WARNING: This story may be disturbing for some readers.
An undercover police officer is testifying at the trial, being held in Vancouver, of the Nanaimo woman accused of murdering and dismembering her boyfriend.
He was one of two officers involved in trying to gain her trust after she was identified as a suspect.
He told the court it took just a matter of minutes before she said she had killed him.
It was April 29, 2021 when the two undercover officers were parked just outside Paris Laroche’s Rosehill Street apartment when she returned from work.
They approached her, posing as a son and father whose sister had previously been abused by Laroche’s former boyfriend, Sydney Mantee, and that they wanted to find him.
An experienced criminal lawyer not connected with this case told CHEK News there’s good reason why police use undercover scenarios like this.
“They can get very valuable evidence and find very valuable avenues to pursue evidence,” said Bert King of King & Bradshaw.
And they did in this case.
Undercover confessions
At first, the officer said Laroche was standoffish but said she eventually invited them into her apartment and within minutes she disclosed she had killed Mantee.
Soon after, he says Laroche even spoke with pride as she explained she hit Mantee in the head with a hammer while he was sleeping before slitting his throat when he wasn’t dying immediately.
In the audio played in court, Laroche said “I cut him up piece by piece in the bathtub. It was f#####d up.”
She told how she discarded pieces of his body throughout Nanaimo.
The officers expressed gratitude on behalf of their sister. One said to Laroche, “You are so strong.”
The undercover officers convinced Laroche to give them items used during the killing, dismemberment and disposal of Mantee’s body. They included saws, a hammer and knife. The understanding was that they would get rid of the items to help cover her tracks. Little did she know they would be used in the case against her.
Laroche even took them to man-made pier along the waterfront near the yacht club to show one of the locations where she disposed of parts of his body.
They agreed to meet three days later. This time, Laroche went with them and showed where she disposed of Mantee’s body parts at Neck Point, Pipers Lagoon and Diver Lake.
They then went to the downtown waterfront where Laroche said she disposed of body parts, in the washrooms at Maffeo Sutton Park, the Nanaimo Port Authority and Port Place Mall.
“It strikes me as unusual that there are pieces of a body all over the place. That is not a usual case that I’ve dealt with in the last 50 years,” said King.
The audio, secretly recorded by police, from both Nanaimo meet-ups played in court as the trial ended its first of four weeks.
Earlier this week, a friend of Paris Laroche testified that she never liked Mantee and that he abused her.
SEE PREVIOUS:
Jan. 24 STORY: Friend of Paris Laroche testifies about her murder confession in Nanaimo
JAN. 23 STORY: Former boss testifies in trial of Nanaimo woman accused of murdering boyfriend
Kendall Hanson
