Mountie killer Laurie Bell's revealing parole records

Cop killer Laurie Ann Bell (inset) is an impulsive, drug-addled alcoholic who has contempt for the courts and has shown little remorse or understanding of the impact of her crimes, National Parole Board records reveal (read them after the jump). Now she's at the centre of a prison-sex scandal. She was released from penitentiary in March 2008, after serving two thirds of her 10-year sentence for manslaughter in the death of RCMP officer Dennis Strongquill in 2001. He was a 52-year-old father of six. Bell, 27, is back behind bars, her release suspended, because she's accused of having a secret affair with a male prison guard at the Edmonton Institution for Women, where she had been locked up.

A condition of Bell's release required her to "report all intimate relationships to your parole supervisor." According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Bell hooked up with the guard while behind bars and the relationship continued after her release, though the Corrections Canada staffer denies the hanky panky claims.

The two parole records produced here reflect decisions from January 2008, just before her first release, and January 2009, when her restrictions were eased. They don't mention the alleged prison-guard affair, but the parole board will have to review her suspension shortly and decide whether to put her back behind bars until her sentence expires in 2010. That's when the secret relationship may be documented in a parole board decision. The parole documents show she was far from a model prisoner. She was involved in several violent altercations with other inmates, including a 2005 assault in which she smashed a tin can into the head of a fellow convict. That earned her a new conviction for assault with a weapon.

The records also show that Bell continued to believe she was treated unfairly – that her sentence was too harsh. It's worth recalling her involvement in the crime: She and two men, Danny and Robert Sand, were on a 10-day crime spree across the Prairies in December 2001. They stole seven trucks in and around Edmonton, Alberta and robbed a bank. The trio broke into a farm and stole 10 weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. On December 21, they were pulled over near Russell, Manitoba, in a routine traffic stop by RCMP officers Brian Auger and Strongquill (inset). Robert Sand opened fire on the Mountie vehicle with a sawed-off shotgun. The officers drove off but the trio chased them, ramming the police vehicle. Auger was thrown out but Strongquill was trapped. Sand, in the words of Bell's parole board report, "fired four shotgun blasts into his upper torso." At Bell's trial, witnesses said she shouted "kill him! kill him!" Bell was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was given credit for three years of pre-trial custody. Danny Sand was killed by police when the murderous threesome was cornered at a Saskatchewan motel. Robert Sand was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Decision #1, January 30, 2008: Parole board orders Bell to stay at a halfway house after she is released from prison



Decision #2, January 19, 2009: Parole board eases Bell's restrictions, despite her infractions and unrepentant attitude




Want to know more about the murder? There's a book on it, Nowhere to Run, by Mike McIntyre.

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