Canadian True Crime - Kimberly Proctor [2]

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

[Part 2 of 2] The murder of 18-year-old Kimberly Proctor shocked her community and made national headlines. But as investigators soon discovered, there were many red flags and warning signs that weren’t taken seriously.*Additional content warning: this series includes graphic and distressing details of a murder and sexual assault, and while not the focus of the case there is brief mention of sexual assault against a child and cruelty to animals. Through this series, we utilize case files released by police as well as relevant studies, statistics and scholarly articles to examine a number of issues related to the dynamics of teenage relationships in the online era. Our goal is to highlight common manipulation tactics employed by abusive people, the pitfalls of navigating consent, boundaries and rejection, mental health, nature vs nurture and more. This series is closely related to our previous episode titled Cherish.Please respect the privacy of those involved in this case.Monthly donation:This month, Canadian True Crime has donated in Kimberly’s memory to BC SPCA Wild Arc, the wildlife rescue organization she planned to start volunteering with.Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast.Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. This is part two, the final part of this mini-series. An additional content warning, this series includes graphic and distressing details of a murder and sexual assault. and while not the focus of the case, there is brief mention of sexual assault against a child and cruelty to animals. Please take care when listening.

Where we left off, the RCMP had been actively surveilling two suspects identified early on in the investigation into Kimberly Proctor's murder. Both suspects attended the same alternative secondary school as she did. Cameron Moffitt was the older one, almost 18 years old and described as a hulking goth type who didn't do too well at school and was planning to join the military. The other suspect, Cruz Wellwood, was 16 and physically much smaller than Cameron, a Harry Potter lookalike, who was reportedly highly intelligent and very calculating. Cruz and Kimberly dated very briefly and after that, both he and Cameron became outwardly hostile towards her.

and wouldn't tell her why. Eventually, Kimberly decided to move on and focus on finishing grade 12. By mid-March of 2010, she hadn't spoken to either of them for about four months. Cruz sent a message to a friend asking, what would they think if he killed, raped or brutalized someone? The friend asked who he was planning to murder and why. Cruz answered, random person shits and giggles.

Three days later, burnt remains determined to belong to Kimberly Proctor were discovered under a bridge along the galloping goose trail. In the aftermath of Kimberly Proctor's murder, grief counsellors had been dispatched to Pacific secondary school to comfort students in distress. The fact that whoever was responsible for it was still at large at the time prompted a number of hushed conversations at the school. The RCMP interviewed hundreds of people as part of their investigation,

including Kimberly's classmates. One of her friends overheard Cruz Wellwood talking about Kimberly in class in a disrespectful way and asked him to stop because it was too painful. Cruz did not take this well. He stood up and started screaming, No one fucking cares, she's dead.

who gives a shit? He reportedly told another student that he hated Kimberly and was glad that she was dead. Cruz Wildwood and Cameron Moffitt were of course among those interviewed by police. They both told investigators that they did see Kimberly early that morning, but she left them to go to school. They had no idea that a bus driver had noticed Kimberly in her distinctive black hoodie with the number 13. on front. He would tell investigators that she got off his bus at 10.30 a.m. It didn't take long for investigators to figure out that the bus stop Kimberly got off at was not far from the house where

Cruz Wellwood lived with his mother. Cruise and Cameron were both put under close surveillance, with wiretaps on their cell phones, listening devices in their homes and in other locations that they were known to frequent. Investigators were watching as Cruz attended Kimberly's celebration of life and skipped back to the car like he didn't have a care in the world. A few days later, Cruz was interviewed again and an investigator asked him what kind of person he thought would commit such a heinous crime. He answered,

Someone who thinks it's worth it to kill someone or someone who's in a fit of rage. The 16-year-old was asked if he knew of any situation that might warrant taking a person's life, and he said no. He didn't believe in capital punishment. Quote, I don't even believe in war. I mean, if there were no guns, there would be no war, and things would be settled politically instead. Cruz questioned why they would think he killed Kimberley.

He said he could never justify taking a life. When he was asked again, what kind of... of person would do this, Cruz replied that he's not a psychoanalyst and suggested that some of Kimberly's other friends might be responsible. He refused to provide a DNA sample. He said he read George Orwell's 1984, a novel about a dystopian society with extreme government surveillance. He added that he has a thing about conspiracies. The MSN chat logs indicated that at the time, Cruz was being cautious and restrained because he was paranoid that the police were watching and listening. But as investigators would later find out, he was clearly busting to tell

someone. Exactly three months after Kimberly's murder, Cameron Moffat and Cruz Wellwood were arrested separately and taken to the station, this time for a proper interrogation. It was very clear to the RCMP that they had both lied in their initial interviews. While 16-year-old Cruz exercised his right to silence and did not say a word to police, Cameron indulged them for nine hours. By that point, he had turned 18, and the police were not required to make sure he had a parent present. So they just let him talk. An article in the Times colonists described Cameron Moffat as unsettlingly nonchalant throughout the interview. The full transcript of this interrogation was later released to the public, but only a couple of audio clips from it were released by the

media. We'll play some of them, mainly to give you an indication of how Cameron sounded when he talked. He started off by saying he didn't know how Kimberly Proctor died, but he did know some of what happened, but he wasn't going to tell. The interrogation was a slow process. Cameron gave vague answers to questions his hands casually behind his head as he leaned back on his chair. Each time investigators succeeded in getting him to talk more, he would feed them just a crumb and then go back to being evasive with his responses. He seemed to enjoy playing a cat and mouse game with investigators, and clearly relished being the center of attention. He came across as arrogant, cunning and manipulative,

someone who thought he was intellectually superior to everyone, including the investigators. But they played along, humoring him in an obvious effort to build a friendly rapport and get him to feel comfortable enough to feed them incriminating details. It took eight hours, but then the details started flowing. Investigators brought the conversation back to each of the charges they were considering. Murder, sexual assault, forcible confinement and indignity to human remains.

Cameron was asked if he could shed any light on what happened in the context of some of the language associated with those charges, which included the words bind, beat and brutalise. He immediately fixated on the word brutalized. and clumsily asked if that occurs after someone is dead. He was told that brutalisation meant before death. After death is where the charge of indignity to human remains came in. A person might reasonably assume that indignity to human remains

was in reference to the way Kimberly's body had been disposed of, but Cameron's mind went somewhere else. Quote, Um, tell you right now, my... myself and as far as I know for Cruz, not into the whole, you know, dead people thing. The investigator stopped him there, saying they actually did want to ask him about that. Cameron cut him off. Necrophilia, it's gross.

The investigator told him that his DNA was found, quote, inside of Kim and asked if it was deposited before or after she died. Cameron replied that for him, it was, before she died, not after. Later in the interrogation, he chuckled as he said, I wouldn't do that if you put a gun to my head. But he wasn't so sure when it came to Cruz. Quote, I don't think he would have. I'm not saying he didn't. I'm saying I don't know and I don't think he did. It should be noted that in Canada, police are allowed to lie if it further as an investigation.

Cameron inquired if Cruz's DNA was also found in the same location, but the investigator didn't answer and brought it back to the word brutalized that Cameron had been fixated on. Could he shed any light into how Kimberly was brutalized? The 18-year-old replied that it was part of the whole big story, but he wasn't going to tell them at that point. He said there was a lot. he wasn't ready to say.

Cameron was reluctant to give up specific details of his own involvement, but as investigators continued to probe, he decided to turn on the person he once said he'd loved like a brother. He suddenly stated that Cruz Wellwood was the mastermind and he only played the role of a reluctant participant. More and more details trickled out. He told investigators that they, They bound Kimberly's arms and legs with tape and put a sock in her mouth.

Then Cruz told him to get a knife so they could cut her clothes off. Cameron claimed that Cruz raped her first and then ordered him to get involved and perform a sex act on Kimberly. Investigators wanted to know what sex act? At first, Cameron said he stuck to the basics, which through another series of evasive answers, was established to be vaginal rape. He said that Cruz instructed him to do it repeatedly. Cameron claimed he spent three to four minutes sexually assaulting Kimberly, while Cruz walked around the house, ranting and screaming,

coming back in now and then to yell at Cameron and make sure he was doing as instructed. Afterwards, Cameron claimed he watched TV, leaving Cruz with Kimberly, and at one point saw him grab a grey, Walmart bag. He told investigators he didn't want any part of whatever Cruz was planning to do next, but continue to evade questions about it. Eventually, Cameron said it was his understanding that Cruz taped the bag around Kimberly's head and strangled her. That's how she died. But quote,

There is a lot more to the asphyxiation story, etc, that I haven't disclosed. He told investigators that he wasn't going to either, because the information was apparently privileged. So they switched tactics and asked Cameron how he felt at the time. So when that's how, what's cool through your head? Everything. Million miles and hour. Yeah, the biggest adrenaline rush you ever have because it's, what the fuck? Yeah.

The adrenaline where it's like, one of my freaking God, you're like, you could. So this is probably the biggest event of firefighting you're all like. Probably. There are at least 35 instances of Cameron chuckling during this interrogation, according to the transcripts. When investigators asked Cameron why they did it, he was even more evasive, saying it could all be explained with a five-word conclusion that, quote,

speaks to Cruz's state of mind and how Cameron was dragged into it. but he said he wasn't going to give that five-word conclusion up. Later on, he said it could be six or even seven words. As they continued talking, he gave investigators a few more clues. He described Cruz's actions as deeds that he may have or may not have performed and offered the word handiwork in quotation marks. He again referred to it being a big, grand, story, a plan that started off so well but went awfully wrong.

Oh, God. There's going to be a time and place someday. This is just kind of so easy to tell. And trust me, there's a lot of really disgusting. Why can't you read yourself to talk about that? Because I can't say. Cameron often sounds like he's smiling because he is. as he feigns being sheepish about the whole thing.

At another point, the investigator, Sergeant Martin Danju, asked Cameron if he was telling the whole truth or just portions of it. The truth doesn't come in portions. I'm telling you the truth. I'm just not telling you every single little thing that happened down to the tiniest grain in detail. All he would say was that they stored Kimberly's body in the freezer overnight, and the next morning,

transported it to the location near the Millstream Creek Bridge. They doused it with fuel and set it alight. The investigator asked how Cruz got him to do that, and Cameron claimed Cruz was nuts and wanted them both to incriminate themselves. So he just did what Cruz said to not upset him. Cameron insisted he was not capable of killing anyone, which is why Cruz had to do that part. No, it's more, he's a bit nuts. You know, obviously,

he's capable of this. You know, I don't want to just want. He's, you know, strutting around the house, like, yelling himself. Quote on quote, he says, if I'm going to incriminating myself in this, you have to do too.

If I wholeheartedly was going to go up and tell somebody, which I don't even think of capable doing, and, you know, why probably he decided to do it. Cameron claimed he'd always been obedient and submissive to authority, as a way to stay safe. But at another point during the interrogation,

he also stated, quote, Cruz knows I'm bigger than him, knows I'm stronger than him. Me and him have actually gotten into a physical altercation once, and he knows that I will defend myself or whatever. An investigator suggested that no reasonable person would believe that he forced Cameron to do anything, but he insisted Cruz was the mastermind behind it all.

and claimed that if he was going to commit a murder, it would look nothing like what had happened to Kimberly Proctor. Despite Cameron's attempts to pin the whole thing on Cruz, he admitted that he had personally discussed ways to commit murder with over a dozen people before Kimberly was murdered. And one of those people was a girl who he claimed wanted him to kill her. Cameron was asked whether he had remorse for murdering Kimberly, and he had a strange story to tell as a response. He said that a few years earlier,

he'd been diagnosed as manic depressive, but claimed he was later undiagnosed because he'd found a way to control his changing moods. He said that this is why he planned to join the military, and why he was so stable in the interview, so cool, calm and collected. Quote, It's not that I don't feel remorse or extremely horrible for what happened. I don't want to show the emotion. I don't want to have to feel all that bad stuff, so I'm trying to keep it in check. He also offered up some information about Cruz's personal life. He was particular about spelling and annoyed people by always correcting them.

He also claimed that Cruz was bisexual because he had this thing for Will Smith. Cameron Moffat seemed to think of himself as wise and experienced far beyond his years. He offered up explicit information about his own sexual history, claiming that he was once a sex addict who had intercourse as many as 30 times in one day until he discovered his girlfriend was cheating. After that, he said he built a wall and lost all enthusiasm for sex, claiming that, quote, playing World of Warcraft is just as good as going and having sex. It doesn't mean anything. Cameron spoke about himself like he was a weathered middle-aged man

on the other side of a midlife crisis, not a high school student who had just turned 18. At the mention of World of Warcraft, the investigator spoke about accessing the chat logs from their accounts. Cameron confidently stated that the company behind the game wouldn't even give it to the Canadian military if they asked. He had been misinformed. Cruz Wellwood may have exercised his right to stay silent with the police, but he wasn't able to keep his mouth shut with anyone else. In the early stages of the investigation,

he became increasingly paranoid that the RCMP were monitoring his online comments. conversations. He started trying to avoid using the popular MSN chat as much as he could. But there was no way for him to stop incoming messages like the one Cameron sent him just a week after they murdered Kimberley. It read, quote, Since we killed that bitch and it wasn't too hard, we should do it again. This message prompted crews to move their chats away from MSN. World of Warcraft wasn't a chat app. It was a massively popular online game with a chat feature,

and Cruz assumed they would be safer there. And it might have been a decent plan until Cruz himself inadvertently tipped investigators off to it. In the months before Kimberly's murder, Cruz Wellwood had a close online friend, a girl who lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They met while playing World of Warcraft and chatted via MSN. They never met up in person.

Five days after Kimberly's murder, Cruz messaged her on MSN and told her that he had something urgent to tell her and asked her to meet him over on World of Warcraft. In that chat, he confessed that he and Cameron had taken Kimberly Proctor back to his mother's house, where they raped her, murdered her and mutilated her body with a knife before transporting it to another location where they set it alight. Cruz's online friend would tell investigators that he was not remorseful about it and spoke about it in a bragging tone. Cruz then went back to MSN and sent her some links to news reports to read

since World of Warcraft Chat is only text-based. She was in disbelief. She was in Atlantic Canada over the other side of the country to British Columbia where Kimberly's murder was big news. The details of the crime itself were a lot to take in, and Cruz's online friend likely didn't know what to believe or what to say. Back in World of Warcraft chat, she told Cruz that she was shocked but assured him that she'll always be there for him.

no matter what he does. Cruz told her, That's why I told you, no matter how things turn out, I'll make it up to you somehow one day. If his online friend was still in disbelief, that changed when Cameron suddenly joined them in World of Warcraft chat and confirmed that what Cruz told her was true.

She asked Cameron how he felt about Kimberly's family and friends and all the lives they ruined. He responded, quote, No, I don't feel bad for them. Back on MSN, she told Cruz, Just don't ever do it again, and he promised not to, saying he didn't even want to do it again.

He had no desire for it. Then he abruptly changed the subject. It appears that in the weeks after Cruz's conversation with his online friend in Halifax, He started dating a local girl who was reportedly just 14 years old. According to reporting by CTV News, she would tell the police that they were going out for a walk about a month after Kimberly's murder,

when he suddenly blurted out, I killed Kim. The 14-year-old girl said Cruz told her he tortured Kimberly, strangled her and possibly broke her neck to finish her off. But she didn't have any more detail. to provide to investigators, saying she was too shocked to ask him any questions. She then admitted, I still want to be with him. Cruz told some people he was playing an online game with that he was pretty sure he was crazy

or a sociopath. He said he always knew he would kill himself one day and he'd probably have to do it somewhere semi-public to go out hardcore. Quote, Not today or anything, but sometime in the same. the very near future, 100% serious here. That was about a week before they were arrested. Cameron Moffat and Cruz Wellwood were both charged with first-degree murder,

forcible confinement, sexual assault and indignity to human remains, and the Crown asked for them to be sentenced as adults if they were convicted. Until then, their identities were still protected as minors under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. For their first scheduled court appearance, investigators strategically put them together in the back of a sheriff's van and recorded everything they said

during the 30-minute ride to court. It was the first time they had a chance to talk since they were arrested and they spent the majority of the time making light of the whole situation. The pair chatted, laughed and made jokes about their lawyers, their upcoming hearings, their outfits, and other topics, including how they found the intake procedures

and what the food was like. Cruz said the lack of freedom wasn't bothering him so much, but he thought about ways to escape prison the night beforehand. Cameron chuckled, it's hard to escape from this in reply. This is Cruz. I had a million escape plans last night. A witch? A million escape plans, but... Cameron.

It's hard to escape from this. They joked around about the order of their arrests. After Cruz was first arrested at a charity thrift store, his mom Nadine texted Cameron to let him know. This is Cameron. I knew they were coming from me before they got there. Cruz. I heard you were texting your mom.

Mine? Yeah. Your mom texted me, like arresting Cruz. I was in the car going to a baseball game. I'm like, do I get out of the car and run away, or do I sit here? I just left St. Vincent DePaul. I was just like walking right past the Starbucks, and I thought I heard someone call my name.

I looked around, and someone called my name again, and they were like, drop the bear, because I had a bear from Mary. Oh, drop the bear. At one point, the transcripts show crews laughing and speaking sarcastically about the fact that, And investigators asked him over and over if he felt remorse. They're like remorse. Do you feel any remorse?

Any regrets? Any anything inside of you? Any remorse, regret? Any remorse? Remorse? Both teenagers laughed. The conversation in the van turned to their separate interrogations. This is Cruz.

They're really trying to stroke my ego. Tell me how smart they think I am. Oh, you're so good at manipulating and things like that. Cruz said he just laughed at everything they said as he sat there with a big-ass grin on his face. Then, during a lull in the conversation, Cruz asked Cameron about what he had told police in his interrogation. Cameron tried to downplay what he'd said, but Cruz's loud sigh at the end indicated he knew that Cameron was lying. This is Cameron. So do we just, you know, sitting here now?

Cruz. I was exercising my right to silence the entire time. Yeah. I know you weren't. No, I didn't. I didn't. Like, they were asking me about myself and I would talk about it. No, I saw it, Kim.

What? What did you see? They had the video of it in the recording. Of what? You talking. About everything. I didn't talk about everything. But there was more.

Cruz's 14-year-old girlfriend would tell police that she knew another teenager in the Victoria Youth Correctional Center who was there when Cruz was first detained. And according to this inmate, Cruz was bragging about what he'd done in detail to other inmates. Investigators didn't have to do much digging because at least five inmates came forward and confirmed that Cruz had told them what he and Cameron had done to kill. Kimberly. Cruz's story was that together they bound and sexually assaulted her. Then he fell asleep, and when he woke up, she was dead. Cruz was claiming that Cameron was the ringleader, and he was forced to play along under the threat that Cameron would go to the police and blame him for the crime. One of the youth inmates told investigators they didn't believe Cruz. He was weird and not right and showed no remorse when he described the murder.

Another youth said Cruz had a smirk in his eye and was kind of smiling as he recounted the details of the crime. Cameron Moffat was being held in a different section of the Correctional Centre and those inmates mentioned he was talking too. Quote, Cruz is just trying to pin it on Cameron. Cameron's just trying to pin it on Cruz. In October of 2010, seven months after Kimberly Proctor's murder, there was a surprise announcement. Both Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat had reached a deal with the Crown to plead guilty to first degree murder and indignity to human remains, in exchange for the Crown agreeing to stay the other charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement. In advance of the hearing where they would

enter their guilty pleas, Kimberly's parents, Fred and Lucia Proctor, were brought to the RCMP station for a private reading of the agreed statement of facts that described what the youths had done to their daughter and how she died. CTV news would describe the details as so repulsive and appalling that some RCMP members who worked the case were in counselling. The next day was the hearing, it's the next day. The BC courtroom was crowded with Kimberly's family and loved ones, media and members of the general public. The case had become extremely high profile. The court heard that Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat had a history of visiting sadistic porn sites. They often chatted about fantasies

of rape, bondage and killing women. Their chat log showed that in November of 2009, the same time that they both turned hostile towards Kimberly, they were planning to rape and murder Cruz's then-girlfriend as some kind of joint activity. They exchanged sick fantasies about what they intended to do as part of the attack. Eventually, they turned their attention towards Kimberly Proctor and settled on her as a target.

MSN chat transcript showed them joking about it. Cruz typed quote Allo-Well, this is so funny. Jam a funnel in her and fill it with water. When you're done, pour Drano in her. I'm going to rip her nose ring out and burn it. Burn her flesh. They discussed whether or not to kill Kimberley early or prolong it

and came up with a code phrase that Cruz would use to signal he was ready to attack. I think I'm going to make some KD. As for Cameron, he wondered if Kimberly would have money or other valuables on her because he intended to take whatever she had. He and Cruz planned everything out, complete with graphic descriptions of their intent to assault her over an extended period of time. They drew a map of possible places to leave her body and discussed how to buy a specific brand of fuel to burn it.

According to the plethora of digital evidence collected by the police, Cameron searched the internet around this time for information on the inside parts of a woman's body and bone fractures. He told friends that it would be exhilarating and he couldn't wait to do it. They needed a plan to lure Kimberly to meet them because she was no longer friends with them at that point. As you'll recall, Kimberly first became friends with Cameron and Cruz through her boyfriend, but things started to sour after Cameron tried to blackmail her into showing her breasts on webcam and then gaslit her when she confronted him.

Cruz initially supported Kimberly through her breakup with her boyfriend, turning on the charm. Eventually, she agreed to date him, but broke up with him a week later via text. message. After that, Cruz and Cameron turned hostile. She pleaded with them both to tell her why, but they gaslit her into oblivion, cruelly taunting her about her pet rabbit's death and belittled her. So Kimberly decided to move on and focus on her schoolwork and managed to avoid all contact with them for the next four months. March 17, 2010, was the day of the day. that she received the happy news that she'd earned enough credits to graduate. It was also the day that she suddenly received an MSN message from Cruz Wellwood, completely out of the blue. All it said

was, Hey, I can't call because my phones are dead and I don't have any minutes right now. Though wary, Kimberly asked what he wanted. Cruz said he was bored, and also that he wanted to apologize for his behavior in relation to her breakup with her ex-boyfriend, but he insisted it had to be done in person. She was extremely skeptical, but he continued to convince her to meet up in person, showering her with compliments and promising that he would finally explain why he and Cameron had turned hostile towards her. To Kimberley, it must have seemed like the old crews, the warm, caring crew she once considered a close friend was back. She called him and during their hour-long phone conversation she asked him a few times why the sudden change, but all he would say

was that they'll chat in person. This sudden promise of a clear explanation would have proved impossible for her to resist, and Cruz clearly knew that. She agreed to meet up with them at around 10 a.m. the next morning. Kimberly didn't know it, but Cruz had allowed Cameron to listen in on that phone call in anticipation of what they were going to do next. The following morning, Kimberly slept in as she had no classes that day. Her mother kissed her goodbye, and she got up about an hour later. She slipped on her black hoodie with the number 13 on the front with her multi-coloured converse high-toped shoes. and left to catch the bus. When she disembarked near Cruz's house at about 10.30 a.m.,

he and Cameron were there to greet her, likely as though nothing had changed. The three of them chatted as they walked back to the home crew shared with his mother Nadine, who was, of course, out of province at the time. According to the agreed statement of facts, 16-year-old Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat, then 17,000, launched their attack on Kimberly shortly after they arrived at the house. They grabbed the 18-year-old around her neck, kicking and hitting her as they bound her hands and ankles

and then removed her clothes. Cruz stuffed her underwear in her mouth and covered it with duct tape. For hours, they repeatedly raped and beat Kimberly as she begged them to stop and told them she was sorry. She had absolutely nothing to be sorry about, and they didn't stop. According to the agreed statement of facts, Cameron and Cruz tortured Kimberly, using foreign objects to rape her vaginally and anally, and a knife to mutilate her genitals and body.

They kicked her, choked her, suffocated her, and threw her into a chest freezer in the garage. The autopsy report states that Kimberly, eventually succumbed to death via asphyxiation. She couldn't breathe. Because the agreed statement of facts is a little vague, it's difficult to pin down the exact sequence of events, and there is variance in the way different media outlets reported it. Many outlets declined to publish the most disturbing details. They'd wrongly assumed that censoring those details is what Kimberly's family would want.

CBC News was not one of them, reporting, quote, there were gasps in the courtroom as the crown revealed Kimberly Proctor was likely still alive when her killers put her in a freezer and that the two boys probably also had sex with her after she was dead and before they took her body in a duffel bag. At about 6pm that evening, Cruz went to his computer and sent a message to Kimberly's account that he knew she would never receive. He asked her if she was done with her babysitting job. It was his attempt at an alibi. Another friend noticed he was online and messaged him. Cruz took a while to reply, saying, quote, sorry, the freezer was jumping around.

Later that night, Cameron messaged a female classmate he'd been trying to initiate a sexual relationship with and asked her to join him at Cruz's house. She declined. It likely saved her life. The next morning, Cameron and Cruz put Kimberly's petite body into a large duffel bag with a container of fuel to set it alight. They boarded a bus to the Galloping Goose Trail and carried the duffel bag to the location under the Millstream Creek Bridge where it would later be found, doused it in fuel and set it on fire. As they watched it burn, Cruz attempted to bolster his alibi

and sent a text message to one of Kimberly's close friends saying how upset he was that she had just been reported missing and how he just wanted Kimberly to email him and tell him she was okay. Later that morning, Cameron's mother bought him a new computer game and took him out for brunch. Cruz spent the day with his 14-year-old girlfriend. As Kimberly's worried family, friends, and the RCMP searched for her, Cruz and Cameron went on with their lives as though nothing had happened,

but they closely monitored the news. The MSN chat logs reveal them discussing the announcement that the remains found under the bridge had been positively identified as belonging to Kimberly Proctor. Cameron called it Pretty Sick Shit and told Cruz that his dad had advised him not to answer any questions the school might ask him and to ask for a parent. Whether or not Cameron's father knew anything about his son's involvement remains a mystery, but Cameron did not follow his advice when he was arrested and proceeded to indulge investigators for nine hours. A week after Kimberly's murder, Cameron sent that MS. send message to an increasingly paranoid crews.

Since we killed that bitch and it wasn't too hard, should we do it again? This was reportedly the message that motivated crews to move their chats to World of Warcraft, although the Crown prosecutor told the court that there was a chance they may have been talking about a violent video game they'd been playing. Kimberly's family shed tears as all of these details were read out. Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat reportedly sat in silence in their respective prisoners' boxes. They didn't display any obvious emotion during the proceeding and made no eye contact with each other, or the Proctor family. There was no mention of a motive in the agreed statement of facts, and it's not required when a person pleads guilty.

So all that remains is speculation. Cruz and Cameron had been bitter and hostile after Kimberly effectively rejected both of their romantic advances. But that happened the previous year, and when Cruz contacted her out of the blue to lure her to his house, per his plan with Cameron, Kimberly hadn't spoken to either of them for four months. The only clue to a more likely motive was a few brief comments typed by Cruz in an online chat after. the murder, where he said he'd dreamed about killing someone since he was young, and that Kimberly was an easy target. He added that killing her didn't feel like he thought it would. The Crown had asked for Cameron Moffat and Cruz Wellwood to be sentenced as adults, which would

require a lengthy sentencing hearing at a later date. In advance of that, the judge ordered them both to be sent for psychiatric and psychological evaluation. So many people showed up for the sentencing hearing five months later that a video feed had to be arranged for those who couldn't fit in the courtroom. Among those in the gallery were Kimberly's parents, Fred and Lucia Proctor, her brother, aunts and dozens of her other relatives and friends. Multiple victim impact statements were submitted. painting a picture of Kimberly as a beloved member of a close-knit family.

Her loved ones described profound sadness and overwhelming loss. They couldn't believe that something like this could happen to their family. Kimberly's grandmother described her as a, quote, Fireball from day one, a busy, active little girl who loved animals and carried six bags of stuffed animals with her whenever she visited. This was the same grandmother who had been helping Kimberly sew her prom dress. She said she hadn't sewn anything since. Kimberly's mother, Lucia, recounted kissing her sleeping daughter goodbye that morning,

not knowing it would be the last time. Her father Fred's statement referred to the intense anger he feels that he wasn't able to keep Kimberly safe. Quote, we will never be free of this until the day we die. As these statements were read, Cameron Moffat was slumped in the prisoner's box and Cruz Wellwood appeared to be crying, according to Louise Dixon reporting for the Times colonist.

In the months since the guilty plea, eight psychiatric and psychological assessments had been conducted on both Cameron Moffat and Cruz Wellwood. Those reports were summarized in heavily referred to as part of the sentencing hearing, which went for two weeks. They included many details about their respective family histories and childhoods. Cruz Wellwood spent most of his childhood as the only child of a single mother. His parents had been married, but by the time Cruz was born, his father was in prison. His name was Robert Raymond Deswain, the very same

perpetrator from the last episode we released titled Cherish. Here's a very quick refresher. Deswan's criminal record started in the 1980s, with charges related to narcotics and stolen property. But his first serious conviction was in the early 90s, when he broke into the home of a woman he didn't know and tried to stuff a rag into her mouth as he told her, I'll kill you. He fled when the woman screamed and fought back and was later found guilty at trial of breaking and entering and forcible confinement. 29-year-old Robert Deswain was married at the time and his wife was pregnant with their first child.

He claimed his criminality was influenced by financial issues and his hazardous consumption of alcohol. He was sentenced to a year in prison, and likely missed the birth of his son, who according to a birth announcement, was named Cruz de Swan. A year later, a photo of Baby Cruz was published in the newspaper as part of a first birthday announcement. In hindsight, the caption is rather chilling. It read,

Hello, I'd like to formally introduce myself to the parents of my future girlfriend. My name is Cruz. My parents Robert and Nadine are awfully proud of me. When I come to pick up your daughter for a date, you'll know me. Robert and Nadine separated when baby Cruz was about 18 months old, and the psychological and psychiatric pre-sentencing reports described a troubled home life with financial stress. They divorced soon after, and Cruz and his mother moved in with his grandparents.

He had only a regular, contact with his father after that. Cruz's behavior became increasingly difficult to manage to the point where he entered counseling for violent behavior when he was just six years old. The following year, his father, Robert Deswan, was arrested for violently attacking a teenage girl with duct tape and a knife. He was charged with sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and robbery, and then released. on bail. Just a few months later, he picked up a 16-year-old indigenous girl from Coldwater

First Nation near the small city of Merritt. Her name was Cherish Oppenheim, and she was walking back to her family home after a night out with friends. She was never seen again. A week later, the police linked her disappearance with Robert Raymond Deswan, who confessed and showed them the remote location where he left her body. Despite forensic evidence that 37-year-old Deswan sexually assaulted 16-year-old cherish, he claimed that they had consensual sex, and he killed her afterwards because she panicked. Despite his confession and the forensic evidence, Cruz Wellwood's father, Robert Deswan, was permitted to plead guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder and was never charged with sexually assaulting Cherish. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance

of parole for 25 years. At that point, all contact with his son, Cruz, stopped. The court heard that as a child, Cruz was aware that his father was in prison and understood what he'd done to get there, but the matter typically wasn't discussed either at home or anywhere else. At some point, his surname was changed from Deswan to Wellwood, which is his mother Nadine's maiden's maiden name. Cruz Wellwood and his mother continued to live with her parents, but his behavior deteriorated even further. At home, he was physically and verbally abusive towards his mother and showed disdain and contempt for her. When he was about 11 years old, his relationship with his grandfather started breaking down to a point where Nadine had to find somewhere else for them to live.

At school, Cruz was known to be intellectually bright, but also defiant, argumentative, verbally abusive and sometimes physically violent, which resulted in his transfer to the alternative school. He displayed a superior attitude and struggled to get along with his peers, but then he bonded with Cameron Moffat in grade five. They were soon skipping school to play World of Warcraft and eventually got into vandalism and arson, drugs and alcohol. According to the psychiatric and psychological pre-sentencing reports, Cruz had somehow learned to control his emotions by the age of 13,

and by 15, he was able to completely shut them down to a point where he had little regard for rules and expectations, both at school or anywhere else. He slashed a teenager's head open with a bicycle chain requiring stitches and ended up with a broken nose after another fight. At one point, Cruz's teachers considered him beyond their capacity to manage and felt that he posed a serious risk to himself or others. But because he was potentially academically gifted,

he was allowed to stay at the alternative school. David Kushner's Vanity Fear article, Murder by Text, mentions a vice principal at the school who said a student had accused Cruz of date rape several times, but there's no further information on that allegation. According to the pre-sentencing reports, Cruz was hospitalized for excessive drinking in the summer of 2009, the same summer that he,

he and Cameron had started joking with Kimberly Proctor in a sexually explicit way that clearly made her uncomfortable. Kimberly and Cruz dated briefly in October of that year, and in November, he and Cameron started becoming decidedly hostile towards her. By the end of that month, she'd stopped speaking to both of them and moved on with her life. In December, Cruz was arrested and charged with physically assaulting his mother, Nadine. He was still on probation several months later when he was identified as a suspect in Kimberly Proctor's murder. After Cruz was arrested in June of 2010,

the RCMP recorded his phone calls and visits with his mother as part of their surveillance and monitoring. The transcripts of their conversations were eventually released to the public, giving insight into a relationship between a mother and son that was deeply dysfunctional and unhealthy at best. When Nadine brought her son a suit to wear for his court appearances, he scolded her, complaining that the pants were too big and the jacket was too small. Quote, You did a very bad job listening to me when I expressly told you my sizes.

I expect that I'd be able to talk to you and I'd be able to tell you something and you'd be able to, you know, at least understand what I told you. Nadine said they had a poor connection during their last phone call. Cruz called it a bullshit excuse. A few short clips from this conversation were released by the media, and while there is some background noise, we'll play this one just to give an indication of the tone of their conversation. I'm relying very heavily on you,

and you've been failing me every single time. Yeah, well, I feel you every time, no I. Apparently, it's why I'm here, right? Don't play this on me, buddy. Two weeks after that, Nadine advised her son to plead guilty to raping and murdering Kimberly Proctor. He told her, Look, just keep your fucking face out of it.

I know what I'm doing. Understand that? Later in the conversation, Cruz told his mother he loved her. his girlfriend more than her because, quote, She's better than you, better. To me, she has more value as a person because she gives me more reason to love her. Nadine told her son that she was afraid of him,

pointing out that he waited until she was out of province and then brought Kimberly back to the house to kill her. She considered it a violation of her home, adding, quote, You have to understand that I can't support you in any way. Like, if they were going to put you on bail, I'm not going to take you in the house. Nadine told Cruz she would no longer feel safe there. His answer was, If you weren't safe, you would already be dead. She said he frightened her as much as her

ex-husband Robert Deswan had. Quote, I had the same thing with your dad. You guys have no guilt and no conscience and some strange sense of narcissism. She told Cruz he inherited sociopathy from his father. The 16-year-old disagreed with this take at first, but then he flipped it around in a classic display of the Davo tactic, reverse victim and offender. He told his mother, quote, If you're telling me that it's the sociopath gene and I can't control it,

then you giving birth to me is the cause of everything in my life, everything I've ever done, I can't control myself. Sociopathy is an outdated term for people displaying traits associated with antisocial personality disorder, as it's referred to in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, or DSM-5. Antisocial personality disorder, or ASPD, is characterized by a pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, and a refusal to follow the rules of society. People with ASPD typically display behaviour that is deceitful, manipulative, callous and irresponsible, and they frequently minimise harm they've done to others.

It should be noted that only adults can be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. A youth with those symptoms will typically be diagnosed with conduct disorder, And if they persist after age 18, the diagnosis is often converted to ASPD. So is sociopathy or antisocial personality disorder genetic, as Cruz Wellwood and his mother discussed? While genetics do make a person more vulnerable to the disorder, multiple studies have found that environmental factors can heavily influence or trigger its actual development. factors like adverse childhood experiences, trauma, abuse and neglect, and an unstable or violent family life.

It appears that Cruz Wellwood may have been cursed with both genetic and environmental factors that can contribute to the development of antisocial personality disorder, but it's never a foregone conclusion, and none of these factors render a person unable to control their own actions. None of these factors caused them to commit sexual assault and murder. According to the pre-sentencing report, Cruz told one psychiatrist that he wanted to experience the act of killing. The report described him as mature, cooperative, charming, intellectually bright and curious, but also grandiose, superficial, displaying very shallow emotions.

He showed an extreme degree of narcissism, no remorse and an extremely callous disregard for his victim, Kimberly Proctor. The court heard that Cruz Wellwood was diagnosed as a deviant sexual sadist, with a tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain on others. He enjoyed rape fantasies, was interested in bondage and sexual asphyxia, and had strong indicators for necrophilia. a sexual attraction to corpses. Multiple experts concluded that Cruz showed strong psychopathic traits. Psychopathy is often used interchangeably with sociopathy, but according to the DSM-5, psychopathy is a distinct variant at the extreme end of the antisocial personality disorder spectrum.

Psychopathy is marked by a lack of anxiety or fear, and a bold interpersonal style with high levels of attention-seeking. Broadly speaking, psychopathic behaviour often involves careful planning and control, whereas a person displaying sociopathic behaviour is often more impulsive and prone to bursts of anger. At the time, Cruz had just turned 17, so he was too young for an official diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. But one of the experts, a juvenile forensic psychiatrist, noted that sexually motivated homicides committed by youths are extremely rare and determined that Cruz had an extreme form of psychopathy that is untreatable.

Cruz wrote a letter to the judge to consider in sentencing, spending the first few paragraphs explaining his struggle with whether or not to write it. He clearly fancied himself as a writer, but used a large number of words to make a small number of points, so we'll summarize. He said he didn't think anything he could say would change anyone's minds. Quote, It's frustrating not being able to express the truth you know, and even more so when you try and are not believed.

He said he was deeply sorry for what he had done and took full responsibility for his part in Kimberly's murder. He'd spiraled out of control and hit rock bottom and wrote that there's only one direction for him to go and he wanted to take every opportunity to show that nothing like that will ever happen again. Cruz referred to his father Robert Raymond Diswan and wrote that as a child he resented him for what he had done.

Quote, I felt I was less than him and now I find I have become a worse man. At the end of his letter, Cruz wrote that he felt it was exceedingly important that, quote, We prove that what is disclosed to the media during sentencing is in the best interests of my family, Cameron's family and the Proctor family. Note that Kimberly's family was listed last. It's clear Cruz wanted information censored. His letter likely had the opposite effect on the Proctor family. Unlike Cruz Wellwood, who was an only child, Cameron Moffitt has two older half-brothers and a younger sister.

According to the pre-sentencing report, he reported that he suffered some form of sexual abuse when he was three or four years old, but gave no further information about this or about the perpetrator. Cameron engaged in destructive and dangerous behaviours from an early age, and was oppositional, rebellious and difficult to manage and discipline. His parents had to install bars over his bedroom window because he started jumping out at night. When Cameron was about nine years old, his parents separated and his father left,

which affected him greatly. His mother put him in after-school care so she could work, but he caused trouble and eventually refused to attend. She switched to a job with different hours, but the issues continued. He just wanted to rebel. Cameron started lashing out at home, hitting his younger sister and hurting the family pet. He engaged in self-harm to relieve the stress. He started setting fires, became infatuated with knives,

and was into drugs and alcohol at age 14. Cameron Moffat was frequently in conflict with someone, whether it be in the home or at school. According to the psychiatric report, Cameron also showed a trend of escalating violence at home to a point where he threatened his younger sister with a pair of box cutters and was arrested for threatening his mother with a knife. He struggled academically and at one point had been diagnosed with ADHD.

but he resisted getting any help for it and refused to try medication or therapy. He missed a great deal of school and when he did show up, he became increasingly menacing and often brought a knife to class. Cameron had described himself to investigators as a former sex addict who would have intercourse as often as 30 times a day. But according to the same vice principal quoted in David Kushner's Vanity Fair article, One female student accused Cameron of date rape and at least four others reported having unpleasant sexual experiences with him in the months leading up to Kimberly Proctor's murder.

Those students described rough, fast sex, bondage and verbally abusive comments following sex. Unlike Cruz's fractured relationship with his mother, the transcripts from Cameron Moffat's prison visit, suggested he had a much easier relationship with both of his parents. But that might be because they did not seem to challenge him on anything. Although Cameron's parents had separated years earlier, they reportedly visited their son in prison together,

where they all joked and talked about how he should toughen up and get fit in prison. Cameron's mother Sarah called him a pudgy boy and said she hoped, that by the time he gets out of jail, he has a six-pack. Cameron replied that he'll have a 32-pack. His mother advised him to try and do push-ups in his cell, and quote, remember about mind, body and spirit, and don't get soft, okay? Cameron's father, George,

pointed out that Nelson Mandela was in jail for 27 years and he got in pretty good shape. They bought their son a blank notebook to draw in, but warned him, quote, Don't draw little guys running around with daggers stuck through their heads or stuff like that. That'll get you in shit. In a phone conversation just before a court appearance, Cameron's mother advised him to shave cleanly in the morning, sit quietly,

and quote, If you feel bad about it, you need to let people know you feel bad about it because this is a very bad thing. He replied that his dignity, was getting in the way of showing any remorse. Before they hung up, mother and son expressed their love for each other. According to the pre-sentencing report, Cameron was found to be evasive, manipulative, and hostile towards authority figures.

He lied to the psychologists and psychiatrists who interviewed him, was profoundly remorseless and tried to minimize his involvement in Kimberly Proctor's murder. He was also described as passive-aggressive, threatening and superficial. One expert determined that Cameron had conduct disorder, the predecessor to antisocial personality disorder, and that it started in childhood. He was also found to be a pathological liar with narcissistic traits. Although he wasn't diagnosed as a sexual sadist like Cruz Wellwood was,

the report concluded that Cameron had attended towards sexual deviancy and risk-taking behaviours. In Canada, sentencing focuses on the chance of rehabilitation. The pre-sentencing report concluded that both Cameron Moffat and Cruz Wellwood were at a high risk to violently re-offend. They both require extensive and long-term treatment and have no chance of rehabilitation for at least 25 to 30 years. It was recommended that the...

they both be managed and monitored for the rest of their lives. Because the youth criminal justice system has less experience dealing with youths who have committed sexually motivated homicides, the report concluded that they should be both sentenced as adults. The Crown prosecutor agreed and reminded the court that Cruz's wordy letter to the judge mentioned nothing about any intention he might have had to seek treatment for his issues while in prison.

As for motive, the Crown said that their bitterness about being rejected by Kimberly might have played a role, but quote, the primary motivation for the crime appears to have been the thrill of it, and Kimberly Proctor was picked because she was an easy target. The court also heard that while Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat turned on each other and blamed the other for the most horrific and disturbing crimes committed against Kimberly, It was never established who was responsible for what. But the Crown pointed out that when Cruz described the crime to the many people he told about it afterwards, he repeatedly said that they raped Kimberly, they tried to strangle her, they suffocated her and they burned her body.

The Crown told the judge that regardless of their stories, each of them were very significantly implicated and a party to unlawful confederate. sexual assault and murder. Their defense lawyers did not question any of these reports or recommendations. In delivering his sentence, BC Supreme Court Justice Robert Johnston said he agreed with the pre-sentencing psychiatric and psychological reports that concluded Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat had deviant sexual tendencies with strong anti-social traits. The judge described the circumstances of Kimberly Proctor's murder as being so horrific that no words can adequately convey the inhumane cruelty they both showed. Quote, the gulf between this intended killing and normal

societal values is enormous and obvious. The judge said it could never be known for certain whether either of the two teenagers were less involved in the most significant acts, but said it's clear that they were both full and willing participants. For first-degree murder, the maximum youth sentence is 10 years, but the judge agreed that because Cruz and Cameron have little hope of rehabilitation and will remain at a high risk to violently offend for some years, they should be sentenced as adults. The mandatory sentence for an adult convicted of first-degree murder is life in prison with no parole for 25 years. Youths being sentenced as adults for the same crime

get life in prison as well, but under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, they can apply for parole after serving a maximum of 10 years. This is the sentence that Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat received, Life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. They were also required to submit DNA samples and have their names entered on Canada's sex offender registry. And for indignity to human remains,

the second charge they pleaded guilty to. They were each sentenced to five years to be served concurrently, or at the same time as their sentences for first-degree murder. Cruz Wellwood, now 17 years old, was described as appearing on the verge of tears at some points during the proceedings. Cameron Moffat, 18, was described as staring at the judge with an angry, pouty look on his face. It was at this point that the judge lifted the publication ban on their identities, and the press reported that Cruz Wellwood was the son of Robert Raymond Deswan,

who was serving a life sentence of his own for the murder of 16-year-old Cherish Oppenheim. That connection and the similarities between the crimes committed by father and son shocked the public and inspired many conversations about nature versus nurture. Did knowledge of his father's crime somehow implant an idea in Cruz that festered, or would he have gone down a similar path regardless? Later on, Cruz would provide his own insights into those questions. Soon after the hearing ended, the media applied to have access to some of the evidence in the case, which was approved with the Proctor family's blessing.

Kimberly's father, Fred Proctor, were later right that they, quote, wanted the entire country to know what these two monsters had done. But when the transcripts, documents and some video and audio files were released, many media outlets chose to censor some of those details, saying it was out of respect for the family. The Proctor family gave their first public statement about the case since they issued that initial public plea for more information. They stated that Cameron Moffat and Cruz Wellwood

should never be allowed back into society. Kimberly's mother, Lucia, said that when a child commits such a heinous crime, quote, as a parent, you've failed as far as I'm concerned. And after all the anticipation and build-up about adult sentences, the Proctor family was left reeling when they learned that they could be facing a potential barrage of parole hearings much, much sooner than they ever expected. Despite life sentences, both Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat would be eligible to apply for day parole in 2018. which at the time was just seven years away.

When considering the potential risk to public safety, Kimberly's family felt strongly that describing it as an adult sentence was in effect misleading to the public. A call for truth and sentencing became just one of a number of requests proposed by the Proctor family in an effort to reform the young offender system under the working title of Kimberly's Law. Other requests to improve the system included schools implementing threat assessment protocols for troubled students who have demonstrated threatening behavior

and mandatory counseling and treatment with the goal of assisting them before they commit harm. Publication bans should be lifted automatically as soon as a young offender pleads guilty and there should also be automatic adult sentencing for young offenders aged 16 or older convicted of murder. Kimberly's family also called for parental responsibility, pointing out that the primary source of information, control and responsibility for young persons remains with parents and requested financial penalties to compel otherwise uninvolved parents to change their approach or seek outside assistance.

They weren't the only ones. There was much outcry in both the media and from the general public about all of the warning signs and red flags that had been missed before Kimberley's murder, and how Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat not only fell through the cracks, but smashed them wide open with diabolical consequences. Sociologist Mark Totten, author of When Children Kill, was quoted in a Vancouver Sun article saying society often dismisses young offenders convicted of violent crimes as monsters,

instead of looking at the pattern of abuse or dysfunction that contributed to their violence. Noting that emerging psychopathic traits are typically identified before the age of six, Totten said we should be focusing on how Canada as a country can develop a better system to detect at-risk youth early on and offer appropriate support for them and their families long-term. kids who display callous, unemotional and antisocial traits often don't respond to consequences or punishments the same way other kids do. But studies have shown that when these traits are identified early, long-term specialist therapies and treatments hold promise for shifting the trajectories of at-risk youth. While it's difficult to teach someone to feel empathy, it is possible to teach them cognitive empathy. which means using their brains to recognise and understand someone else's mental state.

But early intervention and consistency is critical. For at-risk youth, they must be treated early enough, intensely enough, and for long enough. And this just didn't happen for Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffett. In 2019, the Proctor family was notified that Cruz Wellwood had applied for Day parole and escorted temporary absences. Cameron Moffitt did not. Kimberly's mother, Lucia Proctor, told the press that the family's worst fear in the lead-up to Cruz Wellwood's hearing was that he would be released and put the public at risk. At that hearing, they submitted victim impact statements for the parole board to consider,

describing how they were, quote, still reeling from the terrible, terrible things he did to our own. Every one of us has some sort of stress-related illness. Cruz Wildwood claimed his own thinking and perspectives had been affected by his father, Robert Deswain, and the crimes he committed. He said he felt an emptiness in his soul. He didn't have a purpose in life and wanted to be powerful. Cruz claimed that his first serious sexual relationship when he was 14 years old

involved bloodletting and asphyxiation, but said they were interests that his partner had. He did admit that it later evolved into the realm of non-consensual behavior. Cruz told the board that Kimberly Proctor was not their first choice of victim. He and Cameron had initially identified two others, but they were not available, so they targeted Kimberly. When asked why he had to degrade Kimberly's body, Cruz said he felt he had to go all the way and check all the boxes with the extremeness and the taboo. When the pre-sentencing psychological and psychiatric reports were mentioned,

with their conclusion that Cruz was a sexual sadist with an extreme form of psychopathy, a board member told him, you can roll your eyes all you wish. Cruz rejected those conclusions and claimed he no longer has deviant thoughts and fantasies. The parole board denied his application, citing his lack of remorse, his high risk of violent re-offending and the fact that he had no plan for reintegration. Cruz Wellwood applied again the following year in 2020, this time for full parole. That year marked 10 years since Kimberly Proctor's murder, and her family was bitterly disappointed that they were unable to gather to commemorate it

because of the COVID lockdowns, yet the parole board hearing would still be going ahead. A new psychological assessment had been conducted that still found 26-year-old crews to be at high risk

of general and violent re-offending, and he was described as cool, detached, confident, arrogant, superior and entitled. The report also found that he refused to make eye contact and did not use Kimberly Proctor's name, instead referring to his crimes against her as the event.

This psychologist also scored Cruz Wellwood on the Hair Psychopathy Checklist, Revised Version, a professional rating scale for adults originally developed around the 1980s by Canadian psychologist Robert Hare. The Hair Psychopathy checklist evaluates key aspects of psychopathy, including emotional attachment, superficial charm, ability to manipulate an absence of guilt or empathy, as well as antisocial behavior, which includes deviance from an early age, aggression, impulsivity, irresponsibility, and proneness to boredom. According to the most recent psychological report,

Cruz Wellwood scored in the 96th percentile on the psychopathy checklist, which means he exhibits more psychopathic traits, than 96% of people evaluated. Paul Bonado is also in this category. The psychologist noted the severity of Cruz-Wilward psychopathology and his lack of progress despite taking a high-intensity sex offender program. He refused to attend group therapy to help manage his emotions, saying he didn't want to listen to other people's problems.

He was also still prone to temperate violent outbursts and self-harming behaviours. The psychologist also noted that sexual deviance rarely changes without extensive and focused treatment and could see no scenario in which Cruz could be in the community without supervision. The board concluded that Cruz Wellwood's release on parole would present undue risk to the public safety. His application was denied. He applied again in 2022 and was again rejected, with the board finding no significant reduction in his risk for general, violent and sexual re-offending.

This time, the 29-year-old decided to appeal the Parole Board's decision, claiming in part that the board misinterpreted information in his psychological assessment and didn't take his progress into consideration. The appeal division did not agree, finding the parole board's decision was accurate and based on proper interpretation of the information in the file. Cruz's appeal was rejected. That most recent battle may be over, but from the perspective of the Procter family, the war continues as a fight for justice for Kimberley and to ensure the safety of the general public. After all, the pre-sentencing reports concluded that both Cameron and Cruz require extensive and long-term treatment, have no chance of rehabilitation for at least 25 to 30 years, and a high risk of violent re-offending.

That conclusion is supported by a 2011 study that found psychopathic traits in youths have been shown to predict high recidivism and puts them at a higher risk of being convicted of a new violent crime. The focus of our Canadian criminal justice system might be to rehabilitate, but the fact remains that not everyone can be rehabilitated. A few years ago, Kimberly's father, Fred Proctor, wrote an open letter describing how the family felt powerless, outraged, disbelief and betrayed by the justice system. Noting that the news media had widely censored many of the graphic details describing the crimes

committed against his daughter, Mr Proctor wrote that perhaps if the Canadian public knew all those details, they would demand tougher sentencing. He wrote that although he struggled to comprehend the terror that his daughter had to endure at the hands of Cruz Wellwood and Cameron Moffat, these details should be broadcast loudly so that the actual victim, of crime can be heard. Quote, the coroner found that Kim had been raped. Her genitals were mutilated. Foreign objects were found in her vagina.

Her underwear was stuffed in her mouth and taped shut. She was bound and thrown in a freezer while still alive and eventually succumbed to death via exfixiation. End quote. It's clear that Cruz Wellwood believes he has earned the right to increased freedoms and privileges. and will likely continue to apply at every opportunity. And at some point, his accomplice Cameron Moffat may also decide to start applying,

which means there'll be two sets of parole hearings for the Proctor family to have to prepare for, and dread. Mr Proctor wrote that their family will have to learn somehow to live with it. But quote, when so-called Canadian justice lets this happen, the healing stops. Our situation is made work. because of the fact that there were two killers and thus far only one of them has applied for parole, we could be spending many years attending parole hearings.

Kimberly Proctor's father wrote that the pain the family feels will never go away. Quote, in this country, it's the families of the victims that serve the life sentence. Thanks for listening. Our sincere condolences to Kimberly Proctor's loved ones and anyone, else affected. We've decided to respect their privacy at this time and ask that you do the same. Kimberly's aunt Joanne Landolt has continued to advocate on behalf of the family for Kimberly's law to move forward. It has been introduced to the BC legislature as the Safe Care Act multiple times, but each time it's stalled because of a lack of support to be passed and voted into law.

The act was introduced again just a few months ago in March of 2024, where it was described as legislation designed to protect minors struggling with both mental health and addiction challenges. You can find out more at kimberleyslaw.com. To see the full list of resources, evidence released by the police, the various studies and statistics we relied on to write this series, and anything else you want to know about the podcast, visit canadian truecrime.ca.ca. The podcast donates monthly to those facing injustice, and that includes animals. This month, we have donated in Kimberly's memory to BC-SPCA Wild Ark, the Wildlife Rescue Organization she planned to start volunteering with. Wild Ark cares for injured, sick, orphaned and distressed wildlife with the goal of releasing

recovered animals back into the wild. And according to their website, more than 80% of the animals admitted are in trouble because of something related to human activity. Learn more at SPCA.bc.c.a.com. Research was by Enya Bazanet and me. Audio editing was by Eric Crosby, who also voiced the disclaimer. Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge and Carol Weinberg is our script consultant. Writing, narration and sound design was by me

and the theme songs were composed by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with a new Canadian true crime story. See you then.