Terry Arnold Murders

 

 

Terry Arnold has a criminal past history involving teenage women between the ages of 10-19 years of age. So it comes as no surprise that he would deny any involvement in killing Barbara Stoppel let alone anyone in his three-page suicide note. 

 

In 1987 he was the prime suspect in the unsolved murder of 17 year old Denise Lapierre. She disappeared in Calgary around 2 a.m. on June,22,1987. She had had a party at her home and decided to walk over to another party which was happening only a block away. About 22 hours later a long-distance operator called local police and said that a man contacted her saying there was a body dumped in an alley close by his home. 

 

The case went cold until 1997 when a special task force narrowed the list of suspects to just one. Retired Sargeant George Rocks was convinced that Arnold was the killer. Was it a coincidence that her body was found only a few steps away from where Terry Arnold was staying at the time? 

 

Despite all this evidence from the murder scene (including DNA) there was a judicial order in place preventing Calgary police from revealing the details of their investigation into Arnold. Need to also mention that his DNA was already in the database at this time. 

 

In 1999 Arnold was convicted of the first degree murder of 16 year old Christine Browne. He confessed to raping and killing her. He had clubbed her over the head with a rock on a remote hillside near Hedley, B.C., in 1991. Her skeletal remains weren't discovered until the fall of 1992 and her identity remained undetermined until January, 1994. 

 

He ended up serving only five years of a life sentence and then won a new trial on appeal after arguing that some documents had not been made available to him. The Crown revealed that it haden't disclosed the statements of two women who knew Arnold at the time of the Browne murder. Undercover officers created a sting operation in 1997 portraying themselves as gang leaders. They had convinced Arnold that as long as he came clean about his criminal past he could become part of their gang. Arnold's lawyer also claimed that the women later told police that the Terry believed someone would kill or set him up if he didn't do what he was told. 

 

The B.C. Crown's office decided to stay the charge against Arnold and he was freed in 2002.

 

He was found guilty in the rape of four Newfoundland girls; one only being 10 years old, convicted of sexual assualt in Chilliwack, B.C. in 1988 as well as a suspect in the disappearance of Roberta Ferguson whom went missing at Cultus Lake while she was camping.