By Canadian Press

Man who strangled wife, buried body in their Calgary home to stay in prison

Dec 10, 2019 | 3:26 PM

BOWDEN, Alta. — A man who strangled his wife and cemented her body in a basement wall of their home is staying in prison for now.

The Parole Board of Canada has confirmed a decision from October that revoked Allan Shyback’s day parole after he had sex with a worker at a massage parlour.

Shyback told a hearing Tuesday at Bowden Institution south of Red Deer, Alta., that he had a “manic episode” when he was first granted day parole in February and wasn’t sure of the rules.

“I think I stumbled very early on,” Shyback said. “I can’t make any excuses. I basically screwed up, but I think I’ve proven myself going forward.”

A board member told Shyback he might have made progress but not enough to reinstate his day parole.

new mayor

Spring Mayoral by-election called in Ladysmith

7h ago

holiday check stops

Nanaimo motorists shine during province-wide crackdown

10h ago

targeted job action

Striking Nanaimo postal workers disrupt Purolator operations

13h ago

Shyback was convicted of manslaughter and causing an indignity to a body in the 2012 death of Lisa Mitchell. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but the Alberta Court of Appeal later increased the term to 10 years.

Shyback testified at his trial that he endured years of domestic abuse by his wife and killed her in self-defence when she attacked him with a knife.

He told court that he panicked, put her body inside a plastic bin and cemented it into a basement wall in their Calgary home. He told Mitchell’s family that she had left, and he sent them fake messages from her as he continued to live in the home with their two children.

“It was probably one of the most horrible things I’ve done in my life. It just kept snowballing from there,” Shyback told the hearing.

One of the conditions of his day parole was that he inform authorities of any sexual or non-sexual relationship with a woman.

“I had talked to my team that, yes, I was looking for a relationship,” Shyback said.

“I had signed out to go to a massage parlour. I did not ask for permission to have sexual activity.”

He called his sexual relationship with the worker a “one-time thing.” When asked about various sex toys that were in his room at the halfway house where he was living, he said he was curious.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be an issue having them,” he told the hearing.

Shyback had also been talking to a woman on the dating app Tinder, but said nothing happened. “It became evident she was not a real person. She was soliciting for an internet pornography site and I ended it.”

The board member told Shyback that his mistake was serious, becaue he had killed a woman he was in a relationship with.

“I understand that this is a big deal. I really do,” Shyback replied.

He is scheduled for statutory release in August 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Dec. 10, 2019.

— Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press