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JEFF DEBOOY \/ TRIBUNE FILES<\/p>\n
Jack Wayne Bender in 1974.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Parole Board of Canada granted him six months of day parole on April 14 and he was to be moved to a halfway house and granted leave privileges on certain conditions.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason officials granted Bender day parole was his apparent transformation in recent years, after he connected with what he said was his Indigenous culture and traditional healing, last month\u2019s decision said.<\/p>\n
However, in a May 5 decision that was made public Thursday, parole board officials revoked day parole and said he had admitted to misrepresenting his Indigenous background days after his release.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, since the events of April 22\u2026 where you disclosed that you had been lying about elements of your (Indigenous social history), your (case management team) believes a more cautious approach is warranted and that there is now a significant concern due to your lack of honestly and transparency,\u201d the new decision says. \u201cYou concealed personal difficulties and held a firm belief that your parole would be denied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Correctional Service of Canada officials recommended his day parole be cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cCSC expresses concern that you had not been forthcoming with the professionals involved in your case, including members of your case management team, the Indigenous liaison officer, the psychologist, psychiatrist, elder and others,\u201d reads the new decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is now a significant concern due to your lack of honestly and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parole board officials concluded Bender no longer met the criteria for release. He had maintained the \u201cdeception for several years,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n
Bender also said he never wished to be released on day parole. Officials said he has a clear reluctance about being released into the community after decades of imprisonment.<\/p>\n
His ability to develop a trusting relationship with staff was one reason the board decided to grant him day parole, but that ability is in doubt given his admission, the decision said.<\/p>\n
Officials at the halfway house where he was supposed to live no longer support Bender living there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board concludes that there is no viable day parole release plan at the current time,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n
Bender and his accomplice, Dwight Douglas Lucas, were seen stealing from Michael Raymond Hurd\u2019s parked van in West Kildonan on Nov. 21, 1973. Bender was on parole from a federal sentence at the time.<\/p>\n
After the 26-year-old victim and his 20-year-old brother found the pair a short distance away, Lucas held the men at gunpoint and forced one of them to drive to a deserted area near Lockport, while Bender held the other at knifepoint in the back of the van.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Once they arrived at the snow-covered field, the brothers were forced from the van, onto their stomachs, and their hands were tied behind their backs, the parole decision said.<\/p>\n
Bender got out an axe and hit both of them repeatedly. He and Lucas left in the van.<\/p>\n
Hurd died, while his brother, who was critically injured, managed to make it to a farmhouse to call for help. The victim\u2019s body was found around 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
Bender later said he was drunk and on pills and claimed to have blacked out.<\/p>\n
The men were arrested two days later and were convicted of non-capital murder \u2014 so-called because it did not merit capital punishment \u2014 by a jury in June 1974.<\/p>\n
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Erik Pindera Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.\u00a0 Read more about Erik<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Reporter
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