Loren Leslie: Murdered by Canada's youngest serial killer
Last Night OutOn a chilly November evening in 2010, 15-year-old Loren Dawn Leslie slipped out of her home in northern British Columbia to meet someone she had met online. It was meant to be a brief escape – just a night out. Instead, it became the final night of her young life.
Loren’s body was found on a remote road off Highway 27 on the same evening. One of Canada’s youngest serial killers, and the person Loren was meeting that evening, was stopped and arrested just hours later.
Crime+Investigation's new series, Last Night Out, delves into the chilling story of Loren Leslie and her tragic final night.
A connection turned fatal
Loren Leslie was just 15 years old – curious, creative and like so many teens, exploring friendships online. It was there, on Nexopia, a popular Canadian social networking site for young people at the time, that she started talking to someone who called himself '1CountryBoy'.
His real name was Cody Legebokoff. A seemingly polite young man who came across as charming and confident. Over the course of a few weeks, their online chats evolved into private messages, then texts and eventually a plan to meet in person.
Loren had no idea that behind the easy smile and friendly username was someone capable of unspeakable violence.
On 27th November 2010, the pair met. Loren was expecting perhaps a cup of coffee, a chat and some normal teenage connection. Instead, she vanished into one of Canada’s darkest chapters.
Lured into terror
Investigators later pieced together the night’s horror: Loren was last seen at a school playground, meeting a man in a pickup truck – a vehicle that belonged to Legebokoff.
Text messages confirmed their meeting. What followed, the court would hear, was brutal and merciless.
When police stopped Legebokoff’s truck, it was only hours after Loren’s death. Legebokoff was on a remote logging road near Vanderhoof and Prince George – he was covered in blood.
He also had a bloody pipe wrench, a knife, a child's backpack and a hospital card bearing Loren’s name in the vehicle.
Initially, the police suspected he was a poacher. But things didn’t add up? The suspect claimed he was poaching a deer, but there was no carcass and too much blood.
A body discovered
A conservation officer traced tire tracks through fresh snow to find Loren’s body in a roadside gravel pit – lifeless, shoeless, pants around her ankles.
Autopsy findings revealed blunt-force trauma to her head, stab wounds to her neck, broken jaw and nose, defensive wounds on her hands and her fingers appeared to have been stomped on.
All injuries were inconsistent with accidental death or self-harm.
Loren, who was legally blind, was described as bright and affectionate, struggling with mental health but never suicidal. Her mother insisted she 'would never harm herself.'
Her vulnerability made her an easy target for Legebokoff – a grim pattern mirrored in his other victims.
One of Canada’s youngest serial killers
But Loren Leslie was not Legebokoff’s only victim. Within days, teams connected Legebokoff by DNA to three additional women. 35-year-old Jill Stuchenko, a mother of six, 35-year-old Cynthia Maas and 23-year-old Natasha Montgomery.
Each victim was found beaten to death – riddled with blunt trauma, sexual assault evidence and chilling similarities in the degradation of their bodies. Legebokoff was just 19 when he killed his first known victim in 2009.
At the time, these findings made Cody Legebokoff Canada’s youngest serial killer.
Horror confirmed
After a months-long trial starting in mid-2014, prosecutors presented DNA evidence, forensic testimony and witness accounts.
The defence’s shifting story unravelled under scrutiny. In September 2014, a jury in Prince George's found Cody Legebokoff guilty on four counts of first-degree murder, including the murder of Loren Leslie. He was handed four life sentences, with no parole possible for 25 years.
Justice Glenn Parrett described Legebokoff as lacking 'any shred of empathy or remorse' and added him to the national sex offender registry, underscoring the brutality and sexual violence involved.
He specifically warned that Legebokoff 'should never walk among us again.'
In 2016, the BC Court of Appeal refused his attempt to overturn the conviction – confirming his guilt and preserving the severity of his punishment.
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