A friend of the murdered Laurie Boyd, who started a belated letter campaign to stop Boyd’s killer from getting paroled, is pleased to hear the killer will remain behind bars. Wanda Reid asked for letters of support through the OHS [Okotoks High School] Classes 82 – 86 Facebook page to be sent to the Parole Board of Canada to ensure James Peters truly serves a life sentence for the murder that rocked Okotoks in 1982. “I am very pleased,” said Wanda Reid of Peters’ parole being denied on Nov. 16 in New Brunswick. “I just wish we didn’t have to keep going through this. What I don’t know is when is he up for parole again. My concern is for Darlene (Laurie’s mother) having to go through this again.” Laurie Boyd, 16, was raped and then murdered after being abducted by two men while working at the Red Rooster Convenience Store on Jan. 30, 1982. The other murderer, Robert Brown, killed himself in prison. They also were convicted for the December 1981 murder and rape of Debbie Stevens, 23, of High River. Darlene Boyd and former Reform party MP Art Hanger attended Peters’ parole hearing in New Brunswick on Friday. Peters was 29 when Boyd was murdered. Reid and Laurie Boyd went to classes together in Okotoks. She was living in Manitoba when she heard of Boyd’s death. “There are a lot of people who remember this tragedy,” said Reid. “Life should be life. He is a sex offender, a double–murderer, he needs to stay where he is. “I had spoken to her [Laurie] a couple of months before. It forever changed the life of that town [Okotoks]. Nobody wanted to go out by themselves, everybody was looking over their shoulders.” She added when she heard of the parole hearing, she began sobbing and her heart went out to the Boyd family. Michele Herr also wrote a letter urging Peters be denied bail. Herr said it is unforgivable that Darlene Boyd has to go to a parole hearing to help keep her daughter’s killer in prison. “I am writing this letter because Darlene has been through hell,” said Herr, who was 16 and living in Okotoks when Boyd was murdered. “Every time this comes up, she has to go through this same hell again.” Herr said as a sexual assault victim, she shudders at the thought of ever having to see her assailant in court. “If I had to go through seeing him every time it would kill me,” Herr said. “This poor mother has been through this how many times? “I grew up in Okotoks and this changed all of our lives. I can’t imagine what Darlene and her family are going through.” In her letter to the parole board Herr wrote: “As a 16-year-old girl (at the time), living in Okotoks, my happy world was shattered. We lived in a small town where everyone knew everybody. We went from never locking doors and going wherever we wanted, to locking everything and never going out alone. We all lost our innocence that year. “We learned that monsters were real. I don’t believe that that kind of behaviour can be changed. This man is a real danger to society. His actions show a complete lack of empathy for his fellow man. Releasing him puts other innocent Canadians at significant risk.” Patti Gough is also writing a letter. She was 16 and a friend of the Boyd family in 1982. “I have lost sleep thinking that if that man gets out he will kill someone again,” Gough said. “How come he should ever walk [free] again?” She said she worked at the former Aldersyde Petro Canada back in the 1980s. “They (Brown and Peters) would come in and I thought it was a such a weird combination,” she said. She said she was offered a ride home one evening from them, shortly after Boyd’s death, but fortunately her dad showed up as they were walking out the door. She went to the trial and later had nightmares. “Laurie and I grew up from Grade 6 on, we were friends and hung around together,” Gough said. In her letter addressed to the parole board, Gough wrote: “He does NOT deserve to be free EVER!! Please keep him in jail. Laurie was a kind, funny, smart beautiful girl that deserved to live. I want the parole board to think about Debbie and Laurie’s last hours of life. Horrific and terrifying!!“ Reid said she is exploring starting a gofundme page to pay for any future expenses if the Boyds regrettably have to attend another parole hearing.
