This story contains details that some readers may find upsetting.
Jody Aspin can’t stop thinking about her 10-year-old daughter’s last moments.
“I know everything and re-live it in my head daily,” she said Wednesday, her voice shaking as she begged the Parole Board of Canada not to grant day parole to her daughter’s killer.
“Just imagine for one moment before you make any decisions … what if this had been your child?” she said.
Heather Thomas was 10 years old when she was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered by Shane Ertmoed in October 2000. The Surrey construction worker was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
After a two-hour hearing, the parole board denied Ertmoed’s request, saying he still lacks understanding of the factors that led to his crimes and was “less than vividly honest.”
Reached later, Aspin’s lawyer, Rebecca Darnell, said Heather’s family was pleased with the outcome, but afraid Ertmoed would apply for full parole when he is eligible in several months. She said that as the group waited to take a ferry back to the B.C. mainland after attending the hearing on Vancouver Island, Aspin couldn’t stop crying, resting her head on her husband’s shoulder.
“We take our courage from her,” Darnell said.
Heather disappeared on Oct. 1, 2000 near her father’s townhouse complex in Cloverdale. That afternoon, while playing with friends, she said she was going for a short bike ride and never returned. Her body was found three weeks later, floating in Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Provincial Park.
Ertmoed, who lived in the same complex as Heather’s father, was charged with murder the following month. In an interview with police played during his trial, he confessed to killing Heather, but later testified that he had been forced to confess.
During the 2002 trial, the jury heard that Ertmoed lured Heather into his home to see pictures of birds, then killed her when she resisted a sexual assault. He put her body in a hockey bag and then bought gas and a movie ticket to provide him with an alibi, said Crown lawyers. He hid her body in the park and then returned the next day to dump it in the lake.
“You have been found guilty of the most horrific crime known in law,” Justice Wally Oppal said after the verdict was delivered. “You murdered a 10-year-old simply to satisfy your sexual desires. … You are 220 pounds and she weighed 70 pounds. You used bully tactics and you were not content just to kill her. You had to inflict further indignity on her by dumping her body in the water and torturing the family even more.”
During Wednesday’s hearing, two parole board members questioned Ertmoed about the murder and the years leading up to it.
Ertmoed said he experienced attraction to people his own age when he was about 13, but as he got older, the age of the people in his fantasies remained the same. His “go-to” fantasy came from a time when he attended the B.C. Winter Games and saw gymnasts there, admitting they often looked younger than 12 or 13. He said violence or rape was not part of his fantasy life.
He was arrested in 1998 at age 19 for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl while babysitting with his girlfriend. He said he touched the girl several times while she was sleeping, but charges did not proceed and he saw a counsellor.
He said not continuing with counselling was “one of my biggest regrets in life.”
When asked by a parole board member about the day of the murder, Ertmoed said he did not plan the attack on Heather, nor was he watching or fantasizing about the other children in the complex. When he spoke to Heather — a “complete stranger” — he was hoping to indulge in his fantasies, he said.
The board member asked how Ertmoed planned to get away with his crime.
“I didn’t think that through at all,” he replied. “All I could see is the immediate gratification at the time.”
“She ruined your fantasy. She fought,” said the board member.
“Yes, and that’s when I decided to murder her,” said Ertmoed.
At that admission, loud sobbing was audible on the video recording of the hearing.
The board member noted that recognizing and disclosing his urges would be key to Ertmoed’s reintegration into society, as day parole could give him “generous access and opportunity.” Ertmoed said he knew he couldn’t be afraid to ask for help, or “the snowball might start and might not stop.”
A board member pointed out that Ertmoed continually referred to Heather as a person, not a child.
“It feels like you’re trying to massage our understanding,” he said.
In speaking about Ertmoed’s sexual fantasies, he also noted the use of words like person, individual and woman, instead of child, saying he felt like he was “bending your arm to get you to admit you were fantasizing about children.”
In a victim impact statement, Aspin asked the parole board when her family could start the grieving process.
“Every year around the anniversary of Heather’s abduction, rape and murder, Shane Ertmoed … demand(s) yet another privilege he believes he deserves,” she said. “I am sorry, he does not.”
“Why is this being allowed?” she continued. “Why are the victims not taken into consideration when these requests are being put through? Shane Ertmoed has been victimizing me and my family for the last 24 years. … Every time I get that phone call that there is yet another demand, I am paralyzed with fear.”
Aspin said she often relives the day her daughter died. After being forced to do so time and time again, she has “hit bottom,” struggling with depression and anxiety. “I cry at home, work, grocery stores and the car on a daily basis.”
She said she had watched six hours of Ertmoed’s confession video.
“I know he shoved her lifeless body in his hockey bag,” she said, a sob escaping before she continued, “and shoved it under the hood of his car until he was out of the complex and around the corner. This action left burn marks on her lifeless body. I know about moving her body from place to place until dumping her in the middle of Alouette Lake with the hockey bag weighed down with rocks. I know everything and relive it in my head daily.”
Aspin asked for a no-contact order for herself and Heather’s younger brother, who was unable to attend the hearing. She cried openly as she talked about her son and how he has struggled with his sister’s death. She said she was “terrified” for her family.
“Shane Ertmoed was given a sentence of pre-meditated first-degree murder. That means life. That means he is never allowed out to do this again,” she said.
The hearing took place on Vancouver Island, where Ertmoed remains in a minimum-security facility. In 2021, the parole board granted him escorted absences from prison. Heather’s family was notified that he would be volunteering with a non-profit organization to clean up parks and trails.
A parole board member questioned Ertmoed about a moment he revealed to a counsellor in 2023. Ertmoed said he was on a work crew in downtown Victoria when he noticed a person and had to remind himself not to engage in conversation. After further questioning from the board, he admitted the person was a young girl. He said he did not immediately disclose the occurrence because he thought he managed it appropriately.
A board member also asked Ertmoed why he has hesitated to take medication for his urges. He replied that he had weighed the costs and benefits and decided against it because he could still have an intimate sexual relationship with an age-appropriate person and felt he could manage his risk in other ways.
In his closing statement, Ertmoed apologized for the pain he has caused.
“I never want to put anybody else through this process ever again,” he said. “I just don’t want to hurt anybody else again.”
In denying Ertmoed’s application for day parole, the board said he was “headed in the right direction” in working toward rehabilitation and has “reintegration potential.” But the board found his explanations “less than vividly honest,” particularly in regard to his fantasies.
Aspin has never stopped fighting for Heather. Several days after her daughter’s disappearance, she spoke to a Vancouver Sun reporter.
Sitting on the steps of her Newton apartment with Heather’s younger brother, she said she thought her kids were safe as long as they played together.
“I never let them be apart,” she said. “They’re lost without each other. They really are.”
Aspin told the reporter her daughter loved animals and wanted to be a vet. She had a pet guinea pig, a rabbit and a grey cat named Precious that slept on her bed.
Aspin then asked people not to stop looking for her daughter, expressing hope that everything would be all right.