Editor's note: This story contains disturbing and violent details of a crime.
The missing remains of a victim of a manslaughter committed more than 30 years ago have been found in Connaught Hill Park, Prince George RCMP said Wednesday.
With help from the B.C. Coroners Service, the remains have been confirmed as those of Donna May Charlie, RCMP said, and added that her family has been notified.
Other than to say a member of the public found the remains in October, RCMP did not provide specifics on how they were discovered.
Charlie was 22 years old at the time of her death in September 1990.
In February 1992, a jury found Charlie's boyfriend, Gerald "Jerry" Smaaslet, then 30 years old, guilty of second-degree murder and recommended he serve at least 15 years in prison prior before becoming eligible to apply for parole.
However, in December 1994, the verdict was overturned on appeal and a new trial ordered. Smaaslet was subsequently found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to one year in jail followed by two years probation after receiving credit of 38 months time served in custody prior to sentencing.
Second-degree murder is any murder committed on impulse rather than being planned and deliberate. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of someone unintentionally.
According to stories printed in the Prince George Citizen at the time of the jury's verdict and the later decision to order a new trial, the two were staying at a motel on Queensway during a trip away from Fort Ware, now known as Kwadacha, about 450 kilometres north of Prince George and 65 kilometres north of the Williston reservoir.
In April 1991, and more than seven months after her death, Charlie's headless body was found in a shallow grave in an empty lot near the motel.
"No cause of death was proved during the trial. Two witnesses said Smaaslet had said he had killed her, but on the stand Smaaslet had a different version of the events," a Citizen reporter wrote at the end of the 1992 jury trial.
"He told the court he and Charlie had been drinking, after using drugs, behind the Sportsmen’s Motel on Queensway. He left to go to a nearby convenience store and when he returned, Charlie was lying on her side, blue in the face with foam coming out of her mouth.
"When he realized she wasn’t breathing, he said he panicked. He told the court he feared he would be blamed for something he hadn’t done and was concerned about an impending court hearing on another matter, so he returned later and buried her."
Smaaslet's run-ins with the law continued over the years. In 2007, he was deemed a dangerous offender and sentenced to an indeterminate period in a penitentiary.
In reaching her decision, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo outlined a lengthy criminal history and noted a "pattern of violence against intimate partners and general violence against others."
"With intimate partners, the pattern starts with exerting control and domination by threats, manipulation and physical restraint, leading to escalating violence, confinement, and in one case death," Loo wrote and later added that he "appears to have assaulted every woman he lived with, the most severe of which, was perpetrated against Donna Charlie, the victim of his manslaughter conviction."
Loo described a "violent relationship" between Smaaslet and Charlie. In March 1990, he was charged with assault but the count was later dropped after Charlie refused to testify against him.
On Sept. 2, 1990, the last day Charlie was seen alive, the motel's manager noticed that their room was considerably damaged and that Charlie had a bloody face. The next day, Smaaslet told staff he did not want to be disturbed and he checked out the day after that.
"The next day the cleaning staff found a horrible stench in the room and blood stains on the walls, floor, chair, bedding, and in the bathroom," Loo summarized. "There was a head sized hole with hair and blood in the ceramic tiles around the bathtub, and the taps and shower rod were broken."
A few days later, Smaaslet got a nephew to help dispose of Charlie's body. They dug a shallow grave in Ingledew Park across from the motel.
"As they dragged her decomposing body over to the grave her head came off. They shovelled the head into a white bucket they found at a nearby apartment building and buried it nearby in Connaught Park," Loo wrote.
"Police recovered Donna Charlie’s body from the shallow grave. Her head has never been found. Due to the advanced state of decomposition and the missing head, the cause of death could not be determined."
