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The disappearance of Nathan O'Brien, Kathryn Liknes and Alvin Liknes occurred on June 29, 2014. Five-year-old Nathan O'Brien and his grandparents, Kathryn and Alvin Liknes, disappeared from the grandparents'
Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
,
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 ...
home after what police called a "violent incident." An
amber alert An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated i ...
was issued. This alert was lifted on July 14, 2014 after the arrest of a person in relation to the disappearance. Later on July 14, 2014, police state that they believe O'Brien and the Likneses were murdered, but they did not recover their bodies. Douglas Garland was charged with two 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 c ...
in the deaths of the Likneses and a second-degree murder charge for allegedly killing O'Brien. The second degree charge for Nathan O'Brien was upgraded by the court to a first degree charge in May 2015.


Trial

The murder trial for Garland began on January 16, 2017. The trial drew to a close on February 16, 2017, and it took the jurors just over nine hours to reach a verdict of guilty on all three counts of first degree murder. The following morning, Garland was sentenced, with only the minimum sentence being determined, as first degree murder carries an automatic life sentence. After 10 of the 12 jurors recommended that Garland receive consecutive minimum sentences, Judge David Gates ordered Garland be required to serve 75 years before being eligible for parole. As Garland would have to live to 129 years of age to serve that term, this means he will, effectively, be incarcerated for the rest of his life. Throughout the trial, Garland never showed any remorse or emotion. Hours after being sentenced, Garland was sent to the Calgary Remand Centre located in the city's Northwest where he was physically assaulted by multiple inmates. EMS said the victim of the assault was transported to hospital in stable, non-life-threatening condition with soft tissue injuries.


See also

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List of people who disappeared Lists of people who disappeared include those whose current whereabouts are unknown, or whose deaths are unsubstantiated. Many people who disappear are eventually declared dead ''in absentia''. Some of these people were possibly subjected to enfo ...


References

2010s missing person cases 2014 crimes in Canada Disappearance of Nathan O'Brien, Kathryn Liknes and Alvin Liknes Child abduction in Canada History of Calgary Kidnapped Canadian people Murder convictions without a body Missing person cases in Canada {{crime-stub