Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 58 • Issue 48
‘We hope those monsters rot in jail’ Nicholas Brophy’s family delivers victim impact statements at killers’ sentencing BY KYLE DARBYSON
KYLE@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
MAPLE BUS LINES CELEBRATES GRAND OPENING NEWS PAGE 2
MAYOR HELPING ORGANIZE COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS DINNER NEWS PAGE 3
Nicholas Brophy’s family testified Nov. 22 about the pain his murderers inflicted upon them when they beat the 18-year-old to death in Thompson in 2015. Brophy’s brother, sister, aunt, grandmother and mother all presented statements Thursday, highlighting Nicholas’s qualities as outgoing young man who excelled in sports. “He was like a social butterfly, everybody loved him,” Ashleigh Brophy, Nicholas’ sister, told the CBC outside the courtroom. “He was beautiful, as soon as he would smile he would light up a room — he was perfect in every way.” A Winnipeg jury found Mark Bradley Thomas, 22, and Zach Edwin Linklater, 24, guilty Nov. 19 of first-degree murder for killing Brophy in September 2015. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin delayed
sentencing until Thursday and moved the hearing to Thompson so that community members had time to prepare victim impact statements. Thomas and Linklater both received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. “I’m very happy in the sense that this is all over and we’ve finally got justice for Nicholas,” Ashleigh told CBC. “I’m also very sad that I’m going to have to live the rest of my life without my brother by my side and live every day knowing the pain and torture that he went through at the very end of his life.” Brophy was last seen after leaving a friend’s house on foot Sept. 8, 2015. His body was discovered in a wooded area just outside of city limits in the spring of 2016. A forensic anthropologist testified that Brophy suffered six skull fractures and multiple blunt force in-
juries, most likely caused by a metal baton that was found near his body. At trial, Crown prosecutors said Brophy was jumped, kidnapped, taken to the woods and murdered as part of a gang initiation. Ashleigh told the CBC that their family would never forgive Thomas and Linklater for what they did. “We hope those monsters rot in jail for the rest of their lives and they never get out,” she said. “They have no remorse, they look like they don’t care about what they did whatsoever and they didn’t even have the decency to say sorry … so we want the worst for them.” Ashleigh thanked the community of Thompson for their outstanding support during the initial search for her brother and the jury for reaching what the family sees as a just verdict. “We are absolutely ecstatic and we couldn’t have gotten a better outcome. Thank
Thompson Citizen file photo Nicholas Brophy went missing Sept. 8, 2015 and his body was discovered in a wooded area near Thompson city limits April 26, 2016. you so much.” In December 2017, a third man, Justin Noah Baker, pleaded guilty to second-de-
gree murder in Brophy’s death and was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 10 years.
School district offering morning and afternoon bus service for students
THOMPSON TRAILBREAKERS TOP SNOWMOBILE CLUB NEWS PAGE 5
LOW OIL PRESSURE CAUSED 2017 LANDING ACCIDENT NEWS PAGE 6
The School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) announced over the weekend that it would be offering morning and afternoon bus service for its students as of Nov. 26. The buses and drivers will be provided by Maple Bus Lines and the bus will run from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. in the morning and from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon. The bus will be operating on a modified version of the Eastwood route of the currently dormant City of Thompson transit system starting at Yale Avenue in Eastwood at 7:45 a.m. Monday to Friday mornings. The bus will travel south along Princeton Drive, stopping at the usual bus stops, and around Thompson Drive to R.D. Parker Collegiate with another pickup at Southwood Mall. The route will be repeated until 8:45 a.m. The route will start again at 3:30 p.m. from the high school with the last run leaving RDPC at 4:30 p.m. Riders can get off at Southwood or the nine regular city transit
stops along Princeton Drive, Cambridge Street and Yale Avenue. No passes or bus fare will be required for students to ride the buses. “This is an interim service that we will use in the best interest of our students until the City of Thompson has restored the city transit system,” said the SDML in its announcement of the bus service on its website. Thompson has been without city transit service since Nov. 1 when Greyhound stopped providing operational services. The city is currently considering two proposals received to provide the services Greyhound used to. “The fiscal challenges that the city will be facing in the coming years means that there’s little room for mistakes in this decision: the previous council spent considerable time trimming the city’s operational spending in 2018, and we do not want to negate those efforts by overlooking key details and making rash decisions,” said Mayor Colleen Smook in a Nov. 21 news release.
Thompson Citizen map courtesy of School District of Mystery Lake The School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) started offering morning and afternoon bus service for its students on Nov. 26, which will continue running until the City of Thompson transit system starts up again.
Pedestrian taken to hospital in Thompson after being hit by truck making a U-turn A 24-year-old woman from Thompson was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries Nov. 25 after being hit by a truck making a U-turn, RCMP say. The driver of the truck was a 20-year-old woman from Thompson who said she did not see the pedestrian crossing while mak-
ing a U-turn near the intersection of Princeton Drive and Carleton Place in Eastwood. Three police vehicles, a fire truck and an ambulance were at the scene of the collision Sunday around 7:15 p.m. RCMP says the investigation into the collision continues.