Nanaimo woman who murdered, dismembered ex-boyfriend gets life with no parole for 12 years

WARNING: This story contains graphic and disturbing details.

The Nanaimo woman convicted of murdering and dismembering her ex-partner Sidney Mantee has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Paris Laroche, 29, was found guilty of second-degree murder and of interfering and offering indignities to a human body in 2024.

At the time of the murder, Laroche and Mantee were estranged but still living in the same Nanaimo one-bedroom apartment.

The court heard many gruesome details during the trial, beginning with March 5, 2020, when Laroche repeatedly hit Mantee in the head with a hammer while he slept on a mattress on the living room floor. When he didn't die immediately, she slit his throat.

In his reasons for judgment, Justice Robin Baird wrote that over several months Laroche "painstakingly and methodically eviscerated and dismembered his corpse, cut, rendered or broke it down into pieces suitable for carry in small bags or knapsacks, and disposed of his remains in various locations around Nanaimo."

Laroche did not testify at trial. However, she confessed to killing and dismembering Mantee to two undercover police officers who befriended her in a sting operation. 

Laroche told the undercover officers that Mantee's abuse — which she claimed included death threats and physical assaults — drove her to kill him, saying, "It was my life or his."

What finally made her finally "snap," she told the officers, was Mantee deliberately injuring her cat. 

Psychiatric reports prepared for the trial said Laroche did not have a mental illness or a psychiatric disorder but that she did have trauma-related symptoms of battered spouse syndrome in the immediate run-up to the homicide.

Laroche was originally charged with first-degree murder. In finding her guilty of the lesser charge, Baird said although she acted intentionally, the killing was not planned and deliberate.

Sidney Mantee was originally from Saskatchewan Treaty 4 territory.

Nanaimo RCMP issued a public appeal to help locate the 32-year-old Indigenous man in October 2020 after the Mantee family alerted them of his disappearance. 

In her victim impact statement, Mantee's mother addressed Laroche directly as she sat in the prisoner's box. 

"You are the evilest person I know," said Emma Mantee. "You threw him away like he was garbage."

Second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence with parole ineligibility ranging from a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of 25 years.

Crown prosecutor Nick Barber was seeking 15 years of parole ineligibility, calling the crimes "graphic and egregious... an affront to the whole community."

Defence counsel Glen Orris said 10 years was appropriate because Laroche has no previous criminal record or history of violence and does not represent a danger to the community.

For anyone affected by family or intimate partner violence, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services. ​​If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.