B.C. senior serving life sentence for murders dies in prison

Leonard Landrick is led by Vancouver police officers to an awaiting vehicle on the day of his arrest in July 2017.

A Vancouver senior who was convicted of second-degree murder while in his 70s has died in prison, officials say.

Leonard Landrick was found guilty in the deaths of two people who were found dead in a Vancouver apartment building in 2017.

In a brief statement, Correctional Service Canada said Tuesday that Landrick died in custody of "apparent natural causes."

As with all deaths in custody, the CSC will be previewing the circumstances, and police and the coroner have been notified.

He'd been living in Pacific Institution, a federal institution located in Abbotsford.

Landrick was serving life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 15 years, a sentence which began in November 2020.

He was arrested the day that the bodies of two people were found inside a West End apartment building.

His victims, 57-year-old Sandra McInnes and 51-year-old Neil Croker, lived in the same building as a then-73-year-old Landrick.

McInnes was on the Morton Avenue building's board, and Croker was the building manager. Police said the deaths were targeted, and during the trial the court heard that Landrick too was very involved in the co-op building.

The judge and jury heard that Landrick came to believe in the months before the murders that he'd been drugged by McInnes and sexually assaulted by Croker.

In the weeks following the alleged assault, he'd told multiple people of the allegations, and McInnes expressed concerns for her safety.

The judge in his case noted during sentencing that the evidence did not establish that the drugging and assault actually occurred. Instead, it suggested "his belief that these events occurred was the product of delusions."

The victims were killed in their own beds in their own apartments. They'd been stabbed multiple times.

During his trial, Landrick denied committing the murders, but the jury didn't believe his testimony, noting among other evidence that Landrick had spare keys to their homes.

Landrick had no criminal history, but the court heard he'd been drinking relatively frequently and using crack cocaine occasionally, prior to the murders.

A psychiatric evaluation suggested he had psychotic symptoms, "specifically paranoid delusions and occasional hallucinations," which he'd been experiencing for about five weeks before the deaths. 

Croker's family did not provide victim impact statements, but said they were devastated by his death.

McInnes's sister, nephew, cousin and close friend gave statements during sentencing, and a community impact statement was prepared by residents of the building where the victims and their killer lived.

She was described as someone who had a significant impact on those around her, and family members said her death is "not something that they are ever likely to recover from."