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Day parole to continue for multiple murderer Derik Lord

Day parole will continue for another six months for a Victoria man who murdered a friend’s mother and grandmother for inheritance money 30 years ago.
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Derik Lord (centre) and his mother outside the courthouse in New Westminster on June 3, 1992.

Day parole will continue for another six months for a Victoria man who murdered a friend’s mother and grandmother for inheritance money 30 years ago.

Derik Lord, now 47 and married with a son, was transferred to a minimum-security institution in 2017. In March, he was granted day parole for four months with conditions that allow him to live at a community residential facility and work at a camp in northern B.C. where he previously completed two successful work releases.

Lord continues to claim he was wrongly convicted of the first-degree murders of Sharon Huenemann, 47, and her 69-year-old mother, Doris Leatherbarrow. He and David Muir killed the women after their Mount Douglas Secondary School classmate Darren Huenemann promised them part of a $4-million inheritance.

The two 17-year-olds planned the murder, going to Leatherbarrow’s home in Tsawwassen on Oct. 5, 1990, where they were invited for dinner. They bludgeoned the women repeatedly on their heads with a crowbar, rendering them unconscious. Then they slit their throats, leaving them to bleed to death.

Lord and Muir ransacked the house to make the killings look like a robbery, taking cash from the dead women’s purses. In 1992, all three were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Lord and Muir were both eligible for parole after 10 years because they were young offenders.

Muir, the only one of the three to admit his role in the killings, has been on full parole since 2003.

Huenemann, who tried unsuccessfully to escape from prison in 1995, remains in custody. In 2017, after serving 25 years of his life sentence, he applied for an escorted temporary absence, but was turned down.

In early July, the Parole Board reviewed Lord’s file to decide whether to continue his day parole. Board members read victim-impact statements from surviving family members saying Lord’s continued denial of the crimes has compounded their grief and that they fear for their safety and oppose Lord’s release.

The board noted that at past hearings, Lord described a chaotic childhood where he was moved around a lot, felt isolated and had trouble making positive friendships. Lord was bullied and became a bully himself.

A 2017 psychological assessment found Lord was at low-to-moderate risk for violent reoffending, but that his problems with insight, empathy and taking responsibility for the crime increase his risk for violence. The assessment said Lord’s denial of the murders means he has not addressed his risk factors.

The board said that at his March 2020 hearing, Lord displayed signs of arrogance and condescension and showed no evidence of remorse.

The board noted that Lord is working four days a week in a workshop, has participated in the Trauma and Addictions Recovery Program twice weekly and is working with an elder on a weekly basis. His case-management team reported that Lord has demonstrated a co-operative, patient and respectful attitude and appeared to be open and honest with them. The team said he was abiding by all conditions of his release,

Lord will begin extra mental-health counselling to support his reintegration, the decision said.

Board members were satisfied that Lord has begun a successful initial transition to the community on day parole, and shows commitment and focus on future change. “The Board is aware that such future change will be very gradual, given your ingrained personality issues that have been detailed earlier in this report, and in particular because of your persistence in claiming your innocence of your crimes despite clear evidence to the contrary,” said the decision.

Lord must continue to live at the Indigenous residential facility. Overnight leave is not authorized.

Lord is prohibited from having any contact with the victims’ families, including extended family members and Crown witnesses. He is not allowed to travel to Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland.

ldickson@timescolonist.com