Who killed Kimberley Lockyer and Dale Worthman? 25 years later, the answer is unknown

When police arrived at their home to investigate the disappearance of Dale Worthman and Kimberley Lockyer, it was clear the couple had left suddenly.

Their vehicle was parked in their driveway, with Worthman's wallet inside. Inside the apartment, there was a fridge full of food, even toast still in the toaster.

Lockyer's purse was there too, with her keys, identification and a couple of thousand dollars inside. 

But the couple didn't return after they disappeared from their basement apartment in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's 25 years ago on Aug. 27, 1993.

It took more than a decade for their bodies to be found, after Joey Oliver came forward in 2006 and admitted to his part in the killings. It was another three years before Oliver was convicted of manslaughter.

Today, what was once a cold case is still a murder mystery, and the question of who killed Worthman and Lockyer remains unanswered.

Signs of a quick exit, and perhaps a planned return

Worthman, 30, was reported missing by his parents to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary on Sept. 2, 1993 after he failed to show up for work. 

Lockyer, 29, worked at the restaurant at the Airport Inn, but never picked up her last cheque. 

The RNC called taxi companies and airlines, and interviewed neighbours — but were stumped. About two weeks after the couple was reported missing, the police went public.

"We wait and we ask that anyone that might have information in relation to these two missing people contact the police," RNC inspector Alec Kieley said through the media on Sept. 15, 1993.

Over the following years, tips came and searches were done. In May 2002, special cadaver dogs were brought in from Ontario to check a pond near Whitbourne. There were rumours the couple was seen on a ferry leaving the province.

But nothing was found.

Finally, a solid tip

The case finally moved forward in July 2006, when Joey Oliver came to the police and told them where they could find Worthman and Lockyer's bodies. 

On July 13, 2006, Operation Recovery began in a small clearing 2.1 kilometres down a dirt road off Thorburn Road in St. John's, with very rough terrain going in.

After three days of searching with a backhoe, a woman's shoe, and some leg and foot bones, were exposed. The bodies lay in a single grave, with six .22-calibre shell casings found some distance away, indicating Worthman and Lockyer had been moved after they were killed.

"The grave was not a natural depression in the woods, but a pit which was purposely dug into the natural soil layers," said a report on the excavation by forensic anthropologist Dr. Sonja Jerkic.

"From our experience in excavating the scene, tools such as a shovel or mattock had to have been brought in to dig even this small grave," Jerkic's report continued.

"Digging with what would have been at hand — branches or a sharp stone — would have been too difficult if not impossible."

The bodies are found

The grave was 70 centimetres deep and according to the report, Lockyer's body had been laid on top of Worthman. Lockyer's body was removed on July 26, and Worthman's on July 27, each transported to the medical examiner's office in St. John's. 

At a news conference on August 21, 2006, the province's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Simon Avis, announced that Worthman and Lockyer's bodies had been found. 

"We had initially anticipated the recovery of skeletal remains, however, the environment in which the deceased were buried allowed a certain level of preservation, such that there was some soft-tissue remains," Avis said, referring to the acidic soil of the burial site. 

Lockyer had a thin gold chain around her neck, a gold ring on the middle finger of her right hand, and a ring with a stone, perhaps peridot, on the ring finger. Worthman's body was found with a t-shirt, blue-green denim jacket, a pack of cigarettes and a pager. Both bodies were caked in dirt.

They had each been shot in the head, execution style.

Lockyer's skull had a bullet hole on the right side, toward the back of her head. Worthman's skull showed that he had been shot several times. When hair and the scalp were pulled back, a bullet was found. There were also other bullet fragments. And there's what appeared to be a large exit wound at the front of his head. 

Oliver provides more information

The police admit that if Joey Oliver hadn't come forward, Worthman and Lockyer's bodies might never have been found.

On Jan. 12, 2007, Oliver did a taped video interview with the RNC in St. John's. In that interview, he detailed his version of the events — and went beyond anything he'd told police before.

Oliver told the police that the day before the shootings, he and a man named Shannon Murrin went to the site where the bodies would eventually be recovered. He said Murrin told him to bring Worthman back the next day. 

Oliver told the police he picked Worthman up, as instructed, at the couple's apartment in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, but that he didn't expect Lockyer to come along.

"You go in and you see Kim there. Why did you take her with you?" lead investigator Const. Pat Roach asked during the interview.

"What was I going to do, tell her to stay?" Oliver replied.

"She was his girlfriend. He said come on. What was I supposed to do?"

Heading back to the site, Oliver assumed Worthman had a beating coming from Murrin, but nothing worse than that.

"I assume he wanted to give him a few bangs," Oliver said.

"Murrin shot him right off the bat. I can't get that image out of me mind." 

"Then he pointed the gun towards me. And I said to him, 'What the fuck.' And he said, 'Just get the fuck out of here.' And he said, 'Go up and wait for me half the way up.'"

Oliver said he saw Worthman get shot, but not Lockyer. And he told police that Murrin said he had shot Lockyer four times.

"To this day, I still kind of feel like it's not true," he said.

"I never seen her get shot at all."

'I'm surprised I'm not in the Waterford'

Oliver went back to the site with Murrin the next day to clean up, he told police. 

"He said, 'Look around with anything with blood on it,'" Oliver said.

But he said he didn't actually see where the couple were buried, or if they were in a single grave or separate ones. He also told police he didn't know why they were killed. 

After all those years it was his conscience that made him come forward, Oliver told police.

"You find this pretty difficult, don't you?" Const. Roach asked.

"Yeah, two people had their lives taken away from them," Oliver replied.

"I found it difficult for the last 13 years. I'm surprised I'm not in the Waterford."

Charges laid

Oliver told Roach that he didn't know Worthman and Lockyer would die that night. And three hours into the interview, he denied pulling the trigger or putting either body in the grave.

Despite his denials, police dropped the bomb on Oliver two hours after that.

"What I'm going to tell you now, Joe," Roach said, "is as a result of the information you provided me today — the change in information you were able to give us today." 

"You've got my situation put at a lot more risk. And my family's," Oliver interrupted.

"Joe," Roach said.

"I'm going to tell you today, that you are going to be charged today with the second-degree murders of Dale Worthman and Kim Lockyer." 

Oliver took the news calmly, but when he appeared in court the next day it was clear it was a shock to be charged with two murders.

After Oliver was brought in and out of provincial court in St. John's to be charged, his then-lawyer, Bob Buckingham, spoke with reporters.

"As I indicated a second ago, he's surprised by the charge. And has a number of questions about that," Buckingham said.

"You saw the strain on his face as he walked into court and left court."

Murrin speaks out

Oliver's arrest and the charges prompted Murrin to contact the media, letting everyone know the police did consider him a suspect — though he denied any involvement in the killings.

His past made him an easy target for Oliver, Murrin said, because he had been arrested and tried in British Columbia for the 1994 murder of eight-year-old Mindy Tran. He was acquitted, but continued to live under the cloud of the crime. 

Murrin told the CBC that months before Oliver got arrested, Oliver called him and left this message, which Murrin recorded. 

"Shannon, you killed both of them you cold-hearted, you're just one cold-hearted bastard. You're the one that done that, not me."

If Oliver was surprised to be charged with second-degree murder, he was in for another shock after a long preliminary hearing into the case wrapped up nearly two years later.

On Dec. 3, 2008, provincial court judge Greg Brown ordered Oliver to stand trial for the killings of Worthman and Lockyer and upgraded the charges from second-degree to first-degree murder.

That was a relief for Dale Worthman's mother, Beryl. 

"I'm just so happy that he ruled for first-degree murder. I think that that's what it was, planned and deliberate," Beryl Worthman said.

"And I guess we'll just have to see what the jury has to say about it."

'I can't change anything'

But Beryl Worthman would be disappointed. There would be no jury, and no trial.

The Crown and defence reached a deal saying the case might not have been solved if Oliver hadn't have come forward, and the charges were downgraded to manslaughter. 

On May 28, 2009, in Supreme Court in St. John's, Justice Carl Thompson accepted a joint submission on sentencing of 15 years in prison, minus four years for time served. 

"I would have expected more," said Beryl Worthman.

"I guess I have to accept the facts that I can't change anything."

The police paid out a $50,000 reward for information that would lead to an arrest and conviction in the case, but they won't say who received the money.

Though Shannon Murrin was named in the agreed statement of facts put before the Supreme Court in Oliver's case, Murrin was never charged with any offences related to Worthman and Lockyer's deaths.

In 2010, he threatened to sue the RNC, the Crown and defence lawyers for allowing his name to be put in the statement. There's no indication he ever followed through on that threat.

As of today, no one has ever been convicted of murdering the young couple, and many questions about the case remain unanswered.

Was Oliver's role greater than he admitted?

Did he really think he was being asked to bring Worthman that far out of the way just to get "a few knocks," as he put it? 

Oliver is now 48, and was granted full parole two years ago. At last report, he was living in British Columbia.

Murrin is now 67, and still lives in Newfoundland. He declined a formal interview, but maintains that he had nothing to do with the killings.

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