Murder accused pondered blowing up house, court hears
As police closed in on him, murder suspect Allan Shyback told an undercover cop he had three options to avoid their dragnet.
In a secretly taped conversation in a Winnipeg pub, played Friday in court, Shyback told the undercover operative he hoped a lawyer could prevent a search of his Calgary home, he could run, or he could blow the residence up.
“Right now, all that’s coming to me is three possible avenues,” he told the officer, who was part of a so-called Mr. Big operation designed to coax a possible confession out of Shyback.
Shyback, 40, discussed his options after having a phone conversation with homicide Det. Dave Sweet, who told the accused his wife’s missing person investigation was now being looked at as a murder.
Sweet also told Shyback he wanted to conduct a search of the accused’s Ogden home, where he had entombed his wife, Lisa Mitchell, after killing her two years earlier.
Shyback had placed Mitchell’s body in a large plastic tote before sealing her remains in cement.
Shyback spoke to the undercover officer after getting off the phone with Sweet.
He said a search would most certainly uncover his wife’s remains.
He then listed off his options.
“One, getting ahold of a lawyer that’s good enough to keep them from being able to search the house and access to me,” he said.
“And that’s a 50-50 best shot,” Shyback said.
“Option 2, I don’t know, scorch (the) house,” he continued.
“Torch it?” said the officer, who can’t be identified.
“It would have to be more than torched. It’d have to be like exploded — gas leak problem thing,” the murder suspect said.
The officer suggested that may be difficult.
“A little dicey,” he said before correcting himself.
“A lot dicey.”
“A lot dicey,” Shyback agreed. “But it might give a guy at least another few months.”
“What’s option 3?” the operative asked.
“I run,” Shyback replied. Shyback is charged with seconddegree murder and causing an indignity to a body in connection with the death of his wife between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, 2012.
The conversation with the undercover officer occurred Dec. 5, 2014, while the two men were on a business trip to Winnipeg.
Shyback told the officer he grabbed Mitchell by the neck after she came at him with a knife during a heated argument at their home.
“She said she could probably put me in the hospital and tell them it was self-defence,” Shyback said. “She’d get the kids and everything else and I’d be in jail.
“I pushed back at her. At some point my hands were around her neck. I remember trying to let go, trying to stop. And then she was gone.”
The officer, who earlier gained Shyback’s trust by telling him he’d been drinking and involved in a fatal crash which killed his buddy and then put the corpse behind the wheel, said option 3 was the accused’s best bet.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Balfour Der, the witness said Shyback had little social life outside of the friendships he developed in the sting operation and was a devoted father.
The trial continues on Monday.