Alta. man gets 6.5-year sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter in 1976 death of Calgary teen mom

Ronald James Edwards is accused of killing 16-year-old Pauline Brazeau in early January 1976.

An Alberta man accused of killing a teenage girl in Calgary in 1976 pleaded guilty to manslaughter in court on Monday.

Ronald James Edwards, of Sundre, Alta., pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in the death of Pauline Brazeau, a 16-year-old mother from Saskatchewan who had relocated to Calgary with her infant daughter in the fall of 1975.

Brazeau was last seen leaving a restaurant one morning in January 1976, and her body was found hours later west of the city. She was stabbed nine times.

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Edwards was arrested as a result of an RCMP historical homicide unit and Calgary cold-case investigation using genetic genealogy.

He was charged with non-capital murder – an offence in the Criminal Code at the time of Brazeau’s death.

Pauline’s daughter, Tracy, read an emotional victim impact statement in court. She was 7.5 months old when her mother was killed.

“Ron Edwards hid his secret for 49 years, and in those 49 years he got to be with his family. His wife, his kids, birthdays, holidays, taking them to school, watching them play sports. Being a father, if he chose to be, he had a choice. A choice my mother did not have. A choice that he took away,” she said.

“There are no memories, there are no happy times, nothing shared between her and I.

“We didn’t get the chance to share the love of a mother and daughter.”

Michelle Brazeau, Pauline’s younger sister, was six years old when she was killed.

“My childhood had its limits. We were behind locked doors at all times with fear of anxiety,” Michelle said in her victim impact statement.

“My memories of Pauline are few, and I never had the chance to create new ones.

“I don’t know her favourite colour; her favourite food.”

Edwards offered a written statement to Brazeau’s family in court on Monday.

“I’m sorry your mother was taken from you before you had a chance to know her,” the statement read.

“I was a drunken young man, drunk more often than I know.”

He said ending up in jail in 1990, on a separate conviction, changed his life, pointing to the Alcoholics Anonymous program.

“I no longer hated the man looking back at me in the mirror,” he said.

“I can only tell you and your relatives how deeply sorry I am for the loss of your mother.”

The Crown and defence submitted a joint sentencing submission for 6.5 years with credit for time served, which was accepted by the judge.

With time served, Edwards has four years, five months and 24 days left on his sentence.

With files from The Canadian Press