key witnesses in the matter,” Claxton-Viczko said.
Baranec said he and Friend were running a marijuana grow-op, but the partnership between them deteriorated, with arguments over money and drugs.
He said he believed Noble was a nuisance who knew too much about the operation and believed that Friend was ripping him off.
It was then he decided to get rid of them.
Baranec said on Aug. 27, 2007, the day he killed Noble, she came outside at Loessin Farm where he had a marijuana grow-op and once she was in the bushes, he slit her throat with a knife.
He said he then left her body in the bushes until that night, when he enlisted the help of Jimmy Delong to move Noble’s body.
They put her body in the back of Baranec’s truck and drove to the Baranec’s farm, known locally as the Old Wilkie Farm, where they buried her body in a pre-dug hole.
Baranec said he decided to move her body sometime later after hearing that police were looking on his property, but hadn’t yet found anything.
He said he drove for about 30 to 45 minutes to a remote area north of Radisson and re-buried Noble.
The RCMP has never found Noble’s body despite a search of the area.
Friend was assaulted the next day by two men Baranec hired, but escaped and reported it to police.
They were arrested and later said they had been hired by Baranec to kill Friend.
At the time of his arrest, Baranec was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in a stabbing death in B.C. that occurred the same year Noble disappeared.
Baranec had been hired as a contract killer to murder Amanpreet Kaur Bahia. Her three children were in the home at the time of the murder.
—With files from Ryan Kessler
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