Alberta woman who killed daughter gets life with no parole for 18 years
Posted March 10, 2017 3:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (NEWS 1130) – An Alberta woman who drugged and killed her nine-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance at parole for 18 years.
Laura Coward pleaded guilty in a Calgary courtroom last month to the second-degree murder of Amber Lucius.
In sentencing Coward, Justice Scott Brooker said the killing was random, senseless, and the ultimate betrayal of Coward’s own daughter.
Amber was reported missing in August 2014 and her mother was arrested two days later near Sundre in west-central Alberta.
She was standing outside a burned truck in which her daughter’s body was discovered.
Coward had given the girl a toxic but non-lethal dose of a prescription sleeping medication, but thought she was dead and put Amber in the truck and set it on fire.
Her father, Duane Lucius, read a statement after the sentencing.
“Today is another reminder of my devastating loss. Amber was an innocent child and a selfish act ended her life.
I had only had one year with Amber to renew our bond as father and daughter. During that time Amber was always helping me on the farm and loved playing outside. She was a happy little girl loved by the entire community.
Since the moment Amber was born, she was the light of my life. She was energetic, talkative and full of joy. I will never get to watch my daughter grow up, but I know she would have done great in life.
No sentence will do justice for what has happened to Amber. As a father, I have had to bury my child and nothing will bring her back. I can only hope that other children are not being used as bargaining chips in a divorce or used to hurt the other parent. No parent should ever take a child’s life just to get back at the other. We are supposed to provide our children with love, not scare them. Because of this situation she was taken away from me, and all who loved her, far too soon.
Amber was my life and I will miss her every day until my end. I will never forget her.”
At her sentencing hearing last week, Coward begged the girl’s father and her own family and friends to forgive her.
