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Psychiatrist tells Alberta trial that cook heard voices telling him to kill

Oct 31, 2018 | 4:00 PM

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — A psychiatrist says a cook accused of murdering two people at a northern Alberta work camp had been hearing voices and thought he needed to kill everyone to make them stop.

Dr. Lenka Zedkova was testifying at the trial of Daniel Goodridge.

Goodridge has pleaded not guilty due to a mental disorder to charges of first-degree murder, assault with a weapon and interfering with human remains.

In an agreed statement of facts, Goodridge admits to the slayings as well as to terrorizing others who woke in the middle of the night to screams at the Canada North oilfield camp near Fox Creek in June 2015.

Zedkova told court that Goodridge’s mental state led him to believe his co-workers wanted to assault him.

She also testified that while Goodridge could appreciate that what he was doing could leave someone dead, he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.

Court has heard that Goodridge stabbed one man more than 70 times, cut off parts of his body and set him on fire.

Some workers hid in their rooms while others fled into the bush as he ran around the remote property with a large knife, the agreed facts say.

He also threw rocks at vehicles and set fires in some buildings.

When RCMP arrived, Goodridge refused to drop the knife and lunged at an officer. Mounties fired 12 shots, wounding Goodridge.

Officers then found the bodies of David Derksen, 37, from La Crete, Alta., and 50-year-old Hally Dubois of Red Deer, Alta. (CJXX, The Canadian Press)

 

The Canadian Press