The Sydney River McDonald's murders occurred on May 7, 1992, at the

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

restaurant in Sydney River,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. They were committed by a trio of friends who robbed the restaurant, murdering three people and permanently disabling a fourth in the process. It was one of the highest-profile murder cases in Canada at the time.

Robbery and murders

Derek Wood, 18, an employee of the restaurant along with two friends, Freeman Daniel MacNeil, 23, and Darren Muise, 18, broke into the restaurant after closing, planning to rob the establishment. They murdered their victims with a

.22 calibre .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm). Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO. .22 inch is also a popular ...

pistol, several knives, and a shovel. One victim survived after being shot in the face, but was left permanently disabled. Forcing an employee to open the restaurant's safe, they made off with $2,017.

Victims

Killed: *Jimmy Fagan, 27 *Donna Warren, 22 *Neil Burroughs Jr., 29 Injured: *Arlene MacNeil, 20 (permanently disabled, died 2018)

Community response

The murders put Sydney into the spotlight as this became a news story worldwide. The restaurant was in the shopping district of Sydney River on Kings Road. It reopened on May 14, 1992 after RCMP officers and psychologists accompanied staff through a walk-through of the restaurant. The building was demolished in 2000 and moved down the road to a more accessible location. The site of the former McDonald's is currently an empty lot.

Trial and sentence

MacNeil and Wood were sentenced to life imprisonment with 25 years before

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

eligibility. Muise received 20 years before parole eligibility.

Parole dispositions

On March 29, 2011, the

National Parole Board The Parole Board of Canada (french: Commission des libérations conditionnelles du Canada; formerly known as the National Parole Board) is the Canadian government agency that is responsible for reviewing and issuing parole and criminal pardons i ...

announced their decision to grant Muise

day parole Day parole is a form of release under Canadian law that permits prisoner participation in public activities during the day, and requires they return to their prison or halfway house nightly. The Parole Board of Canada may waive this requirement, or ...

. A member stated: "Given the significant and real progress you have made over the years, your case management team is of the opinion that the probability that you commit a crime after your release is low." He received full parole on November 22, 2012. On December 29, 2022, McNeil was granted day parole. The National Parole Board had rejected an application for parole by Wood earlier that year, claiming he was "too high a risk to reoffend".

References

{{McDonald's Mass murder in 1992 History of Nova Scotia History of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Murder in Nova Scotia Crime in Nova Scotia * Attacks on restaurants in North America 1992 in Nova Scotia May 1992 events in Canada History of McDonald's 1992 murders in Canada