Trent Larsen, 54, was sentenced after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the May 2000 death of his then-pregnant girlfriend, Angel Lyn Fehr. He confessed to killing her then hiding her body in a barrel in May 2000.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED / RCMP

A man who killed his pregnant girlfriend in Kamloops and disposed of her body 19 years ago will spend more than 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter Tuesday.

A Kamloops Supreme Court Justice heard today, Sept. 7, how Trent Larsen strangled Angel Lyn Fehr, and later disposed of her body in a barrel filled with concrete.

Larsen, 54, and his lawyers reached a plea deal with Crown prosecutors to reduce his second-degree murder charge for a guilty plea to manslaughter and the interference of a human body.

Fehr was last seen alive at an Easter dinner with her family in Abbotsford on April 23, 2000, where she and Larsen travelled to from their home in Kamloops.

Fehr, who was five months pregnant at the time, was abusive toward Larsen at the Easter dinner, court heard. Both Fehr and Larsen had a history of alcohol and drug abuse, but Fehr's substance use was worsened by the death of her 19-month-old daughter, Tia, in 1998, according to a statement of facts read to the court by Crown prosecutor Neil Wiberg.

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Larsen was angered by Fehr's drug use in April and May 2000, Wiberg said.

The court heard that one day between May 1 and May 15, Fehr awoke Larsen in bed by straddling his chest while brandishing a butcher knife, accusing him of not listening to her when she tried to explain the grief she was experiencing due to the loss of her daughter, Wiberg said.

Larsen attempted to disarm her by striking her with a lamp. When that did not work, Fehr stabbed Larsen at least once while he wrapped the lamp cord around her neck, holding it for at least five minutes until she fell unconscious and eventually died, the court heard.

After failing to revive Fehr, Larsen took her into the basement and stored her body in a barrel. He then filled the barrel with concrete and a cinder block over the next several hours in an effort to hide her body. He then "made arrangements" to have the barrel buried in the 100 Mile House area, Wiberg said.

Fehr was 27 when she died, leaving a nine-year-old daughter behind.

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On May 15, 2000, Larsen turned himself into the Kamloops courthouse for outstanding traffic violations and spent seven days in jail. When he was released, he told Fehr's family that she was not home when he returned, which prompted her aunt to file a missing persons report.

Larsen did not file a missing persons report, but moved to Chilliwack two days after his release.

Police had long suspected Larsen of involvement in Fehr's disappearance, and during an undercover operation, he confessed to killing Fehr and disposing of her body on June 10, 2019.

Her body was recovered in the barrel on Sept. 24, 2019. While an autopsy was able to confirm Fehr's identity through DNA and recover the fetus, her advanced decomposition left coroners unable to determine the cause of her death.

Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown sentenced Larsen to eight years in prison for manslaughter, with three years and six months for the disposal of her body, less three years for his time already spent in custody.

It has been nearly 20 years since her disappearance, and since that time, Larsen's lawyers, Troy Anderson and Tony Lagemaat, argued that he is remorseful for his actions.

"He said, for almost twenty years he's been chewing Rolaids every day. And once this all came out, he doesn't need to do that anymore because he's able to deal with his own guilt and try to make amends for what he has done," Anderson said.

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According to his lawyers, Larsen did not have a "particularly easy life," and accepted that most of his hardship was by his own doing. Much of that was due to spending his twenties partying, doing drugs and drinking, which is how he and Fehr met.

"The guilty plea was entered as soon as possible," Anderson said. "It's mitigating because not only would this have been a lengthy trial, a conviction was far from a forgone conclusion."

Anderson took issue with the admissibility of Larsen's statements and believed the Crown would have difficulty proving a homicide had occurred due to the inability to determine a cause of death in an autopsy.

"There was little if any evidence of a homicide," Anderson said. "Larsen doesn't expect forgiveness. He hopes for it and he read the victim impact statement. He hopes he can do what is asked in that victim impact statement. Mr. Larsen says once he killed Angel Fehr, he went into a panic, he didn't know what to do."

Along with the nearly eight years and six months that Larsen will spend in prison, Justice Brown ordered that a DNA sample be recovered from Larsen and he will be banned from ever owning a firearm.

"There are real benefits that are provided to society and to those who are affected by these sorts of crimes when a guilty plea is entered and when there is an agreed sentence that is fixed," Justice Brown said. "It provides not only efficiency with respect to the judicial system, it provides closure to everyone that is involved."

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