Convict in 1987 murder granted day parole
Body of University of Victoria student, 20, who went for morning jog, has never been found
VICTORIA — A man serving a life sentence for murdering a University of Victoria student 37 years ago has been granted day parole.
Scott Ian MacKay, 62, was convicted of the murder of Marguerite Telesford, who was 20 when she went out for an early morning run on Jan. 18, 1987, and never returned. Her body has never been found.
The parole board's decision said MacKay has been accepted at a community residential facility for his day parole, which has been granted for six months under several special conditions. It didn't disclose the location or the timing of his release. He has been serving his sentence at a medium-security prison in the Fraser Valley.
Telesford was a pianist who was studying to become a teacher at the time of her murder. Her bloody earmuffs were discovered on Mount Douglas Cross Road, along with a series of bloodstains, some hair, a spent shotgun shell and a pry bar.
The Crown's theory was that MacKay, who had a history of violent assaults on women, accosted Telesford as she ran. When she rebuffed him, he drove over her and then shot her.
MacKay maintained his innocence through the trial, but was convicted in 1989 of first-degree murder, which was reduced to second-degree murder on appeal. He was sentenced to life with no possibility of parole for 15 years. He applied for and was denied parole in 2004, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2021.
Although he eventually accepted responsibility for Telesford's murder, MacKay maintains he has no memory of murdering her and doesn't know the location of her remains, which was a concern for the parole board.
During his 1989 trial, five of MacKay's fellow inmates testified he had implicated himself in the killing. MacKay accused them of lying for the reward money, and accused police of planting a crucial piece of evidence, a pompom found jammed in the undercarriage of his truck.
“At your hearing today you told (the parole board) that you eventually admitted your culpability for the murder because it was the `least' you could do to bring some closure for the victim's family,” said the decision. “You maintained you still have no memory of the murder but admitted you were certainly capable of this level of violence at that time in your life.”
The decision says the parole board “remains highly concerned” about the lack of information regarding motivating factors, self-control issues and MacKay's thinking at the time of the offence. “Despite your attempts to recover your memory and recall this incident, it does not appear to the board that there will ever be definitive answers to these questions.”
The decision makes note of MacKay's criminal history since 1984. A sexual-assault conviction in 1986 involved the choking of a sex-trade worker, and an unlawful confinement conviction arose out of another incident the same year in which MacKay picked up a sex-trade worker, then drove around dangerously, refusing to let her leave the vehicle.
The victim was able to escape by jumping out of the vehicle, then had to dodge out of the way as MacKay accelerated toward her.
MacKay was convicted of both offences in 1987 and was out on bail at the time of Telesford's murder. The parole board said MacKay remains a person of interest in an unsolved homicide of a woman that same year.