Day parole granted for former Vancouver police officer who killed two women

Now 66, Brock Graham will have to live in a halfway house, report any relationships with women and stay off dating sites

A former Vancouver police officer who murdered a girlfriend in 1993 before killing his common-law wife three years later has been granted day parole. Now 66, Brock Graham will have to live in a halfway house, report any relationships with women and stay off dating sites. The Parole Board of Canada decided last month that Graham should be released into the community for a six-month trial period, despite two separate murder convictions, because of the progress made in his rehabilitation.

Graham pleaded guilty in 2005 to second-degree murder for killing and dismembering Lynn Duggan in her North Vancouver apartment in June 1993. At the time, he was already serving a life sentence for the March 1996 slaying of Patti Ducharme, a mother of four found dead in the bathtub of a Campbell River townhouse where she had been living with Graham. Ducharme’s son Christopher said Wednesday that his family is “profoundly disappointed, shocked and heartbroken by the Parole Board of Canada’s decision.”

“After 30 years of living with the devastating consequences of Brock Graham’s actions in our mother’s wrongful death, our greatest fear is that public safety has not been given the weight it deserves to protect unsuspecting future victims,” Ducharme said in a statement. Ontario board members Douglas Kirkpatrick and Matthew O’Brien said Graham deserved credit “for the work that you have done to better yourself.” “In assessing the results of this work, the board has concluded that your risk is manageable to the structured, supportive and secure environment of a (community based residential facility.)”

Graham denied killing Duggan for years before her brother finally got him to confess during a prison visit, leading to the second murder charge and the guilty plea. The parole board noted that Graham was separated from his second wife when he killed Duggan and “also had another girlfriend” at the time. “You violently killed the victim and then left her body in the forest.

While you were identified as a potential suspect, police were unable to charge you. This murder went unsolved until you confessed,” Kirkpatrick and O’Brien said in the written decision. Less than three years later, he brutally attacked Ducharme, “following an argument, by beating and strangling her.”

“When the victim’s body was found, police found three notes and a photo which included a letter apologizing for killing her, a list of her next of kin and a note placed next to the photo stating that this was the best picture you could find of the victim.” He was arrested two days later and has been in jail ever since. The Ducharme family attended Graham’s parole hearing in Kingston, Ont., last month.

Ducharme said members of the public who live near where Graham will be released should be warned about his history. The parole decision cited Graham’s post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his role in a 1987 drug raid by Vancouver police that resulted in the death of his partner, Sgt. Larry Young.

Graham shot and killed Kitsilano drug dealer John Sheffield, seconds after he shot Young. Graham left the VPD in 1990 to join the Transit Police — then known as B.C. Transit Security. He was on stress leave when he started dating Duggan.

Kirkpatrick and O’Brien said the victim impact statements they both read and heard at Graham’s June parole hearing “conveyed to the board the extreme feelings of grief and loss felt by the families of the victims, as well as their belief that (Graham’s) risk will never be manageable on conditional release.” But they also looked at the courses and programming that Graham had completed, including some done while on unescorted temporary absences from prison without any issue. The board members also noted that Graham’s most recent psychological risk assessment, dated Feb. 26, said he was in the low-to-moderate range to reoffend.

They imposed several other conditions on Graham. He mustn’t drink alcohol, nor consume any non-prescription drugs. He must also stay away from both victims’ families.

He can’t own more than one phone and must provide his parole supervisor with details of incoming and outgoing calls upon request. And Graham must continue counselling. Bluesky:

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