Warning: This story discusses rape, sexual assault and murder, which can be triggering for some readers.
Kelly Toop, convicted killer and sex offender from Williams Lake, has had his day parole reinstated as of Oct. 24, 2025.
This is the second time Toop has had his day parole privileges suspended and then reinstated. His day parole was first suspended in October 2024, then reinstated for a period of six months by the parole board in December. Then in July 2025, his day parole was again revoked, and a warrant was issued to return him to custody.
Toop, now 65, was sentenced to life in prison in 1983 and then in 1984 for two violent sexual assaults, one murder and one attempted murder related to two separate incidents. He had been found guilty of first-degree murder, acts of gross indecency, attempted murder and rape.
In Williams Lake in 1982, a woman agreed to give Toop a ride. He sexually assaulted her, drove her to a secluded area and continued to assault her, then took her to his home, where he blindfolded her and tied her up. He then drove her to a gravel pit and struck her on her head with a tire iron and left her there, later admitting he believed she was dead. The woman survived and was able to identify Toop. The investigators were then able to link Toop to a 1980 murder in Duncan of realtor Suzanne Seto.
Toop was found to have entered a motel room where Seto was staying, then sexually assaulted her for hours and afterwards took her to a nearby wooded area where he struck her on the head with a cement block, killing her. Her body was discovered the following day.
Toop had also been investigated for sexual assaults involving minors in the 1980s, states the parole board report, but no charges were laid in those cases. They also indicate that he was interviewed by police in relation to other murders but recanted confessions made during the course of those interviews.
During his incarceration, Toop was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and a sexual disorder characterized by rape and sadism, though an assessment in 2022 determined his sexual sadism disorder was in remission with a controlled environment. He was also indicated to have “notable psychopathic traits” according to the parole board file.
Toop has been said to have “generally maintained a conformist attitude” throughout most of his sentence, said the parole board.
In 2015, he was classified as a minimum security risk and transferred to a minimum-security institution in 2021.
He has since reportedly completed over 1,000 hours of escorted temporary absences and 60 and 90-day work releases as well. He was given a number of unescorted temporary absences in 2023 and then granted day parole in 2024 with special conditions.
Those conditions included restrictions on substance use, relationships with females, and internet access.
“Troubling incidents” led to the suspension of his day parole, according to the parole board report. These were detailed in a previous report, with the allegations including accessing pornography and filming a woman without her knowledge. In December 2024, the parole board reinstated his day parole for a period of six months, despite the residential facility he had been staying at withdrawing its support.
READ MORE: Violent sex offender from Williams Lake has day parole extended
However, after being placed in January 2025 at an Indigenous healing centre, Toop apparently expressed dissatisfaction with his placement as a non-Indigenous person. In July 2025, he left to help a woman move whose identity is protected in the report, but then provided shifting narratives on why the two did not stay in the apartment he was reportedly helping her move to.
A parole officer then concluded the conflicting accounts raised concerns around transparency, and a warrant was issued to return Toop to custody on July 9. As the case management team worked to determine next steps for Toop, he was reportedly found to “remain focused on (his) personal interpretation of the circumstances surrounding (his) most recent (day parole) suspension,” said the report.
However, the case management team believed the risk he poses can be effectively managed in the community, and recommended his day parole suspension be cancelled.
Caseworkers noted a pattern of “minimization and deflection” according to the parole board decision, however, the board said Toop “will not present an undue risk to society if released.”
The report said the suspension was needed due to Toop’s behaviour, making surveillance in the community challenging given his “history of manipulation and deception.”
But while the timeout was needed, the board will lift the suspension on Toop’s day parole and with a lack of community residential facilities willing to take him, the report indicated he will likely be placed in a correctional facility, which would provide a “strict and structured framework.”
The board did issue Toop with a reprimand and warned him that it is unsatisfied with his behaviour in the community.
“You have a tendency to lack transparency, to manipulate information and to lack accountability for your actions,” they stated in their decision. They warned Toop that more of this could even lead to a revocation of his parole.
They continued his day parole for a further six months with the hope it would “promote (his) social reintegration as a law-abiding citizen.”
In addition to the previously mentioned conditions, Toop is not allowed in the province of British Columbia.