By Sarah Rae

Family of Battlefords victims oppose killer’s full release

Jul 15, 2016 | 5:00 PM

A family member of two men killed more than a decade ago is still grieving, and says the killer’s freedom takes hers away.  

Roxanne Kennedy said she and the rest of the family of David Kennedy and Hughie Sayers still manage to find some light in their lives though, 14 years after their violent deaths. They just celebrated David’s daughter graduating from high school.

“I guess there are some things that are positive since his death, where we’re starting to live again, but it still doesn’t change the fact that (his daughter) had to grow up without her dad and that we have a void in our lives,” she said. “Nobody can replace him, period.”

David Kennedy, 25, and his uncle Hughie Sayers, 74, were killed by Layne Larose with an axe on May 28, 2002. The house they were in was then set ablaze.

In 2004, Larose was found not criminally responsible for one count of arson and two counts of second-degree murder, meaning he suffered from a mental disorder that made him incapable of realizing what he did was morally wrong.

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Since being found not criminally responsible, Larose was under the jurisdiction of the Saskatchewan Review Board (SRB). He was sent to the high-security Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon, then the lower-security Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford. In 2012 he was living in a group home in Saskatoon, from where he applied to move to the Battlefords to live with his mother.

The SRB recently decided Larose no longer poses a threat to the public and has fully released him. The decision states he has shown he’s committed to treatment and abstaining from drugs and alcohol.

Kennedy said releasing Larose into the public and allowing him to live in the Battlefords has taken the family’s freedom away over the years, because it causes them pain to see him. 

The review board has not confirmed whether Larose is living in the Battlefords or elsewhere. 

“Family members saw him someplace and it was obvious he wasn’t leaving, so then they had to remove themselves from public places,” she said.

She said she’s worried he will reoffend if not kept accountable and hopes nobody else has to go through what her family has.

Kennedy said throughout the last 14 years, the family has been hurt by Larose being portrayed as a victim. She said although he has an illness, David and Hughie’s lives were cut too short.

She said she doesn’t believe Larose ever accepted the fact he killed two people and feels as if nobody has considered the family when making decisions about his freedom.

Kennedy describes David and Hughie as good, hard working people who were always smiling. She said David, who family and friends called “Gopher,” was “just starting life,” having just bought a house and with a good job at the casino.

“Hughie was always doing yard work, he’d even help the next fellow, his neighbours, just to get out and do stuff out in the yard. David we knew as Gopher and he had major family and friends. We come from a really big family and lots and lots of friends and they were both just easy going, hard working men,” she said.

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae. Concerns regarding this story can be addressed to News Director Geoff Smith at 306-446-6397.