VANCOUVER — A woman charged with murdering her boyfriend in her Nanaimo apartment confessed to strangers — two undercover officers posing as father and son on a revenge mission — within six minutes of their meeting for the first time, her trial heard on Thursday.
A few minutes later, at that meeting on April 29, 2021, Paris Laroche invited them into her apartment and described in gruesome detail how and why she killed Sidney Mantee. She meticulously detailed how she dismembered and then disposed of his body over several months.
The longer she talked to the two men, the more swagger her voice took on, telling them, “if you don’t tell anyone,” everything will be OK.
Referring to Mantee’s mother’s efforts to find her son, “If you can get Emma to calm her s— down, he will be just another missing person,” Laroche told them.
Laroche, who is charged with first-degree murder and interference of human remains in Mantee’s killing in early 2020, was in Day 4 of her B.C. Supreme Court trial in Vancouver. Justice Robin Baird is hearing the case without a jury.
The RCMP officer posing as the son was a witness Thursday as audio of the first of three meetings with Laroche was played in court. The officer — his name was not revealed in court — is heard on the tape telling Laroche his “sister” had dated Mantee years ago and had recently recounted how he abused her — “terrible stuff, just horrible things.”
The pair told Laroche they were intent on finding Mantee and “make him disappear from this planet forever” to avenge the abuse, and knew she had dated him.
At first, Laroche was impatient, but then said “I get it because he told me other s—- he did.”
A couple of minutes later, “I killed him, so you can rest easy.”
“I was abused, he abused me,” she told them.
“He is no longer able to harm anyone,” she said.
The two men called her a “saviour” to their sister and daughter and told her they owed her a lot, to which she replied, “If you would like to help me, give me $500 to settle my vet bills.”
In their attempt to keep the exchange going, the “brother” said his sister would be heartbroken to know what she did.
“I’m ready to die tomorrow,” Laroche said. “I’m not going to jail for this s—. I would do suicide first.”
She said of killing Mantee: “It’s what I had to do. I was pushed to my f— limit.”
She tried to say goodbye and gave them her phone number, an “energy exchange” [handshake], and a hug, and they said they can help by getting rid of the tools she used so she doesn’t get caught.
She said she thought she cleaned everything but wanted to see if they could “sense anything” and offered to give them Mantee’s boots so they could sell them.
Her trial has heard that DNA was found on various tools — a large clawed hammer, a sledge hammer, hacksaws and various knives — that the undercover officers were given.
She said she and Mantee were sharing the apartment even though they were estranged and referred to a “snapping point” before saying, “he was sleeping on a mattress right here” when she hit him with a hammer.
She went into details about the length of time and steps it took to dispose of the body, to which her new friends said, “You are such a strong, amazing woman.”
Later, the three of them drove to a pier near her apartment and then to two parks to see where she had disposed of body parts, which police recovered.
Earlier, a Nanaimo officer who interviewed Laroche in 2020 as part of the missing person’s case testified he had questioned her about their relationship and she said they had become incompatible and, one day in the first week of March 2020, they had a fight and he packed a bag and left.
The trial continues.
