Collateral Damage

Alvin Liknes, 66, and his wife Kathy, 53, lived in Calgary’s Parkhill neighborhood. In 2006 Alvin hired Douglas Garland to wire a pump he had designed for oil and gas work. Garland felt shortchanged on credit for the patents, the arrangement fell apart in early 2007, and he held a grudge. Garland’s sister, Patti, was Allen Liknes’s partner.

On June 29, 2014, the Likneses held an estate sale, and their five-year-old grandson, Nathan O’Brien, stayed the night. The next morning all three were gone, and the house showed signs of violence. After seeing reports of a green pickup near the home, Patti told police her brother drove a similar truck. On July 1, a pilot mapping the Airdrie area for the city happened to photograph the Garland family farm; the Crown said the images showed three bodies near the sheds and smoke from a burn barrel. A day later they were gone. Searchers found the victims’ DNA on a hacksaw and other items, plus bone fragments and teeth in ash.

Garland was arrested on July 15, 2014. The bodies were never recovered. In February 2017 a jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 75 years. Alberta’s Court of Appeal upheld the convictions in 2019 and the sentence in 2021.