On October 13, 1995, 16-year-olds Misty Cockerill and Tanya Smith were walking to a party when Driver emerged from a nearby hedge with a baseball bat and forced the girls into the bushes. After leading them into a clearing, Driver ordered both to remove their clothes. While Smith complied, Cockerill resisted, seizing the bat and striking Driver across the back as he prepared to assault Smith. However, Driver overpowered Cockerill, beating her until she lost consciousness.
When Cockerill later regained consciousness in a parking lot, she managed to reach a hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery for severe skull fractures. Meanwhile, Smith’s body was discovered later that morning in a river. Although her injuries from the beating were fatal, it was determined that she ultimately drowned.
Following the attack, Driver exhibited erratic behavior that led to his capture. He made several anonymous phone calls to police and emergency services, identifying himself as the killer and threatening further crimes.
Obsessed with police scanners, a fascination likely influenced by his father’s career as a police officer, Driver monitored law enforcement responses to his calls. He even attended Tanya Smith’s funeral, later stealing her tombstone and leaving it on the hood of a radio station’s car with a threatening message addressed to Cockerill.
In another incident, he threw a wrench with a note for the police through a stranger’s window, claiming responsibility for three other similar assaults.
Key evidence linked Driver to the crime. He left a thumbprint on the tape used to wrap the package containing the note, as well as DNA and a bite mark on Smith’s body. Authorities released recordings of his calls, prompting Driver’s brother to recognize his voice. His mother confirmed the identification. Further investigation matched Driver’s thumbprint to the one found on the tape, leading to his arrest in 1996.
Following his arrest, Driver denied assaulting the two girls. Instead, he claimed he had stumbled upon them after the attack, raped the unconscious Tanya Smith, and disposed of her body in the river. He also alleged that he had driven Misty Cockerill to the hospital.
At trial, Driver did not plead insanity but argued that his actions were influenced by Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention deficit disorder. He maintained that these conditions led to false confessions and distorted behavior.
Due to the emotionally charged nature of the case, Driver opted for a trial by judge rather than a jury. However, the judge rejected his defense. In 1997, Driver was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Tanya Smith and attempted murder of Misty Cockerill. He was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to life in prison by Judge Wally Oppal.
Driver appealed the conviction, but the appeal was dismissed in 2001. In a subsequent trial, Driver was also convicted of two additional assaults he had referenced in the note he threw through a stranger’s window.
In 2006, Driver was transferred from protective custody at Kent Institution to the Pacific Institution/Regional Treatment Centre in Abbotsford for psychiatric treatment, a move that drew criticism toward Corrections Canada.
Driver remained incarcerated until his death on August 23, 2021. According to the Correctional Service of Canada, he died of natural causes.
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