58-year-old inmate dies in B.C. prison 40 years after receiving life sentence for murders

The Matsqui Institution, a medium-security federal men's prison, is seen in Abbotsford, B.C., on Thursday October 26, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Abbotsford, B.C. -

A former Fort Nelson, B.C., resident has died in prison, 40 years after he was handed a life sentence for two second-degree murders.

Darcy Sidoruk was 18 years old in 1982 when he pleaded guilty and was given life with no chance of parole for 20 years for the shooting of family friend Yvonne Doucette in Dawson Creek.

Sidoruk also admitted to shooting 19-year-old James Pitt, who picked him up hitchhiking outside Dawson Creek, shortly after the murder of Doucette.

His 1982 sentencing hearing was told of his long anti-social and criminal past, including assault charges against a teacher and a young child, thefts, break-ins and, at the age of 14, being the only child expelled from every public school in Fort Nelson.

A psychiatrist told the hearing that Sidoruk suffered severe burns in an accident at age three and spent a large part of his childhood recovering alone in hospital, before being abandoned by his parents and placed in a relative's care, where he suffered more abuse.

Sidoruk, who was 58 years old, was serving his sentence at the Pacific Institution in Abbotsford and a statement from the facility says police and the coroner have been notified and the Correctional Service of Canada will also review the death.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.