Calgary man sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years

Christopher Ward Dunlop, the Calgary man who killed two local sex workers 14 years apart, was sentenced to life in prison in court on Monday.

Christopher Dunlop, the man convicted of murdering a Calgary woman more than two years ago will be 74 before he is allowed to apply for parole.

Dunlop, 51, was sentenced in a courtroom on Monday after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and indignity to a human body on July 7.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News, right at your fingertips
• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Dunlop killed 58-year-old Judy Maerz at Deerfoot Athletic Park in February 2023.

Police found Maerz’s body badly burned, with the medical examiner telling court she had been stabbed 79 times.

In his sentencing decision, Justice Colin Feasby also agreed with the Crown’s submission of a five-year prison term for causing an indignity to a body.

That sentence will be served concurrently.

“I have struggled to put into words something that appropriately expresses the heinous nature of this crime, the condemnation that I would like to express on behalf of society on what Mr. Dunlop has done,” Feasby said Monday.

“Mr. Dunlop, I don’t know why you did these things.

“I don’t know how you make peace with yourself, but you’re going to have a long time to do that.”

Dunlop did not give a statement during the sentencing hearing.

After the conclusion of the trial, the justice said Maerz’s death was deliberate and carefully planned out, and likely occurred during a sexual assault by Dunlop.

Dunlop was previously convicted of manslaughter in the death of another sex worker, Laura Furlan, in 2009.

He strangled Furlan to death while having sex with her at Deerfoot Athletic Park before dumping her body in Fish Creek Provincial Park.

He served a 13-year prison sentence and was released in 2022.

Laura Furlan’s mother attended Monday’s hearing.