Two of Greater Victoria鈥檚 most notorious teenaged killers recently appeared before the Parole Board of Canada.
Derik Lord, who is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of two people, has had his parole conditions extended to include overnight privileges.
Lord and another teen killer, Kelly Ellard, were granted six-month extensions of their parole.
Lord was 17 when he and another high school student, David Muir, carried out a plan by a third teen, Darren Huenemann, to kill Huenemann鈥檚 mother and grandmother in October 1990.
All three teens were convicted in 1992.
Now 47 with a wife and son, Lord continues to maintain his innocence in connection with these crimes.
Sharon Huenemann was 47 and her mother, Doris Leatherbarrow, was 69 when they were beaten and stabbed in the throat, in the kitchen of Leatherbarrow鈥檚 Tsawwassen home as they prepared to serve the two teens dinner.
Huenemann attended the same Saanich high school as Lord and Muir and had promised them cars, homes and monthly salaries if they killed his relatives and cleared the way for what Huenemann believed would be a roughly $3 million inheritance.
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Lord was granted day parole in March 2020, which was extended again in July 2020. In a Parole Board of Canada decision released on Jan. 14, it notes some programming was not available for Lord due to the pandemic. But he has shown some self-improvement while working towards reintegration.
Lord鈥檚 parole conditions prevent him from travelling to Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland and he is not to have any direct or indirect contact with the victims鈥� family.
In a decision also released on Jan. 14, the Parole Board of Canada extended Kelly Ellard鈥檚 鈥榝ive and two鈥� leave privileges for another six months, which allow her to spend five nights each week at her residence and two nights at a community residential facility (halfway house).
Ellard, who now goes by the name Kerry Sims, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1997 death of 14-year-old Reena Virk and was given a life sentence.
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At the age of 15, Ellard swarmed Virk with several other teens. Ellard, along with a teenage boy, then held Virk underwater near a Greater Victoria bridge until she stopped moving.
Despite being a teenager at the time of the murder, she was given an adult sentence due to the nature of the offence. She was eligible to apply for parole in 2013 but didn鈥檛 apply until 2016 and was denied at first. In February 2016, Ellard was given permission to take temporary escorted trips to parenting programs and doctor appointments.
Ellard is now in her late 30s and a mother of two.
She first received day parole in November 2017, which the parole board has extended in six-month increments on several occasions.
Her conditions continue to include not consuming drugs or alcohol, following a treatment plan, avoiding anyone involved in criminal activity or substance abuse, and no direct or indirect contact with members of Virk鈥檚 family.
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