‘Nightmare scenario’ for family of convicted killer
Victims’ relatives terrified as George Lovie went missing while out on day parole
The terrified family of a murdered couple activated its emergency action plan when the convicted killer went missing while on day parole and an arrest warrant was issued.
George Lovie turned up quickly — but the fear caused by the incident remains. The Edwards family has not only been unnerved by Lovie’s disappearance on Monday, but by the lacklustre manner in which the Parole Board of Canada communicated with the victims throughout the ordeal.
It was the scenario the Edwards family has braced and prepared for ever since Lovie was first granted day parole in 2019. Maybe even since 1991, when he was charged with forcibly confining and raping his ex-girlfriend, and then, a month later, when he was arrested again for killing her parents and attempting to kill her.
The family has literally had its bags packed for years. Safe houses have been kept at the ready. They have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure their personal information remains private. They have fought to keep Lovie behind bars. Then they got the call.
He was missing.
“I felt sick to my stomach. I was panicked,” says Tannis Edwards, daughter-in-law to the murdered couple. “We had our phones going between us all. He’s out. He’s loose. He’s coming for us.”
Lovie, now 65, was originally arrested and charged with confining and sexually assaulting his former girlfriend, Michele Edwards, at knifepoint. Police seized a rifle from the trunk of his car.
He was on bail when he emerged from under Michele’s porch in Glanbrook with a loaded rifle and a knife. She ran across the road to her parents’ home.
Lovie shot Donna Edwards repeatedly through the door. He stabbed Arnold Edwards in the kitchen.
The forcible confinement and sexual assault charges against Lovie were stayed. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempt murder, and given the automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
At parole hearings over the years, Lovie admitted killing Arnold and Donna, but said it was Michele’s fault. She drove him to it.
On Monday, Lovie was supposed to make a pre-approved, unescorted drive from his home in Sudbury to his stepmother’s house in Brantford. His Parole Board of Canada (PBC) conditions said he was not to make any stops, except in case of an emergency.
When he did not arrive at his destination on time, his parole officer “sounded the alarm that he was missing,” according to Tannis. That triggered the RCMP to issue a warrant for his arrest and for the Edwards family to be alerted.
Three members of the family live near Brantford and were preparing to flee to safety, says Tannis.
Within an hour after the warrant was issued, family members were told Lovie had been located and the warrant was cancelled. It is unclear how long he had been missing before the warrant was signed.
The PBC told the family Lovie had not violated his parole conditions and was allowed to carry on with his trip.
The family has been given no details about his disappearance. They say the PBC told them doing so would violate Lovie’s privacy.
It is unclear if Lovie was wearing an ankle bracelet to track his whereabouts. Recent PBC documents say Lovie was fitted with an ankle bracelet during a January trip to see his stepmother and help her buy a home in Brantford.
It is also unclear if Lovie was carrying a cellphone this week.
The public was not alerted Lovie was missing.
The Spectator reached out to Correctional Service Canada over two days with a list of questions, including how often arrest warrants are issued for missing offenders. Spokesperson Esther Mailhot said meeting The Spectator’s deadline wasn’t “feasible.”
Don Edwards, the son of Donna and Arnold and husband to Tannis, is livid the PBC isn’t more transparent and accountable. The former Buffalo Sabres goaltender says his family long ago stopped trusting the authorities where Lovie was concerned. Police in Hamilton released him on bail after he was charged with sexual assault. He was on bail when he committed the murders.
And the PBC has repeatedly put Lovie’s rights ahead of the family’s, says Don.
Don and Tannis’s son, Chad Edwards, was just six when his grandparents were killed. He has lived nearly his whole life afraid of the “nightmare scenario” that unfolded this week.
Tannis was burdened with trying to pass the alert on to her family while managing her own fears and implementing her own safety plan, says Chad. He says the liaison has since told him “this was a mistake from their end and it is not my mother’s responsibility.”
However, the damage is done. Chad says he has even less confidence now that the PBC will look out for his family.
The PBC told Chad it has no plan to review its protocols. Chad was told to contact an ombudsman with concerns.
On March 8, Lovie is scheduled to go before the PBC to ask for full parole. He is also asking to live with his stepmother in Brantford, even though that puts him a 10-minute drive away from one of the Edwards family members.
Lovie currently lives in his own apartment five days a week and in a halfway house for two.
Parole documents say he owns his own car, volunteers at a golf course where he plays several times a week, and hopes to start his own carpentry business. He collects an Old Age Pension — despite living in a federal halfway house.
His conditions include having no contact with the Edwards family, staying out of Hamilton, Waterloo, Haldimand, Halton, Niagara, Muskoka, Haliburton and Norfolk, and reporting all relationships with women to his parole officer. He was previously ordered to attend psychological counselling, “but the psychologist discharged you after three sessions as he felt you would not participate meaningfully,” according to PBC documents.
Lovie’s most recent psychological risk assessment from February 2019 puts his risk for general recidivism as low to low-moderate and his risk for violent recidivism as low. He is at high risk of violence toward a partner.
Until this week, Lovie had a blemish-free record while on day parole.
The Edwards family doesn’t trust Lovie. Or the PBC.
And their bags are still packed.