Parole extended for man who planned mother, grandmother’s murders
Almost 35 years after a Saanich teenager plotted the murder of his mother and grandmother, his day parole has been extended — and a second accomplice has been granted full parole.
Darren Gowan (who previously went by the last name Huenemann), now 51, was 18 years old when he orchestrated the double homicide with the help of two classmates.
In 1990 Derik Lord, then 17, and David Muir, then 16, carried out the murders of Sharon Huenemann, 47, and her mother Doris Leatherbarrow, 69, at Leatherbarrow’s Tsawwassen home, while Gowen waited at home.
Lord and Muir arranged the crime scene to look like a burglary, then met with Gowen to coordinate stories.
The goal? To obtain a $4 million inheritance.
Gowen has now received a three-month extension of day parole, which was first granted in August 2022.
According to parole documents, Gowen received an additional three years for escaping from prison in 1995. He assaulted a staff member, stole a vehicle and engaged in a high-speed chase with police in the process.
The documents say Gowen has narcissistic, antisocial and obsessive traits, but has made “positive progress” over his years in custody, noting he has not engaged in violence since getting in a fight with a fellow inmate in 2003.
Gowen remains restricted from contacting family members of the victims or any person who is involved in criminal activity.
Full parole for Lord
All three men involved were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison — Gowen had no chance of parole for 25 years, while Muir and Lord had no chance of parole for 10 years.
Muir later admitted his guilt after pleading not guilty at his murder trial, and was granted full parole in 2003.
Lord was granted full parole in a hearing on Thursday.
CBC News did not attend the parole hearing but has confirmed the result with a CTV News reporter who was present. The parole board has not yet released its full report of Thursday’s hearing.
Lord has continuously maintained his innocence in the crime and has been denied full parole several times. He was first granted day parole in March 2020.
The Parole Board of Canada said in previous decisions Lord refuses to take responsibility for the deaths of Huenemann and Leatherbarrow and lacks empathy for the victims.
The board said Lord behaved in an angry and defensive manner at a full parole hearing in February 2024.
David McAllister, professor of criminology at SFU, said parole boards consider many different factors when making decisions, including the person’s behaviour and whether the person has a feasible release plan.
“The whole parole process is supposed to be forward looking, rather than focusing on the past so much,” said McAllister.
“There’s a lot of discretion given to parole board members, and I think each board member is going to look at things differently.”
Elaborate inheritance plot
On October 5, 1990, Lord and Muir took a ferry from Victoria to Tsawwassen to visit Leatherbarrow’s house, as part of a pre-planned scheme orchestrated by Gowen.
The pair knew Huenemann was visiting her mother at the time, as she did every two weeks, and expected Huenemann to welcome them as they were familiar to her, according to court documents.
The two were invited in when they arrived, under the guise that they were on the mainland for other reasons and decided to stop by.
After being invited in, the two teenagers knocked out the women with crowbars provided by Gowen and slit their throats with knives found in the kitchen.
After framing the house to look like a burglary, Lord and Muir took the ferry back to Victoria where Gowen and his girlfriend picked them up.
Court records state the murders had been planned for some months, and the pair had traveled to the mainland to carry out the plan a few weeks earlier, but hadn’t been able to locate the house.
They were promised cash and property in exchange for killing the women.
According to parole documents, Gowen described his mother as controlling and said she put a lot of pressure on him to succeed and had expectations that he struggled to meet.
The parole board determined Gowen has a moderate to low risk of reoffending.
“The murders occurred in a particular and specific context when you were approaching adulthood,” reads the decision.
“Over the last decades, you had clearly done a great deal of work on yourself, which had allowed you to approach your reality, but especially that of others, in a more sensitive and open manner.”
