Killer’s Guilty Plea Nets 6 Years In Jail

Killer’s Guilty Plea Nets 6 Years In Jail Ashley Lafrance (Update, June 4, 2025)

Hello, I’m Jay Nicoll Investigations and this is an Ontario Cold Cases - Canada’s True Crime Podcast, special edition and an update on the murder of Ashley Lafrance from an article by Brad Hunter in the Toronto Sun.

A Kirkland Lake mom whose daughter was brutally slain doesn’t believe justice has been served.

Not by a long shot.

The last of a trio of accused involved in the killing of Ashley Lafrance, 29, on Sept. 8, 2022, has been sentenced to six years in prison. The two others already have pleaded guilty.

Darcy Shail, 43, copped to manslaughter in Haileybury court on Monday. Minus time served, he will be out of jail in around five months. He apologized to Lafrance’s family, but to her mother, it fell short.

“He can’t apologize to Ashley, so why bother apologizing to me?” her mom, Marion Effenberger, told CTV Northern News. “It’s just killing our family … And before long, they’ll be walking the streets.”

In the agreed statement of facts, Shail and two others — Chantal Aube and Mark Anderson — drove Lafrance to a wooded area where she was beaten unconscious. The slaying was over drugs, and the trio left Lafrance to die in the woods alone. All four were high on fentanyl at the time.

After his arrest, Shail helped cops locate Lafrance’s remains.
An autopsy revealed that she had suffered a cracked skull but her actual cause of death was never discovered.

“He knew where her body was,” Effenberger said. “Why didn’t he say before? Why did he have to wait so many days and then we could have proved how she died?”
Shail’s lawyer outlined his client’s descent into drug addiction and associating with the “wrong people.”

Aube pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder, while Anderson pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Both are serving time in prison — Aube will be released in June and Anderson will be out later this year.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

Update May 14, 2025
Uploaded to YouTube - https://youtu.be/FlnHrxQjpcY?si=S_UreC81hIHqzrrf

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