Serial child killer - David Threinen
serial_ki...@hotmail.com
Canadian Press
8-24-00
By: DENE MOORE
AGASSIZ, B.C. - A serial child killer who terrorized Saskatoon with a
string of murders in the mid-1970s told a parole board Thursday he's
where he belongs - in prison until he dies.
David Threinen said he doesn't want parole, but he also doesn't want
to be forced into treatment programs he says are useless. "I will
spend the rest of my life in prison. I will die here. I'm where I
belong," Threinen, 52, said during a brief hearing in front of three
parole board members.
"Every program they have. . . is geared for the community outside, is
geared for release. They have nothing for people like myself, people
that will never be released.
"Sitting in a group, hearing about a street that we're never going to
see, that's counterproductive."
But Threinen, who was convicted in 1975 of kidnapping and strangling
four children, said he feels he is forced to take part in the
treatment programs because the amount of money prisoners receive to
buy small, personal items is based on their participation in such
programs.
Threinen, a lanky, balding man with greying hair pulled into a pony
tail, said the only reason he appeared in front of the parole board
Thursday was because he wanted to ask the three panel members for
help.
He said he wanted the parole board members to direct the Correctional
Service of Canada to change the policy.
Bob Stewart, spokesman for the three parole board members that met
with Threinen, said the board couldn't help because the law separates
the parole board from Corrections Canada.
Threinen also said he was sorry for what he had done.
"I hope that. . . knowing that I'm not fit to live out there will
help them (the family of his victims) somehow come to terms."
Stewart said the panel members had received a letter from a victims'
rights group urging against Threinen's release.
Threinen's grisly crimes gripped the Prairie city in fear.
Dahrlyne Cranfield, 12, and Robert Grubesic, 9, were last seen riding
their bicycles along the South Saskatchewan River on June 15, 1975.
A little more than a month later Samantha Turner, 8, and Cathy Scott,
7, went missing from a nearby suburb.
The children had been strangled and their bodies dumped in two
separate locations outside the city.
Officers received police files on sex offences from all over the
country.
Among the files was the case of a 16-year-old girl murdered in
Lethbridge, Alta. A man was charged in her death but the charges were
later dropped.
The man was living in Saskatoon and was known to police.
Threinen, a father of two and a grandfather, was arrested within 24
hours of the officers finding the Lethbridge file.
Threinen pled guilty to the murders. He told the judge he was afraid
he couldn't stop himself from killing again.
The judge sentenced Threinen to life in prison and said he
should "never again be on the streets and roadways of our country."
Threinen is now living at Mountain Institution, in the Fraser Valley
100 kilometres east of Vancouver.
It's a dormitory-style institution in a leafy, idyllic setting
nestled at the bottom of a mountain. On Thursday, a fawn grazed on
the lawn in front of the penitentiary.
Threinen last had a parole hearing in 1995 when his psychologist
described him as a "fixated pedophile" with predatory and homicidal
tendencies.
Threinen acknowledged then that he would probably never get out of
prison.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.