Disturbing details outlined in sentencing hearing for B.C. man who buried pregnant girlfriend in barrel

Scales of justice. (Shutterstock)

VANCOUVER -

Warning: Some readers may find the information in this article disturbing.

A B.C. man has been sentenced following the discovery of the body of his pregnant girlfriend years after her disappearance.

According to court documents posted online Monday, Trent Alan Larsen was sentenced last month. Justice B.J. Brown told a Kamloops courtroom in September that Larsen would be expected to serve eight years for pleading guilty to manslaughter, and another three-and-a-half years for indecently interfering with or offering indignity to a dead human body.

The sentence was a joint submission from the Crown and Larsen's lawyers.

Larsen was initially charged with second-degree murder, but that charge was stayed.

With credit for time served since the discovery of the body of Angela Fehr, Larsen has five months and 24 days left for the sentence on the second count.

In addition to time behind bars, Larsen will have to give DNA to authorities to be stored on record, and he will be banned from owning weapons for life.

The judge noted Larsen is "very remorseful," but the court heard details of the disturbing case during Larsen's sentencing hearing.

Fehr's case remained cold for nearly two decades before her body was found on a rural property outside 100 Mile House, in a barrel filled with cement and buried at a friend's house.

Fehr was a mother of two, and expecting her third child. A woman who identified herself as a family friend said Fehr was predeceased by a fourth child.

Mounties said previously she was last seen at a family dinner over the Easter weekend in 2000. Her remains were discovered nearly two decades later, in September 2019.

Authorities said she had left the dinner with her partner, Larsen, and was never seen again.

According to Justice Brown, there had been some kind of trouble between Fehr and Larsen before her death.

"Ms. Fehr had a knife, Mr. Larsen grabbed a lamp and struck her in an effort to get the knife away," her sentencing decision read.

"He was not successful but ended up strangling her with the cord of the lamp. He then put her body into a barrel with cement. He took the barrel to a friend's house… I believe, and the barrel was buried."

According to Brown, police were suspicious at the time but could not prove Larsen had caused Fehr's death. Larsen pleaded guilty to the manslaughter and indignity charges after her remains were found.

Among the factors considered during sentencing were that Fehr was pregnant and that Larsen was on probation.

During Brown's oral reasons for Larsen's sentence, she noted just how long Fehr was strangled.

"Five minutes is a long period of time."