By Canadian Press

‘I miss her:’ Calgary man who strangled wife, buried body in basement gets day parole

Feb 21, 2019 | 3:04 AM

BOWDEN, Alta. — A man who strangled his wife and concealed her body in a wall of their home has been granted day parole after saying he wished he could push a reset button to undo what he did.

Allan Shyback was convicted of manslaughter and causing an indignity to a body in the 2012 death of Lisa Mitchell.

After his arrest in 2014, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. The Alberta Court of Appeal later increased the term to 10 years.

“I have no excuse. There’s nothing to justify what I did,” Shyback told a Parole Board of Canada hearing Tuesday at Bowden Institution, a minimum- and medium-security prison south of Red Deer, Alta.

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“I wish I could take back all the pain I have caused. I can apologize and I’m sorry for everything that occurred. I regret the loss of her life.”

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

Shyback told the hearing that he doesn’t remember a lot of what happened when he killed his wife.

“It was very traumatic … very chaotic,” he said.

“That’s still something that’s hard … the loss of Lisa. I miss her everyday.”

The parole board asked Shyback if he was violent in the couple’s 10-year, on-again-off again relationship.

“She was the more dominant person in our relationship. I dealt with that poorly and responded badly,” he said.

The board heard that Shyback has been a “compliant inmate” and made positive gains.

He said he hopes to one day have a relationship with his children, who are in the care of relatives.

“My plan is to eventually be part of my kids’ lives again. It’s going to be a long process. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

No one from Mitchell’s family attended the hearing. Shyback was supported by an aunt and other relatives.

The aunt described him as an “intelligent, creative, loving man” and said his entire family will make sure he follows his parole conditions.

The board said Shyback is still a work in progress but that his risk in the community is manageable.

Shyback is to reside at a halfway house in Red Deer, where he may find work as a cook or a truck driver. The board said he is to follow curfew, abstain from alcohol, inform a parole officer of any relationships and attend counselling sessions.

— Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press