Editor’s note: this article contains graphic details of violence and may not be suitable for some readers. Discretion is strongly advised.
VANCOUVER — A sentence has formally been established for a Nanaimo woman found guilty of a gruesome murder.
Paris Jayanne Laroche, 29, was convicted last summer of a downgraded charge of second-degree murder and interfering with the remains of her estranged boyfriend, 32-year-old Sidney Joseph Mantee.
The sentence carries an automatic punishment of life in prison.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird determined parole eligibility for Laroche be set at 12 years during a Thursday, Feb 6 hearing in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
Parole eligibility for the charge of second-degree murder in Canada is between 10 and 25 years.
Crown prosecutor Nick Barber lobbied for a 15-year period before parole eligibility, while Laroche’s legal team requested the minimum 10-year parole eligibility requirement.
On March 5, 2020, at about 4 a.m., Laroche hit Mantee in the back of the head with a hammer, then slit his throat and cut his body into many pieces.
The revelations came to light following confessions several months later made by Laroche to several people, including a close friend who relayed the information to Nanaimo RCMP.
Several hours of jarring undercover police recordings detailed how Laroche killed the man, first striking him with a small graphite hammer three times on the head as he slept face down.
Laroche cut up and placed Mantee’s remains in the fridge of the Rosehill St. apartment the couple shared.
She then tossed out the dismembered remains around Nanaimo over the course of a year, including in public parks and Nanaimo’s waterfront near her home.
Laroche unknowingly took undercover police on tours around Nanaimo where she disposed of Mantee’s remains, with bone fragments of Mantee confirmed to be retrieved from several locations.
Her lengthy trial heard from several witnesses who testified that Mantee had physically and psychologically abused Laroche, which progressed as the relationship deteriorated.
Evidence presented at trial stated Laroche feared for her life.
She suspected Mantee had abused one of their cats prior to his murder.
Laroche did not testify at the trial and declined to issue a statement to the court.
Justice Robin Baird ruled the “unmistakably punitive” violence unleashed by Laroche was a spontaneous act of revenge for the abuse she endured and not a premeditated act.
During his July 19, 2024 verdict, justice Baird resoundingly rejected the argument of self-defence as suggested by Glen Orris.
The veteran defence attorney argued his client had no other choice under the circumstances but to kill Mantee.
Paris Laroche had no prior criminal record. Mantee was her first seroius relationship. They met when she was 18-years-old at a south Nanaimo fish plant where they both worked. (Submitted photo)The victim’s mother, Emma Mantee, travelled from Saskatchewan for a sentencing hearing last Friday.
Mantee told court Laroche is the evilest person she knows.
“You hit him with a hammer and it took him a few hours to die, that tore me to pieces, and you threw him away like he was garbage. You, Paris, had his head sitting in your freezer, in my son’s freezer, for several months,” she said.
A forensic evaluation determined Laroche does not have any mental illnesses and that her risk of re-offending is low.
Mantee’s case was considered a missing person’s case until Laroche’s confession came to light when the case transitioned to a homicide investigation.
Laroche’s trial heard she misled police and Mantee’s mother by claiming he left after their relationship fell apart and she didn’t know where he went.
Laroche was charged on March 9, 2022 and has remained locked up since then.
She unsuccessfully applied for pretrial bail in late July 2022.
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