Warning: Content in this story could be triggering for some readers.
Like something out of a true crime podcast, the story of Kelly Toop continues to cast a shadow, decades after he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in the mid-1980s.
Toop has been under the care of the Correctional Service of Canada since he was sentenced in 1983 and then again in 1984, for the brutal sexual assaults, one murder and one attempted murder of two women in separate incidents. He was in his early 20s at the time.
Now 64, Toop has returned to the headlines after a decision regarding his day parole drew media attention.
Toop was granted day parole in June of 2024, allowing him to have up to a maximum of 96 hours of leave per month. Toop was returning to a community-based residential facility (CRF) each night during his parole.
This day parole was suspended in October of the same year, however, after staff at the CRF and at the school Toop had been attending both reported "certain situations" according to the parole board decision.
At a meeting with his case management team (CMT) on Oct. 4, the CMT asked Toop about reports from staff at the CRF he may have followed and photographed a woman without her knowledge.
The CMT also asked Toop about reports they were given by the principal of the school he was attending of inappropriate comments made by Toop to a female classmate. The student had said his comments included references to pornography. Toop said the events were a misunderstanding and told his CMT he had no sexual needs.
At the meeting, his CMT also requested to look at Toop's phone, which he provided them. They found 20 pornography websites open on tabs on the phone, a violation of his conditions. Toop said he had "no idea" how the pornography site tabs appeared on his browser.
The CMT suspended Toop's day parole immediately and concluded Toop had shown a "lack of transparency."
But a review by the Parole Board of Canada of Toop's case on Dec. 30 reinstated the day parole after accepting Toop's explanations for the incidents. The parole board's written decision said the board gave weight to Toop's later explanation of the alleged photographing of a woman. Toop said he deleted the photograph of the woman, having forgotten the context in which he took it and said his actions may have been misinterpreted because he sometimes takes photos at odd angles to compensate for his poor eyesight.
The parole board also said they attributed weight to Toop's assertion he made no inappropriate comments to his fellow classmates. Instead, Toop admitted only to responding to flirtatious comments made by two female students.
However, the decision said the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) recommended Toop's parole be revoked and that he return to incarceration to do more work on his rehabilitation and "better manage the risk" he presents to the community.
The parole board's written decision included assessments based on a range of psychological tests. In one, Toop was in the category where "four out of five offenders, having characteristics like yours, will not commit an indictable offence within three years following their release." His results for another checklist were mixed, and "did not confirm the presence of clear psychopathic traits."
The decision notes Toop was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and sexual disorder (rape, sadism).
In a psychological risk assessment of Toop dated September 2022, the clinician recommended gradual reintegration and watching for signs of possible increased risk including increases in pornography consumption.
The parole board said Toop had made progress and had a moderate potential for social reintegration. The decision described Toop as having been "hard-working, punctual and dedicated" during his volunteer work during his leave and "diligent in attending classes" while he was attending school.
Since being incarcerated, Toop has married, and the parole board decision includes a reference to a partner and spouse. Toop told the parole board his libido has changed and said his fantasies are now limited to his wife and related to consensual sex.
Toop told the parole board he wants to focus on his relationship and get a job. The parole board did add a new condition to his parole, which directs him not to purge any of the text messages, call logs, photos, social media use, etc. from his phone.
He suggested getting rid of his smartphone to replace it with a flip phone.
While Toop had wanted to return to the CRF where he had been housed as part of his updated release plan, the staff there did not accept his candidacy.
The decision also refers to Toop's stated "background factors" which include verbal and physical abuse and a sexual assault on him as a child.
He had previously admitted he would have continued to offend had he not been caught.
A disturbing assault in Williams Lake on November 13, 1982, was what led police to connect the young then 22-year-old with an unsolved murder on Vancouver Island from 1980.
A man out walking his dog in the Dog Creek area on the morning of Nov. 13, came across a 25-year-old woman sitting in a parked vehicle in a gravel pit.
The man found the young woman wearing nothing but a sweater in freezing temperatures and bleeding profusely from a head wound, according to a story printed in the Nov. 16, 1982 Williams Lake Tribune. An article printed on Nov. 18, 1982, said temperatures the night of her assault were as low as -10 C and she is lucky to have survived.
The injured woman was treated in a hospital in Kamloops for a depressed skull fracture, she could not speak and was only able to nod her head to communicate at the time.
But the Williams Lake sexual assault and attempted murder investigation connected Toop to the then-unsolved murder of 29-year-old Suzanne Seto, who had been brutally sexually assaulted and killed in Duncan in 1980.
According to an article in the Nov. 30, 1982, Williams Lake Tribune, Seto was in the Duncan area working and had been staying at the Village Green Inn.
She was seen going into her room on the night of June 2, 1980. Her nude, bludgeoned body was found the following day by police in some dense brush near the motel. Toop had apparently crushed her head in with a cement brick.
Throughout the two trials, horrific details of both attacks were revealed.
The 25-year-old woman in Williams Lake had last been seen leaving the Williams Lake Curling Club at 12:30 a.m.
Toop obtained a ride from the young woman. In her car, he attacked her and sexually assaulted her, then taking her to his home where he blindfolded her and sexually assaulted her again and tied her to his bed while he passed out. On waking, he drove her to the gravel pit where she was found, hitting her in the head with a tire iron, and leaving her for dead. According to an article in the Nov. 6, 1984 edition of the Williams Lake Tribune, fingerprint evidence collected in Williams Lake following the attack connected Toop to the Seto killing.
The trial for Seto's murder took place in Nanaimo and was heard by an 11-person jury over 10 days. They heard graphic details of sexual assaults and her murder. Toop testified in his own defence and claimed to be under the influence of marijuana and alcohol at the time. His lawyer asked for a second-degree murder or manslaughter conviction. The jury returned a guilty verdict in September 1983 after 90 minutes of deliberation. He was sentenced to life in prison.
A second trial took place in Victoria in 1984, beginning in October and ending in November in relation to the 1982 Williams Lake attack.
Toop was found guilty of attempted murder, rape and gross indecency by a jury in the second trial, and was sentenced to life imprisonment again, to be served concurrently with the previous sentence.
Numerous victim representations submitted between 2004 and 2024 requesting Toop not be released were noted in the parole board decision, as was a lack of written representation from Toop and his assistant. Both Toop and his assistant did provide comments at the hearing.
The Corrections Service of Canada stated they cannot provide an updated photo of Toop, due to privacy.
