Killer’s release brings fear, concern

WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg man convicted of killing two First Nations women more than a decade ago — with charges stayed in a third slaying — is expected to be released from prison Thursday.

Shawn Lamb’s legislated statutory release date — 12 years after he was sentenced — was met with fear and anger from Sue Caribou, an aunt of both Carolyn Sinclair, one of Lamb’s confirmed victims, and Tanya Nepinak, his alleged third victim whose body has not been found.

“I’ve been crying. I’ve been shaking,” Caribou said Wednesday after being told of Lamb’s impending release. “The justice system fails us all the time. I don’t know where the hell he is, and it’s scary.

“We deserve to know where they put Shawn Lamb. I don’t want to be feeling unsafe every day I go out.”

“We deserve to know where they put Shawn Lamb. I don’t want to be feeling unsafe every day I go out.”

Lamb, 66, was ordered to live in a halfway house or psychiatric facility for at least six months because he would otherwise pose an “undue risk” to reoffend, a 10-page Parole Board of Canada decision said.

The document, dated last Thursday, did not identify the community where he will live. The name of the minimum-security prison where he was being held was redacted.

Correctional Service of Canada spokesperson Kerry Gatien confirmed today is Lamb’s statutory release date.

Notifications to victims or their families are not automatic when a prisoner is released. They are required to register with the parole board or correctional service to be notified.

Police charged Lamb with three counts of second-degree murder in 2012. He later admitted to manslaughter in Lorna Blacksmith and Sinclair’s deaths in a plea deal.

Lamb denied killing Nepinak. The charge against him in her death was stayed, after the Crown cited a lack of evidence.

“I’ve been crying. I’ve been shaking,” Sue Caribou said Wednesday after being told of Shawn Lamb’s impending release.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, including two years of credit for time served, in 2013.

Statutory release, which is legislated, is a conditional release that is granted in most cases when a federal inmate has served two-thirds of their fixed sentence.

The document said Lamb was previously granted escorted temporary absences for community services and to attend church.

The parole board said a spousal assault risk assessment concluded Lamb poses a “high imminent risk” of intimate partner violence and a “low imminent risk” of violence toward others.

A 2022 psychological assessment found his risk to reoffend sexually to be above-average, and his risk to reoffend violently to be in the low-moderate to moderate range.

The board noted Lamb’s “problematic” history of reoffending while on parole or statutory release prior to his current sentence, which is his fifth federal term. Past convictions include sexual assault and robbery.

“If you were to ask anybody, people might be and would be rightly concerned about public safety,” Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine, who is responsible for women and gender equity, said of Lamb’s release.

She said it will not only affect the women’s families, but the broader Indigenous community and missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse-plus (MMIWG2S+) families across Canada.

“To find out that after 12 years he’s getting released is incredibly disappointing,” Fontaine said. “I’m worried for the families, and I’m worried for what this means to the community.

“I worry for what that says to Indigenous women and girls … and their lives, and their value as Indigenous women and girls.”

Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, president of National Family and Survivors Circle Inc., said she thought of the women’s families and broader community when she learned of Lamb’s status.

“I’m really hopeful they are surrounded by community-based supports to help them navigate this news, and to nurture and take care of their spirits as they process everything,” she said. “It is deeply concerning — someone like Shawn Lamb being reintegrated into the community — considering his horrific crimes that he has committed, his lack of value for human life and how he preyed upon vulnerable women in the community.”

Anderson-Pyrz urged the full implementation of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ 231 calls for justice.

Lamb will be required to abide by five conditions when he is released. The residency condition, intended to provide close monitoring and supervision, is subject to a review after six months.

The board dismissed Lamb’s proposal that he live in transition housing based on an offer of accommodation from a source that was redacted in the document.

He is required to immediately report all sexual and non-sexual relationships and friendships, any attempts to initiate one and any changes to those relationships or friendships to a parole supervisor.

Lamb is not allowed to have contact with people involved in criminal activity. He is barred from consuming alcohol or drugs, other than prescribed or over-the-counter medication that is taken as directed.

The latter four conditions are in effect until Lamb’s sentence ends because “they are considered reasonable and necessary in order to protect society and the victims, and to facilitate your successful reintegration into society,” the decision said.

The board said Lamb, originally from Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario, has completed sex offender and violence prevention programs. He has received help for mental-health issues, and he has been on an opioid replacement therapy program.

Nepinak, then 31, was last seen alive in September 2011. Sinclair, who was pregnant, disappeared three months later. Blacksmith went missing in January 2012.

Sinclair, 25, was later found dead behind a Notre Dame Avenue apartment block, near Toronto Street. Blacksmith, 18, was found in a Simcoe Street backyard.

The document said Lamb and Sinclair went to use crack cocaine in his apartment, where he struck her with an axe handle. He returned two days later to wrap her in garbage bags and leave her body next to a bin.

Lamb met Blacksmith while buying drugs about two weeks later. He invited her back to his apartment, where they used drugs and he strangled her with a television cord. He disposed of her body in a similar way, the document said.

Nepinak has not been found. Police searched part of the city-run Brady Road landfill for six days in October 2012.

» Winnipeg Free Press

Premier Wab Kinew has said the province is making plans to search the landfill for Nepinak amid efforts to find the body of Ashlee Shingoose, who was a victim of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

“It’s very emotional knowing that (Lamb) is out, and I’m still having meetings about the Brady landfill search,” Caribou said. “I’m still praying we will bring her home.”

» Winnipeg Free Press