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Prince George Citizen September 11, 2019

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

The Handmaid’s Tale continues Kayli Van Der Meer arranges the remaining copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments that were available at Books & Company early Tuesday morning. Sales were brisk for the follow up novel to Atwood’s hit novel The Handmaid’s Tale at the store on the first day of release. For more on the international release of the book, see page 7.

Man sentenced for beating death Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff

RCMP HANDOUT PHOTO

Ronald, Doreen, Russell and Ryan Jack have been missing since 1989.

Mystery remains around disappearance of Jack family Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca A portion of the Saik’uz First Nation reserve has been scratched off the list of places where clues might be found into the disappearance of an entire family three decades ago. No evidence was uncovered, Prince George RCMP said Tuesday, when the detachment’s serious crimes unit carried out a search of the area over three days in late August with the help of civilian experts, ground-penetrating radar and heavy equipment. Husband Ronald (Ronnie) Jack, wife Doreen, both 26 years old, and children Russell, 9, and Ryan, 4, were last heard from during the early morning of Aug. 2, 1989 when Ronnie called his parents in the Burns Lake area. It is believed that shortly after that phone call, the family departed their home on Strathcona Avenue in Prince George with an unknown man in a darkcoloured four-wheel-drive pickup truck. RCMP said it appeared Ronald Jack

Today’s Weather Hi +16° Low +7° See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts

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SUSPECT met the man the evening before at the First Litre Pub, about four blocks away from their home, where the couple were offered jobs at a logging camp or ranch thought to be near Clucluz Lake. The two went back to the Jack’s home and during the early morning hours of the next day, Ronald call his parents to say he and Doreen were leaving for a “camp job,” RCMP have said. It also appeared they took their chil-

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dren along after they were told there was daycare at the camp. Ronald had indicated to his mother that they would be gone for about 10 days, and that they would be back for Russell to start the school year in September. However, they never returned and they were reported missing on Aug. 25, 1989. The man is described as Caucasian, 35 to 40 years old, with reddish-brown hair and a full beard, six feet to six-foot-six tall and 200 to 275 pounds and wearing a ball cap, red checkered work shirt, faded blue jeans, blue nylon jacket, and work boots with leather fringes over the toes at the time. Anyone with information on the incidents is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-2228477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers. bc.ca (English only). You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest or recovery of stolen property, you could be eligible for a cash reward.

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Huge wave reported in Newfoundland NEWS 4

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A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has largely agreed with Crown counsel’s position in sentencing a now-23-year-old man for beating his father to death and then trying to hide the body, an act committed five years ago when he was still a youth. He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and causing indignity to a body from the August 2014 incident in Mackenzie. Because he committed the offence when he was 17 years old, he is being sentenced under Youth CrimiTindale described the nal Justice Act the beating as and his name is by a “vicious” and found protected publication ban. At issue was the man had shown how much of a a “callous disregard” three-year intensive rehabilifor the victim in custody trying to cover up tative and supervision order – aimed at the crime. youth suffering from a mental illness, psychological disorder or an emotional disturbance – should be spent in custody. Crown argued for two years behind bars followed by one year in the community, stressing the gravity of the offences, while defence counsel argued for serving the entire term in the community, noting he has performed well in the five years he has been living in a group home and raising a concern that spending time in custody will only cause more harm than good. On Tuesday, Justice Ron Tindale settled on 18 months in custody and 18 months in the community. While the man has done “exceptionally well” in terms of his behaviour since committing the offences, Tindale noted that manslaughter is one of the most serious offences in the Criminal Code. Tindale described the beating as “vicious” and found the man had shown a “callous disregard” for the victim in trying to cover up the crime. — see FATHER, SON, page 2

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Prince George Citizen September 11, 2019 by Prince George Citizen - Issuu