A 50-year-old man, who was convicted in a gruesome double murder case in Tsawwassen three decades ago, will have his day parole continued for another six months with special conditions.
In a recent decision, the Parole Board of Canada, authorized extended leave privileges be continued for Derek Lord. His leave privileges will continue with 14 days at home and two days at a community residential facility.
Lord and his friend David Muir were hired in 1990 by Darren Huenemann to kill Huenemann’s mother and grandmother, Sharon Huenemann and Doris Leatherbarrow, so Huenemann could get a multi-million dollar inheritance.
The pair went to Leatherbarrow’s Tsawwassen home and, after being invited in for dinner, bludgeoned and stabbed the women to death. The killers attempted to make the crime scene appear as a robbery.
All three were convicted of first-degree murder in 1992.
Lord and Muir were both sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. Huenemann received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
After his conviction, Muir, who pleaded not guilty at trial, admitted his role in the murders and has been out on parole for years. He was granted day parole in April 2002 and full parole a year later.
Huenemann, who now goes by the name Darren Gowen, was granted another six-month extension of his day parole in 2023. He was first granted six-month day parole in August 2022.
Lord was granted day parole in March 2020 and that has been continuing at six-month intervals.
Lord continues to claim he is innocent.
His conditions include not travelling to Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland and having no direct or indirect contact with the victims’ families, as well as extended family members and Crown witnesses.
The Parole Board noted that Lord’s latest psychiatric assessment, in November 2022, found he was a low risk for violence over the short term, while a moderate risk over the long term.
The assessment also found he appears to avoid taking personal responsibility for much of his negative behavior, blaming circumstances and other people for some of the consequences he experienced.
