The Abbotsford Killer is dead..Known as the “Abbotsford Killer” because he taunted police and confessed anonymously to his crimes, Terry Driver died of apparent natural causes in prison, according to a statement from the Correctional Service of Canada..Driver — whose father had been a police officer — killed a teenage girl October 1995, and attacked her friend near the hospital in Abbotsford, B.C..The killer was sentenced in 1997 to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Tanya Smith in 1995, as well as the attempted murder of her friend, Misty Cockerill, 15..The two friends were assaulted with a baseball bat as they returned from a birthday party..Smith’s lifeless body was later found in B.C.’s Vedder River. Police later learned she’d been raped. Cockerill suffered severe head injuries after being pounded unconscious..The vicious, senseless attacks numbed the entire province before Driver was eventually caught in 1996, but not before he relentlessly taunted cops throughout the investigation..His story ended at Mountain Institution, a medium-security federal penitentiary in Agassiz, B.C., on Monday at the age of 56. His death will be investigated by correctional services..During the investigation, police weren’t looking for Driver, who was unknown to them..Over the course of the seven-month investigation, Driver taunted police investigators by leaving threatening phone calls..His bold tactics didn’t stop with the phone calls; Driver attended Smith’s funeral and later swiped her headstone and left it on an Abbotsford radio station vehicle. Words written on the headstone included “She was not the first” and “She won’t be the last.”.Driver also threatened to continue to murder through messages left at the radio station and with police..He claimed to have been responsible for multiple other assaults before 1995..The calls placed from payphones caused widespread panic and fear and were later aired publicly as investigators searched for leads..Incredibly, it was Driver’s own mother and brother who recognized his voice after the broadcast, and their tip led to his arrest in May 1996..Driver appealed his life sentence in 2001 and lost. He was later designated as a dangerous offender, which allowed authorities to keep the killer behind bars indefinitely..Cockerill survived the incident and went on to be an advocate for victims’ rights..Mike D’Amour is the British Columbia Bureau Chief for the Western Standard..,.mdamour@westernstandardonline.com
