A Bowden Institution inmate serving a sentence for second-degree murder has died in hospital.
The Correction Service of Canada said in a news release late Monday afternoon that Barry Bryan Schacker, 65, died in Innisfail’s hospital on Sunday.
No other information was provided on the events leading up his death and a prison spokesperson could not be reached for further comment.
“As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, the police and the coroner have been notified, and the Correctional Service of Canada will review the circumstances of the incident,” says a release from Rita Wehrle, assistant warden management services at the medium-security prison.
Schacker’s next of kin have been notified.
Schacker, then 58, received an automatic life sentence when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on March 22, 2007.
The Thorhild, Alta. farmer received an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years for beating his wife to death with a crowbar.
According to media reports at the time of his sentencing, Schacker became upset with his wife when she brought her daughter and 14-year-old granddaughter to his acreage home to stay with them in May 2005.
Schacker took a crowbar from his garage and returned to the home, where he repeatedly smashed his 55-year-old wife over the head.
She later died in hospital.