Sydney River McDonald's murders
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Sydney River McDonald's murders | |
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File:Sydney River NS McDonald's Killings.jpg
Back of the restaurant on May 7, 1992, shortly after the discovery of the murders.
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Location | Sydney River, Nova Scotia, Canada |
Coordinates | 46.107623,-60.224056 |
Date | Thursday, May 7, 1992 12:50 am AST (UTC-04:00) |
Attack type
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shooting |
Weapons |
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Deaths | 3 |
Injured | 1 |
Perpetrators | Freeman MacNeil Darren Muise Derek Wood |
The Sydney River McDonald's murders occurred on May 7, 1992, at the McDonald's restaurant in Sydney River, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was committed by a trio of friends who allegedly only intended to rob the restaurant, but ended up murdering three people and permanently disabling a fourth. It was one of the highest profile murder cases in Canada at the time.
Contents
Background
Derek Wood, 18, an employee of the restaurant along with two friends, Freeman MacNeil, 23, and Darren Muise, 18, broke into the restaurant after closing, planning to rob the establishment. They shot, stabbed, and beat three employees to death and left a fourth to die after shooting her in the neck. She is now permanently disabled.
The killers claim they had not planned on using any violence in the break and enter; it was to be quick and easy money. Yet MacNeil, Muise, and Wood inched their way into the restaurant via a basement door Wood had left ajar earlier in the evening with his knapsack which he left at the crime scene and Darren Muise wore a Halloween mask. They murdered the three with a .22 caliber pistol, several knives, and a shovel handle. Expecting to find over $200,000 in the restaurant's safe, the three made off with just $2,017.[1]
Community response
The residents of Atlantic Canada, including Nova Scotia, were disgusted by these senseless slayings. Residents of Sydney, believing they were living in a friendly environment, were among those most shocked. The murders put Sydney into the unwanted spotlight as this became a news story worldwide. The location of the restaurant was in the shopping district of Sydney River on Kings Rd. The restaurant reopened 2 weeks later but had a significant loss of customers. This led to the store being demolished in 2000, 8 years after the crime had occurred, and a new, more modern one was constructed just a few minutes down the road alongside an intersection, where it still stands today. The location of the former McDonald's is an empty lot.
Trial and sentence
Freeman Daniel MacNeil was sentenced to 25 years before parole eligibility and is now in a maximum-security prison in Renous, New Brunswick. Darren Muise received 20 years before parole eligibility. Derek Wood was given two terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder and attempted murder, as well as two ten-year terms for unlawful confinement and the armed robbery. Wood will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.
In March 2007, it was reported that Muise has been working outside his minimum-security prison facility in Laval, Quebec. A spokeswoman with Correctional Service of Canada was unable to comment on Muise's case because of confidentiality limitations.[2]
Victims
Killed
- Jimmy Fagan, 27
- Donna Warren, 22
- Neil Burroughs Jr., 29
Injured
- Arlene MacNeil, 20 (permanently disabled)
Darren Muise inheritance
Darren Muise is said to have invested an inheritance heavily in the tech industry during the mid to late 1990s, generating millions of dollars in profits from stocks such as BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. Muise had planned to work with computers before his 1992 arrest, declaring them to be the "way of the future".[3]
Parole for Darren Muise
On March 29, 2011, a National Parole Board announced their decision to grant Darren Muise day parole. The decision stated: "Given the significant and real progress you have made over the years, your case management team is of the opinion that the probability that you commit a crime after your release is low." Muise received full parole on November 22, 2012.[4]
On April 8, 2015, the National Parole Board rejected an application for day parole for Derek Wood.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ AM New York: "Canadian Briefs", March 1, 2007[dead link]
- ↑ Jessome, Phonse Murder at McDonald's: The Killers Next Door. Halifax: Nimbus, 1994. ISBN 1-55109-093-7.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Articles with dead external links from January 2015
- Pages with broken file links
- Mass murder in 1992
- 1992 crimes in Canada
- History of Nova Scotia
- History of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality
- People murdered in Nova Scotia
- Crime in Nova Scotia
- Deaths by firearm in Nova Scotia
- Incidents at McDonald's
- 1992 in Nova Scotia