Just crazy enough: Daughter of murder victim 'outraged' serial killer is living a good life on parole in the Fraser Valley

Robert Chaulk murdered an 83-year-old man in 1985 for which he was deemed not-criminally responsible by mental disorder, then in 1999 he killed two more innocent people

A serial killer whose insanity defence after stabbing an 83-year-old man to death in 1985 went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and who 14 years later murdered two people in a “brutal and vicious” attack, is on full parole living large with a pickup truck and motorcycle in the Eastern Fraser Valley.

Robert Matthew Chaulk’s “case-management team” in prison pointed out the now 55-year-old is “capable of extreme gratuitous violence.” A psychiatrist in 2015 identified a concern about Chaulk's vulnerability to a psychotic breakdown under “stress or the influence of alcohol or drugs,” according to Parole Board of Canada (PBC) documents obtained by Something Worth Reading.

Despite that, after five years on full parole since 2019, in May 2024 the PBC removed one of his four strict conditions: “Not to associate with any person you know or have reason to believe is involved in criminal activity and/or substance misuse.”

Why would the Parole Board of Canada agree to let a triple murderer with psychopathic tendencies triggered by alcohol hang around with criminals and substance abusers in the interest of public safety? So he can work with a Fraser Valley “faith-based social service agency” for people who have mental health and addiction issues.

The daughter of one of Chaulk’s victims, however, is outraged how our criminal justice system lets a man she calls an unapologetic “stone-cold killer” live essentially free, working, and enjoying life.

“He is playing the system as he once did in 1985 after stabbing Mr. Haywood 17 times,” Nicole McConaghy told me in a statement this week via email. 

Murder 1: George Haywood

Chaulk was 15 years old in 1985 when he and his friend Francis Darren Morrissette, 16, broke into the vacant home of 83-year-old George Haywood in a Winnipeg suburb. 

Chaulk and Morissette waited in the home until Haywood returned. They then bludgeoned him to death and stabbed the octogenarian 17 times. The two claimed they suffered from paranoid psychoses, which led them to believe they had the power to rule the world and killing was necessary. They said they thought they had a right to kill Haywood because he was “a loser.”

A jury at the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench convicted them of first-degree murder. The Manitoba Court of Appeal later unanimously dismissed their appeal on May 13, 1988. The case then went to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), which ordered a new trial and created a new definition of how insanity pleas are treated in Canadian courts. 

One of the two nuanced issues the high court was faced with was the meaning of the word “wrong” in section 16(1) of the criminal code, which refers to the defence of mental disorder. With only Justice Beverley McLachlin dissenting, the court concluded that it is not enough for an accused to know that something is legally wrong, they must also know that it is morally wrong. The SCC ordered a new trial and the two were deemed not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.

In 1996, Chaulk was given an absolute discharge from the Manitoba Review Board, a ruling based on the determination that he was no longer a danger to society.

Murders 2 & 3: Debra Beaulieau and Mirzet Zec

In the 1990s, Debra Beaulieau and Mirzet Zec lived together in an apartment on Hargrave Street in Winnipeg, a building Chaulk lived in as well. 

The three were drinking in the couple’s apartment on New Year's Day 1999. It was the same day they met. While drunk, some sort of altercation took place the details of which only Chaulk is alive to know about. The result was that, as with George Haywood in 1985, he beat and stabbed them to death. 

Chaulk left but returned to clean up. He left again, threw his clothes in a dumpster and went to stay overnight with his girlfriend. He then visited with his family the next day on what was likely a goodbye tour because he then turned himself into police. The bodies Beaulieau, 39, and Zec, 37, were found the next day.

Chaulk, then 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter thereby eliminating the need for a murder trial by jury. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Life in the Fraser Valley

In 2007, Chaulk’s good-enough behaviour got him to minimum security. He started being allowed escorted temporary absences and a work release. He also finished a university degree. 

Debra Beaulieau’s daughter points out that while this might be nice for him, her mother is a now one more name on Canada’s list of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

And despite the fact that Beaulieau was killed in cold blood by a white man, Chaulk worked with Elders behind bars and took part in Indigenous ceremonies, a fact that rubs salt in the wound.

“How dare you take part in sacred sweats and ceremonies and speaking with an Elder,” McConaghy said. “The level of disrespect on that alone infuriates me.“

Eight years later in November 2015, Chaulk received day parole for three months, a stint of day parole that would be renewed several times in the following years. 

In 2018, Chaulk rented an apartment and in September 2018 he started getting weekend passes to live at the residence. By 2019, he was spending five days a week at his apartment with expanded leave privileges, essentially serving a life sentence for a double murder on weekends only.

While on extended day parole in 2018 he worked at a job where he even saved up enough money to purchase a truck and motorcycle with cash.

 “A stone-cold killer who took the lives of three gets to continue to live a normal life in beautiful B.C. with his truck, motorcycle, job and apartment,” McConaghy said.

What’s the alternative?

Robert Chaulk murdered three people, shattered numerous lives causing trauma, grief, misery. 

Our criminal justice system has a much stronger focus on rehabilitation than retribution as compared to, for example, the U.S. system. That doesn’t mean that punishment doesn’t have a place, but most justice experts will agree that the executing people and literally locking people up for life doesn’t work. Beyond the ethical considerations that are debatable, U.S.-style justice does not keep communities safer nor does it reduce recidivism. It’s also way more expensive.

So unless we engage in a complete deconstruction of our system, the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada are in charge of assessing and reducing risk, not to placate angry relatives of murdered people or other victims of crime.

Still, Chaulk has never apologized for murdering McConaghy’s mother or her common-law partner, yet the PBC decision from 2019 granting him full parole says he is remorseful. PBC’s decisions are worded in the second person as they are directed at the offender. Similarly, McConaghy’s statement about Chaulk’s current freedoms are directed to him as well.

“While you have limited insight into why you killed the victims, your case management team indicates you accept responsibility and are remorseful,” the PBC decision states.

“My mother was your victim,” McConaghy said. “I grew up without her and you stole the chance of me ever getting to know her. The generations affected by this crime are her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren now living with irreparable trauma.”

With the condition removed from his release ordering that he stay away from people involved in criminal activity or substance abuse, the PBC decision allows him to work for the religious organization that is described by the PBC decision writer as having recently “won an award” for being the “Best Christian Workplace.” This is not quite correct. The organization didn’t win an award, it paid for a certification that churches and other Christian groups buy from a large global corporate entity. The “Best Christian Workplaces” is the creation of Christianity Today magazine, first launched as a cover story and is now a large global U.S.-based non-profit. The large Best Christian Workplaces database of workplaces around the world has nine in B.C. The only one on their list for 2023, 2024, and 2025 is P2C (Power To Change) in Abbotsford, an evangelical Christian organization that does, among other things, addiction recovery and prison ministries.

(Ruth & Naomi’s in Chilliwack also received the certification in 2021 but hasn’t since.)

An inquiry via P2C's website regarding Chaulk’s current, past or potential employment with addiction recovery was not replied to as of July 10, 2025.

When it was pointed out publicly on social media who Chaulk is and that he is living in the Chilliwack area, the person who posted it asked if anyone had seen him around. One person said she hadn’t seen him in years but she used to work with him.

“I don’t think he’s a threat to anyone,” she said. “He did his time and as far as I know was trying to be a good human.”

The problem, at least arguably, is 11 years after his first murder he was deemed not to be a threat to society by a professional board analyzing offender risk. Three years later he murdered Nicole McConaghy’s mother and her partner.

“They claim he has no mental health issues,” McConaghy said, “so he is just a serial killer living amongst us.

“He is playing the system as he once did in 1985 after stabbing 83-year-old Mr. Haywood 17 times. [It’s] just a matter of time until he does it again. And if you believe he won’t, you are part of the problem!”

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Paul J. Henderson
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