Victim’s mother angry murderer gets weekend pass

Mother’s pain of 36-plus years ‘never goes away’

CALGARY Evelyn Thompson feels helpless and sick knowing the man who killed her daughter in 1980 enjoyed a taste of freedom this weekend.

“It never goes away,” Evelyn Thompson said of that pain and fear that took over her life almost 37 years ago. “It does not happen.”

Harold Smeltzer, now 60 years old, was granted a weekend pass while serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of fiveyear-old Kimberley Thompson in January 1980.

He kidnapped the child on her way to a southwest Calgary kindergarten, drowned her in a tub and hid her body in a trash can.

After he was captured five months later, he admitted to attacking 40 girls and women in the southwest from 1975 to 1980.

These days, Smeltzer lives in a Regina halfway house.

Since Smeltzer was granted day parole in 2008, Thompson says she’s been expecting a call from Corrections Canada like the one she got a few days ago, telling her the man who ended her daughter’s life — and in the process destroyed Evelyn’s life and the lives of many in her family — has been given more freedom.

Smeltzer is now allowed supervised overnight leaves, one weekend each month.

“I don’t think it was right, but as we all know he has all the rights and we don’t,” she said. “He’s supposed to be with some support person, but who’s to say he doesn’t sneak out at night?

“Are they going to stay awake all night and watch him? Do they have a security system that’ll go off if he tries to go out the door? “I don’t know any of that.” Thompson said she believes Smeltzer will offend again and that he should be in prison for the rest of his life. Thompson said many members of her extended family have been scarred by Smeltzer’s crimes. “My grandson — he’s 10, and he got to go to school on his own in Grade 5, and that’s one block away where we watch him get to the school,” she said.

“Even my younger nieces and nephews have been kept on a very short leash.

“My nieces and nephews ... 25 and 26 and they have got to contact their parents every time they go somewhere, otherwise there’s panic.”

Smeltzer served 27 years of a life sentence behind bars. He was first released on day parole in 2008, but it was revoked in January 2012 because he had a video that contained sexually explicit material. Since then, the board has continued his parole in six-month increments.

He has several conditions attached to his day parole, including not being in the presence of children under 18 unless with a responsible adult who knows his criminal history and is approved by his parole supervisor.

He must also report relationships with men and women who have responsibility for children under 16.