Cody Alan Legebokoff (born 21 January 1990) is a Canadian

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

convicted in 2014 by the

British Columbia Supreme Court British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

of murdering three women and one teenage girl, between 2009 and 2010, in or near the city of Prince George,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He is one of Canada's youngest convicted serial killers, and his trial drew national attention. One of his victims, the 23-year-old Natasha Lynn Montgomery, has been included in the list of missing women and girls suspected as victims in the

Highway of Tears murders The Highway of Tears is a corridor of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada, which has been the location of many disappearances and murders beginning in 1970. The phrase was coined during a vigil held ...

Background

Cody Legebokoff is a Canadian citizen who was born on 21 January 1990 and raised in

Fort St. James Fort St. James is a district municipality and former fur trading post in northern central British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Stuart Lake in the Omineca Country, at the northern terminus of Highway 27, which con ...

, a district municipality in rural

. He has been described by friends and family members as a popular young man who competed in

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

and showed no propensity for violence. Though Legebokoff had a minor criminal record, he was not "on the radar" of local police. After graduating Fort St. James Secondary School, Legebokoff lived briefly in Lethbridge,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, before moving to

Prince George, British Columbia Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 74,004 in the metropolitan area. It is often called the province's "northern capital" or sometimes the "spruce capital" because it is the hub city for ...

. There, he shared an apartment with three close female friends and worked at a

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

dealership. In his spare time, Legebokoff frequented the Canadian social-networking site Nexopia, using the handle "1CountryBoy."

2010 arrest

On November 27, 2010, at approximately 9:45 p.m., rookie

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

(RCMP) officer, Constable Aaron Kehler, observed Legebokoff pull his truck onto British Columbia Highway 27 from a remote logging road. According to a case report written by Kehler, Legebokoff's 2004 GMC pick-up truck was speeding erratically and, on a hunch, the officer decided to pull over the vehicle for a routine traffic stop. He believed that it was odd and even suspicious that someone would be on that road, that late, in frigid November. Kehler suspected the driver of

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

in the backwoods and signaled for him to pull over. Kehler was joined by a second RCMP officer. Both officers said that upon searching Legebokoff's pickup truck, they discovered a multi-tool and wrench covered in blood, as well as a monkey backpack and a wallet containing a children's hospital card bearing the name Loren Leslie. When questioned about the blood on him, Legebokoff purportedly said that he was poaching and had clubbed a deer to death because: "I'm a

redneck ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term chiefly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, ' ...

, that's what we do for fun." The truck did not contain a deer carcass. The officers arrested Legebokoff under the

Canada Wildlife Act The ''Canada Wildlife Act'' (the Act) is a statute of the Government of Canada. It specifies the requirements for a geographic area in Canada to be designated a National Wildlife Area by the Canadian Wildlife Service division of Environment Canad ...

and called for a

conservation officer A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest g ...

with animal tracking skills. The warden traced the tire tracks of Legebokoff's vehicle up the road and in the freshly fallen snow, found footprints leading to the remains of Loren Dawn Leslie. After Legebokoff's arrest in connection with Leslie's death, he was linked by DNA analysis to the deaths of Jill Stacey Stuchenko, Cynthia Frances Maas, and Natasha Lynn Montgomery.

Victims

* Jill Stacey Stuchenko, 35-year-old mother of six, last seen on October 9, 2009. She was found dead four days later in a gravel pit on the outskirts of Prince George. * Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23 year old mother of two, last seen August 31 or early September 1, 2010. Her body has never been found, but her DNA was later found in samples taken in Legebokoff's apartment. * Cynthia Frances Maas, 35, last seen September 10, 2010. Her body was found in a Prince George park the following month. Maas died of blunt-force trauma to the head and penetrating wounds. She had a hole in her shoulder blade, a broken jaw and cheekbone, and injuries to her neck consistent with someone's stomping on it.

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

has said Stuchenko, Montgomery and Maas had worked in the

sex trade The sex industry (also called the sex trade) consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related ...

. Legebokoff was addicted to cocaine and used sex workers to get him the drug. * Loren Dawn Leslie, 15, murdered on November 27, 2010. Leslie was far younger than the other victims and allegedly met Legebokoff online at the website Nexopia. She was legally blind, having one completely blind eye and 50% vision in the other. Leslie is included in the list of murder victims found along the "

Highway of Tears The Highway of Tears is a corridor of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada, which has been the location of many disappearances and murders beginning in 1970. The phrase was coined during a vigil held ...

" in northern British Columbia.

Trial proceedings

Legebokoff's trial on four counts of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

was originally scheduled to begin in September 2013, but was delayed a month until October, and then again until June 2014. He pleaded not guilty to all four counts. The judge and twelve jurors heard testimony from 93 Crown witnesses and the defendant. Legebokoff testified during the trial that he was "involved" in three of the deaths but claimed that he did not commit the killings. He alleged that a drug dealer and two accomplices, whom he would only name as "X, Y and Z", were the actual murderers. Prosecutors did not accept this attempt to plead guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

Aftermath

Legebokoff was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder on September 11, 2014. On September 16, Legebokoff was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

with no parole for 25 years. Additionally, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett added him to the national

sex offender registry A sex offender registry is a system in various countries designed to allow government authorities to keep track of the activities of sex offenders, including those who have completed their criminal sentences. In some jurisdictions, registration i ...

, given the sexual assaults committed as part of the murders and Legebokoff's apparent degradation of the victims' bodies. "He lacks any shred of empathy or remorse," Parrett said of the killer. "He should never be allowed to walk among us again." In February 2015, Legebokoff filed an appeal due to decisions against

change of venue A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread public ...

and defendant's legal representation. In September 2016, all three judges in the BC Court of Appeal case endorsed the original judge's decision. Legebokoff was originally imprisoned at the

Kent Institution Kent Institution (french: Établissement de Kent) is a Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) facility located in Agassiz, British Columbia. Opened in 1979, Kent is the only maximum security federal penitentiary in the CSC's Pacific region, which in ...

but was transferred in March 2019 to the Warkworth Institution.

Legacy

The Legebokoff case is covered in the 2015 documentary ''

''. Floridian writer J.T. Hunter profiled Legebokoff in the book ''The Country Boy Killer: The True Story of Cody Legebokoff, Canada's Teenage Serial Killer'', published in 2015.

References

External links

2014 BCSC 1746. ''Regina v. Cody Alan Legebokoff''. Oral Reasons for Sentence
British Columbia Courts {{DEFAULTSORT:Legebokoff, Cody 1990 births 2009 murders in Canada 2010 murders in Canada 21st-century Canadian criminals Canadian male criminals Canadian murderers of children Canadian rapists Canadian serial killers Crime in British Columbia Highway of Tears Living people Male serial killers Murder trials People from Prince George, British Columbia Violence against women in Canada