Couple handed life sentences for sex slaying
JUSTICE
S T. T HOMA S , ONT. •A couple whose depraved sexual appetites led them to brutally murder and rape an Ontario teacher they picked up on the side of the road three years ago apologized to the woman’s grief-stricken family Thursday as they prepared to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Tanya Bogdanovich, 34, and Michael MacGregor, 22, chose to face Noelle Paquette’s family and friends in a packed St. Thomas courtroom as they took turns voicing their remorse for the gruesome killing that sent shock waves through southwestern Ontario.
Though both said they wished they could reverse their actions and bring Paquette back to life, neither shed light on what fuelled their violent plan — a plot that initially focused on a teenage girl but shifted to the Sarnia teacher by a twist of circumstance.
Nor did they ask for forgiveness.
“I want to say sorry, I know I can’t change or take back what I’ve done no matter how much I wish I could,” said MacGregor, who addressed the court first. “What I did was terrible and because of it Noelle is gone, when instead she should still be with you.
“I’m not asking for your forgiveness; I don’t deserve it and could never hope for it,” he said.
Bogdanovich’s voice broke as she acknowledged the “all- encompassing pain” caused by Paquette’s murder, which she described as a “horrendous tragedy.”
“One night f orever changed the course of many lives and it can never be undone,” she said, adding she regretted waiting so long to plead guilty.
At least one member of Paquette’s family left the courtroom while Bogdanovich spoke. Others looked down and wiped tears from their eyes.
Bogdanovich and MacGregor pleaded guilty late last year to first-degree mur- der in the savage slaying of Paquette, a stranger they abducted on a road as she was walking home from a New Year’s Eve party.
The offence carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. The pair must also be added to the DNA bank and sex offender registry and face a lifetime firearms ban. They must also refrain from contacting Paquette’s family and friends.
In handing down the automatic sentence — the strictest available under law — Ontario Superior Court Judge Bruce Thomas said the pair’s “vile and despicable” actions required them to be removed from society for most of their lives.
Paquette’s father, Roger Paquette, said outside court the sentence was “neither an ending nor a beginning.”
“It is a message to everyone to be cautious but not afraid, to live life to the fullest and to love and be kind,” he said.
Paquette was “merely in the wrong place at the wrong time,” and though she tried to fight off her attackers, she was overwhelmed by their “violent sexually motivated desires,” according to an agreed statement of fact read in court Wednesday.
Court heard Bogdanovich, a nurse and mother of three who was already in a relationship, met MacGregor on a social networking site for people interested in BDSM, fetishism and kink in June 2012.
The pair chronicled their sexual desires and activities in pictures, videos and writings and by September of that year, were discussing their fantasy of abducting and raping a teenage girl. The statement said the couple’s plan fell through when their chosen target was unavailable and they decided to pick up a “random” instead.
Paquette’s body was found in a woodlot on Jan. 2, 2013, less than 24 hours after she was reported missing. An autopsy found she died from the dozens of stabbing and incised wounds that perforated her heart, lungs, liver and other organs and slashed her throat.