‘Could have been me’: Calgary woman recalls eluding killer up for parole

It’s been 36 years, but Linda is still afraid of James Peters, the double murderer who stalked and hunted young women for his perverse pleasure and is now seeking his freedom. As a result, she doesn’t want her real name used or her face photographed.

The now 54-year-old mother of three grown kids, with a grandchild on the way, very nearly became one of the victims of Peters and his accomplice, Robert Brown, who has since died in prison.

Peters, who was convicted in 1983 of the abductions, rapes and murders of Debbie Stevens, 23, of High River and 16-yearold Laurie Boyd of Okotoks, will appear at a parole board hearing Friday in Dorchester, N.B., Laurie’s still-devastated mother, Darlene Boyd, 71, is attending his parole board hearing along with former Calgary Reform and Conservative party MP Art Hanger.

It was the evening of Jan. 30, 1982. Linda, then an 18-year-old, Grade 12 high school student, was working at a Gulf self-serve gas station in the southeast Calgary neighbourhood of Midnapore when Peters and Brown tried to trick the five-foottall petite teen into leaving her glassed-in booth.

“I escaped the grip of Peters and Brown the night that they abducted, raped and killed Laurie Boyd. I was the only prosecution witness who could disprove their alibi,” she says. Indeed, her testimony helped convince the men to change their plea to guilty, confessing their crimes to the RCMP in great detail.

“It’s an experience that has haunted me over the years,” said Linda, in the gourmet kitchen of the Springbank home she shares with her high school sweetheart and husband, Phil.

On that tragic night, Linda had received permission from her boss to close up a little bit before 9 p.m. to give her time to rush home to watch one of her favourite TV shows — Dynasty — with Phil.

“Peters and Brown attempted to get me to exit the booth to help them, as they told me they were having issues with their car. I refused, telling them that I was not allowed to leave my booth without another employee to accompany me.

“I had no idea that the decision I made at that moment would save my life,” says Linda, wiping away tears. “I can’t tell you how many times over the past 36 years I have given thanks for my intuition that night.”

Linda says Brown told her that his friend’s car was having troubles and repeatedly badgered her to leave the booth to see if she could help. She doggedly refused. Later, Peters told her his friend was just kidding. He paid for the gasoline that he ominously pumped into a jerry can. The men then drove away.

Later that night in Okotoks, at about 10:30 p.m., the two men held a screwdriver to the neck of Laurie Boyd, who was working as a cashier at the Red Rooster convenience store, and pulled her into their car.

They drove the popular girl out of town, where both men later confessed to taking turns raping her, before they stabbed her more than 15 times. Then, in an attempt to conceal evidence, they doused her body with the gasoline they purchased from Linda and set her body on fire.

Laurie Boyd’s body was found by a farmer on a gravel road 36 kilometres east of Okotoks the next day. Fear gripped all of Alberta, as Laurie was the second young woman murdered and burned in a span of 48 days by Peters and Brown.

On Dec. 12, 1981, Debbie Stevens’ car had run out of gas just a few kilometres from the High River home she shared with her husband. She knew Brown, a well-known mechanic in town, and accepted a ride from the two men. After the men took turns raping her, they beat her with a tire iron before soaking her body in gasoline and setting her ablaze.

Darlene Boyd, who successfully fought against the vile faint hope clause that had Peters applying for early parole after serving just 15 years behind bars, says she decided to fly to New Brunswick to read a victim-impact statement

because “I don’t want that parole board to forget about those girls and what this monster is capable of doing.”

Indeed, news clippings from 1983, during the trial of both killers, indicates that on the night they tried to abduct Linda, they had also tried to grab a young woman standing at a bus stop on Macleod Trail.

Other news clippings indicate that Laurie Boyd had told friends that she had been stalked by two men in a car one week before she was murdered.

“These men hunted humans like they were prey,” said Linda. “I guess I’m speaking out now so that the parole board will hopefully read this and know who they are dealing with.”

Linda says she has had a blessed life. She gets up and takes a family portrait of her gorgeous family off a shelf and places it on the kitchen table, with its spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains.

“My heart breaks for Darlene and Doug Boyd, their son, Trevor, and Laurie. It’s impossible for me to not draw the parallels of what could have been. I’m conflicted. I feel at once blessed that I was allowed to live the life that I have, and at the same time guilty that I was allowed it and that this other just-as-worthy family had it stolen from them.”

Linda says she reached out to Postmedia because she wants the parole board and all Canadians to know what Peters did 36 years ago.

“James Peters is a monster,” concludes Linda. “He robbed Laurie and Debbie and their families of their lives and their futures, and has therefore surrendered his right for the same. To allow him parole would be an abomination of justice.”