A Central Alberta man who killed two Indigenous women has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years.
Gordon Alfred Rogers of Red Deer had pleaded guilty last year to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Jeanette Chief and Violet Heathen, who were both from Onion Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.
The body of 48-year-old Chief was found near Hillmond, Sask., in June 2007, four days after she was last seen in Lloydminster.
Heathen, who was 49, was last seen in the same city in May 2009, and her remains were found that December near Kitscoty, Alta.
Rogers was originally charged with first-degree murder.
He had lived and worked in the Lloydminster area before living in Red Deer.
When the charges were laid Chief’s family remembered her as a beloved mother, caring auntie, loving sister and protective grandmother, who cherished those around her.
Heathen had seven sons and one daughter and was a grandmother to six children.
Police said Rogers had a weak relationship with Heathen, but did not know Chief.
Investigators say the charges were the result of years of police work on both sides of the boundary.