Day parole extended for Saanich man who killed friend’s mother and grandmother

A Saanich man who murdered a friend’s mother and grandmother for inheritance money 30 years ago has had his day parole extended for another six months.

Derik Lord, now in his 40s and married with a son, was transferred to a minimum-security institution in 2017. He was first granted day parole in March 2020.

In its latest ruling, rendered on Jan. 6, the Parole Board authorized Lord to spend four nights a week at the home of his spouse in northern B.C. and three nights a week at a halfway house. He is not allowed to travel to Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland and cannot have any contact with the victims’ families, including extended family members and Crown witnesses.

Lord asked the Parole Board to allow him to travel to Chilliwack, where some family members reside.

That request was denied by the board, which said it received several victim impact statements expressing objections.

Lord continues to claim he was wrongly convicted of the first-degree murders of Sharon Huenemann, 47, and her 69-yearold mother, Doris Leatherbarrow. He and David Muir killed the women after their Mount Douglas Secondary School classmate Darren Huenemann promised them part of a $4-million inheritance.

Lord and Muir ransacked the house to make the killings look like a robbery, taking cash from the dead women’s purses.

In 1992, all three were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Lord and Muir were both eligible for parole after 10 years because they were young offenders.

Muir, the only one of the three to admit his role in the killings, has been on full parole since 2003.

Huenemann, who tried unsuccessfully to escape from prison in 1995, remains in custody. In 2017, after serving 25 years of his life sentence, he applied for an escorted temporary absence, but was turned down.