A man who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2021 murder of two residents of Faro, Yukon has died while serving his sentence in Abbotsford.
A press release on Thursday afternoon (June 25) from Correctional Service Canada (CSC) said Ralph Bernard Shaw, 65, died June 24 while in custody at Pacific Institution and Regional Treatment Centre.
The CSC did not indicate Shaw’s cause of death.
Shaw was sentenced on Nov. 7, 2024 at the Yukon Supreme Court in Whitehorse after pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of his estranged wife, 42-year-old Saengduean Honchaiyaphum.
He shot her on the balcony of her Faro residence with an illegally obtained handgun on Oct. 26, 2021.
Shaw also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 73-year-old Patrick McCracken, whom he shot at McCracken’s home after a verbal altercation.
Shaw had travelled to McCracken’s house shortly after shooting Honchaiyaphum.
Additionally, Shaw pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault of a Faro man whom he shot seven times. Shaw had pursued the man around Faro, chasing him into a residence during the attack.
Shaw was sentenced to 10 years for the aggravated assault alongside the murders.
The killings were described by Faro’s chief administrative officer in a victim impact statement as an event that significantly altered the town’s social fabric.
Faro’s population is estimated at between 500 and 600 residents, according to online sources.
– with files from Jake Howarth, Yukon News