It has been 20 years since four members of a St. Albert family were killed by one of their own. In those 20 years, the then-15-year-old gunman has apparently made very little progress figuring out why he pulled the trigger.
It was Aug. 6, 1991, when Gavin Mandin's stepfather Maurice stepped out of his car at the family's hobby farm near Valleyview and was shot with a .22-calibre rifle. Gavin Mandin then shot his mother Susan and his young sisters Islay, 10, and Janelle, 12. The family had come to the farm for a brief vacation.
Mandin stayed at the farmhouse for a day and a half following the shooting but, on Aug. 8, he was driving the family van on Highway 43 when an officer attempted to pull him over.
A high-speed chase ensued and it was not until officers from the Mayerthorpe RCMP detachment deployed a spike belt that it ended. After taking Mandin, then 15, into custody, police went to the family's acreage property and discovered the slaughter.
Mandin was initially ordered to stand trial in youth court, but the Alberta Court of Appeal overruled that and he was tried in adult court.
He pleaded guilty in November 1993 and was sentenced to life in jail with no possibility of parole for 10 years. At the sentencing hearing, the only explanation Mandin gave was a frustration at having to do minor household chores, like washing the dishes and cleaning his room.
"You are not completely sure why you felt this strong hostility. You resented [your mother's] efforts to control you," wrote the National Parole Board in their first report on the case in 2001.
Motive unclear
The looming question over the case 20 years after it happened is why the 15-year-old would attack his family in such a brutal and senseless way. In 2001, at his first parole hearing, the board sought some demonstration of remorse, some explanation of his actions, but found none.
"It is of great concern however that you display to those who deal with you little remorse for your crimes or empathy for your sisters, mother and step-father," their report read.
The board noted that Mandin did accept his views of family life were warped, but he still offered no explanation.
"You do not have an explanation for why you resorted to killing your family, however, which is an essential step for you to accomplish your rehabilitation."
Though he would have been eligible to apply for parole two years after the 2001 decision, Mandin appeared to have waived any hearings until 2009.
In 2009 and again just last month, Mandin — who has since changed his last name to Maclean — asked the parole board to grant him unescorted absences from the minimum-security institution in Ontario where he currently resides. The parole board allowed those releases and acknowledged his return to the outside world will not be easy.
"You have been incarcerated since you were a teenager so a slow and gradual reintegration process will be required," their report read.
While allowing the temporary absences, the board still raised concerns Mandin hasn't come to grips with what he did. After he was first denied release in 2001, the board found he continued to portray himself as a victim and showed no sign he understood what he did.
"You persisted in maintaining your victim stance and continued to heap blame upon your mother for many years. You exhibited little regret for your actions, and your callous attitude toward your crimes was disturbing."
This attitude manifested in one particularly troubling action shortly after his denial.
"Your self-involvement, arrogance and disregard for other is illustrated by your decision, not long after your parole hearing in 2001, to write to a family member and include a portion of your autobiography, which provides graphic details of the offence."
Since then, however, the board noted he had taken more counselling and gradually started to acknowledge what he had done, but was still not fully grasping the damage he caused.
"You are motivated to engage in further counselling as you realize you do not fully understand why you committed these crimes," they wrote. "You have yet to fully comprehend the gravity of these offences, or experience the full impact of your crimes on an emotional level."
