Work camp killer still poses 'significant risk' to public safety, review board finds
Kenneth Kelly and Mia Burry always used to hold hands. That changed for the couple four years ago, the night they saw two people stabbed to death at a remote work camp in northwestern Alberta.
Kelly recently asked his wife why she no longer wants to hold his hand. He said she told him, "If something happens, I need to run."
On June 30, 2015, Kelly and Burry were at a work camp southwest of Fox Creek, Alta., when fellow employee Daniel Goodridge went on a late-night stabbing rampage.
Goodridge stabbed Dave Derksen more than 70 times and Hally Dubois 11 times. Witnesses saw Goodridge attempt to consume some of Derksen's body parts before trying to set his body on fire.
Last November, Goodridge was found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder on two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of assault with a weapon and interfering with human remains.
Since then he's been held at Alberta Hospital Edmonton. After a hearing last month, the Alberta Review Board said Goodridge, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis-use disorder, continues to pose a risk to public safety.
"It is the opinion of the board that while he is currently being treated and is exhibiting no active symptoms, the risk of relapse is very high, and that should he relapse, he is likely to commit a violent act against a member of the public," the board said in its written decision. "Mr. Goodridge is a significant risk to the safety of the public."
He will continue to be held at Alberta Hospital on full warrant, but has been allowed to make supervised visits into Edmonton and has unsupervised grounds privileges at the hospital.
His behaviour on all supervised passes was described by a psychiatrist as "excellent." At the discretion of his treatment team, Goodridge may given more freedom in future.
He's getting monthly injections of anti-psychotic medication and has tested negative for cannabis.
"His mental status remains free of any psychotic symptoms and his mood is appropriate without evidence of mania or depression," forensic psychiatrist Dr. William Friend wrote in a letter to the review board. "He is polite and reasonable on approach and attends activities in a co-operative fashion."
The idea that Goodridge may see more freedom bothers Kelly.
"He's allowed out," Kelly said in a telephone interview from his home on Vancouver Island. "In the next 11 months, he might just possibly be able to go into Edmonton or any city on his own. And I find that quite disturbing."
The aftermath of the attack
The 66-year-old has turned his B.C. home into a fortress, reinforcing the door and installing surveillance cameras that are connected to his phone. If any movement is detected, his phone beeps.
"Every time I walk out the door, I open it about four inches and look to my left," Kelly said.
He's prone to panic attacks and can't stand large crowds or noise. He and his wife have both been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
"We don't go bowling. We don't go to shows," Kelly said. "I've walked out of grocery stores because all of a sudden it's just gotten to me."
Every night, he said, he relives the horror of what happened at the work camp.
During the trial last year in Grande Prairie, Kelly testified he and his wife were awakened by the sound of an injured Dubois, the camp cook, calling out their names for help.
Kelly cradled Dubois in his lap as she began to fade. Before she died, she told him, "Danny did this. Daniel did this to me."
Kelly relives those words, over and over.
"I hear Hally's voice every night," he said. "I go three or four nights with no sleep."
'It's never over'
Terry Stewart, the mother of Hally Dubois, has attended both of Goodridge's review board hearings at Alberta Hospital Edmonton.
Stewart has attended both of Goodridge's review board hearings.
At the first hearing, last December, she was struck by how much he had changed in month since the trial ended.
"How is it that Daniel in November was just a shell of a person with no feelings and then just a few weeks later, he was so … you might even say vibrant," Stewart said. "He just was a different person."
She said that at the December hearing, Goodridge apologized to her.
"I said to him, 'Well, don't be sorry because if you're looking for me to forgive you, that's not going to happen.'"
Stewart vows to keep attending review board hearings, even though it's difficult.
"There's always a review coming up and every time I see him, I just get a feeling nothing is ever going to be right," she said.
She's on anti-depressants and said some days she doesn't get out of bed.
"I dream about her and her arm is cut and she's saying, 'Mom, my arm hurts,'" Stewart said. "I get a pillow and put it under her arm. I can't tell you the horror that you live in every day. Because it's never over."
She worries that Goodridge may one day re-offend.
Kelly shares her concerns.
"He's destroyed lives," he said. "You have no idea what it's done to my life and Mia's life."
The next review board hearing for Goodridge is scheduled for April 2020.
