Cody Alan Legebokoff is a Canadianserial killer convicted in 2014 by the British Columbia Supreme Court of murdering three women and a teenage girl, between 2009 and 2010, in or near the City of Prince George, British Columbia. He is one of Canada's youngest convicted serial killers, and his trial drew national attention. A 15-year-old girl, Loren Donn Leslie, has been included in the list of missing women and girls suspected as victims in the Highway of Tears murders.
Background
Cody Legebokoff is a Canadian citizen who was born on 21 January 1990 and raised in Fort St. James, a district municipality in rural British Columbia. He has been described by friends and family members as a popular young man who competed in ice hockey 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 before moving to Prince George. There, he shared an apartment with three close female friends and worked at a Ford 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 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 the officer, the 2004 GMC pick-up truck was speeding erratically and, on a hunch, Kehler 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. He suspected the driver of poaching in the backwoods and signaled for him to pull over. The officer was joined by a second RCMP officer. The officers said that upon searching the 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, that's what we do for fun." The truck did not contain a deer carcass. The officers arrested Legebokoff under the Canada Wildlife Act and called for a conservation officer 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 Donn 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
The police allege Legebokoff is responsible for the murders of:
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, British Columbia.
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 has said Stuchenko, Montgomery and Maas had worked in the sex trade. Legebokoff was addicted to cocaine and used sex workers to get him the drug.
Loren Donn 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" in northern British Columbia.
Trial proceedings
Legebokoff's trial on four counts of murder was originally scheduled to begin in September 2013, but was delayed a month until October, and then again until June 2014. Legebokoff pleaded not guilty to all four counts of murder. The judge and 12 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.
Outcomes
Verdict
Legebokoff was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder on September 11, 2014.
Sentencing
On September 16, 2014, Legebokoff was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years. Additionally, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett added him to the national sex offender registry, 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."
Appeal
In February 2015, Legebokoff filed an appeal due to decisions against change of venue 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 but was transferred in March 2019 to the Warkworth Institution.
Legacy
The Legebokoff and Loren Leslie case is covered in the 2015 documentary Highway of Tears. 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.
