B.C. woman gets life in prison for murdering, dismembering ex-boyfriend

Paris Laroche and Sidney Mantee are pictured. (Paris Laroche/Facebook)

A young woman who murdered and dismembered her ex-boyfriend on Vancouver Island has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Paris Laroche, now 29, was convicted last summer of one count of second-degree murder and one count of interfering with human remains in the October 2020 death and disappearance of 33-year-old Sidney Mantee.

At the time of the killing, the estranged couple were still living together in their Nanaimo apartment, where Laroche remained when police searched the unit in May 2021, seven months after her ex-boyfriend’s disappearance.

The search confirmed investigators' suspicions that Mantee had met with foul play. By July of that year, the Nanaimo RCMP announced the missing person case had turned into a homicide investigation.

Undercover confession

One of the officers involved in the case testified at trial last year that he obtained a confession from Laroche after he and another investigator posed as the family a woman who was previously in a relationship with Mantee.

“The cover story was that my sister had been in an abusive relationship with the victim and that we were there that day to try and locate the victim,” the officer told the Vancouver courtroom.

The officers, who met Laroche outside her Nanaimo apartment, told the woman that they were looking to exact revenge on the missing man.

The officer testified that Laroche admitted to killing Mantee, and eventually invited the investigators into her apartment.

“She had disclosed that she had killed the victim, and we had offered to help her dispose of some of the evidence to ensure she wasn’t caught,” he said.

He testified that Laroche showed them two saws and a hammer used in the killing and dismemberment. “She was talking about how she had cleaned up, and whether or not she had done a good job.”

Body discarded ‘piece by piece’

The officers recorded audio of the interaction, including Laroche saying, “I had to break his body down and put him into the ocean, piece by piece, over months.”

Laroche allegedly told the undercover officers that she had been abused by her partner, adding “he is no longer able to harm anyone,” the court heard.

In March 2022, the Mounties announced that Laroche, then 26, had been charged in the killing.

More than a dozen of Mantee’s bone fragments were eventually found at two city parks around Nanaimo, the court heard.

One of Laroche’s former employers testified at trial that Laroche confided to her that she had kept Mantee’s body in her apartment refrigerator, periodically disposing of his remains between March and August 2020.

“I came right out and asked her if she had done it,” former employer Terry Boyle told the court. “And she said yes.”

Laroche allegedly told her boss that Mantee had threatened to kill her friends and family, and that he had once thrown her cat against the wall of the apartment.

While the search for Mantee was still ongoing, neighbours in the apartment building told CTV News they would often hear the couple arguing inside their unit.

Laroche was initially charged with first-degree murder but was found guilty of the lesser second-degree murder charge.

In addition to the life sentence for murder handed down Thursday, the judge also imposed a concurrent sentence of four years in prison for the interference charge.

Laroche will also be prohibited by the court from possessing firearms for 10 years upon her release, according to the B.C. Prosecution Service.