TERRY DRIVER: THE ABBOTSFORD KILLER

This paper was written March 1, 2006 for my UFV Crim 104 (Sociological Explanations of Criminal and Deviant Behavior) course, taught by Irwin Cohen.

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THE ACTOR

Terry Driver, at the time of this incident was 31, a dedicated husband and a father of two. Driver was also a one time Boy scout leader. And, a son of a decorated former Vancouver Police sergeant.

THE VICTIMS

Misty Cockerill, age 16, Tanya Smith, age 16.

THE EVENTS

In 1995, terror descends upon the Bible belt community of Abbotsford, BC. An attack on two teenage girls leaves one dead and starts a 7-month siege of torment. The killer hides, phoning and taunting both police and community with details of his horrific crimes. Behind the voice is Terry Driver, a devote husband and father with a terrifying double life. His crimes change the community forever (National Film Board of Canada, 2004. Terry Driver: The Abbotsford Killer).

Those who knew him said he seemed incapable of such heinous crimes. But last week, Driver was charged with the attempted murder of Misty Cockerill andthe first-degree murder of Tanya Smith in Abbotsford, B.C. The 16-year-old schoolgirls were attacked while walking home from a party in the early hours of Oct 14. Since then, a man claiming responsibility - the so-called Abbotsford Killer - has repeatedly taunted police, threatening to strike again. Cockerill, who escaped the attack with severe head injuries, has been under police protection. And the 110,000 residents of the Fraser Valley community, 70 km southeast of Vancouver, have lived with fear (Scott Steele, Maclean’s May 20, 1996).

Those who know Driver well were shocked by the charges. Dorothy Dyck, who along with her husband, Robert, owns Abbotsford Printing, Inc., the company where Driver has worked as a lead pressman for the past four years, told Maclean’s that he had no tattoos on his forearms. “He was a great guy, a good employee,” she said. “There was no reason to ever suspect him of anything” (Steele, 1996).

Others were stunned. “My impression was that he was a fairly normal sort of guy,” said 75-year-old Olga Craig, who until February lived across the street from the Drivers and their children, Kenny, 6, and Beth Ann, 3. “When he came home, the kids would be standing at the door waiting for him and they’d run out saying, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’ He’d pick them both up in his arms and walk into the house. He really, really loved his children” (Steele, 1996).

Driver tossed a threatening note taped to pliers through the front window of an Abbotsford home on February 21, 1996. Inside the envelope containing the note, he included clippings from The Vancouver Sun on the unsolved murders of three women: Vancouver prostitute Linda Tatrai, Colleen Shook of Burnaby, who was attacked after getting off a bus, and Kim Stolberg, who was killed at her father’s Richmond engineering office while she was arranging a surprise wedding anniversary for her parents. All three women were stabbed to death in 1989 (Neal Hall, October 17, 1997, p. A1, Vancouver Sun).

In BC Supreme Court Thursday, Driver nodded as Justice Wally Oppal found him guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of Tanya Smith, 16, and the attempted murder of her friend, Misty Cockerill, now 18, who were beaten with a baseball bat in a random attack on an Abbotsford street about 12:30AM October 14, 1995 (Hall, 1997). After the killings, Driver terrorized the Fraser Valley community by making taunting phone calls to police in which he threatened to strike again (Hall, 1997).

He nodded Thursday as Oppal sentenced him to the mandatory term of life in prison with no parole for 25 years on the count of first-degree murder and a 10-year concurrent prison term for the attempted murder (Hall, 1997).

At trial Judge Oppal remarked, “I simply cannot find the words to describe and depict your horrible crimes.” “You murdered Tanya Smith for your own sexual gratification and you almost killed Misty Cockerill,” he added. “They did nothing to provoke you” (Hall, pg. A2, 1997).

The judge added Driver wasn’t content to stop there – he even stole the Smith’s gravestone and defaced it with disgusting comments, which Oppal noted was the ultimate insult to the Smith family. “You taunted police and terrorized a whole town,” Oppal said (Hall, 1997).

Police knew it was the killer calling because Driver repeatedly referred to the bite mark left on the breast of the murder victim, Tanya Smith – information police never made public (Hall, 1997).

After having sex with Smith, who was bleeding from the nose and suffering from a massive head injury, Driver said the teen stopped breathing. He said he thought she had died, so he put her body in the Vedder River, one of his favorite fishing spots, about 15 kilometers from the crime scene (Hall, 1997).

Three doctors were called as defence witnesses to explain Driver’s impulsive sexual behavior and his bizarre post-crime calls to police. They said he suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes verbal and physical tics, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Hall, 1997).

THE THEORY

Containment theory was an early version of the social control perspective. Walter Reckless, who was among the first generation of Chicago School graduate students, developed the theory. Reckless and his colleagues focused on the inner and outer factors that “contained” the average person but were absent or weakened in deviants [Reckless, Dinitz, & Murray, 1966; Reckless, 1973] (Deviance and Social Control, Third Edition, Linda B. Deutschmann, 2002, p. 306).

Containment theory has two parts, inner controls and outer controls. In regard to inner controls, an individual experiences in varying degrees, feelings of inferiority, hostility, anger, rebellion, and even organically based urges toward deviant gratifications. If these inner pressures toward deviance are uncontrolled, deviance will occur. Inner controls may be direct or indirect. Direct inner control is evidenced by the ability to feel guilt and shame and not to respond to this with neutralizations [Costello, 2000], while indirect inner control is based on the individual’s rational interest in maintaining a “stake in conformity” [Toby, 1957].

Both of these controls involve the presence of a strong, healthy self-concept that is inconsistent with deviant choices. The healthy self is conforming and conventional, goal-directed in a realistic and flexible way, and able to tolerate frustration and defer gratification [Reckless & Dinitz, 1967] (Deutschmann, 2002).

Paralleling his view of the inner life, Reckless felt that the external world provided both pressures toward deviance and “fences” to prevent it. External factors such as poverty, relative deprivation, adversity, insecurity, deviant companions, and deviant opportunities can make deviance more likely unless contained by controls. Like inner controls, outer controls may be direct or indirect. Direct outer controls are external to the individual and usually carry with them the threat of sanctions. A security camera in a store is a kind of external control. Direct outer controls are most effective when they are consistent across institutional settings, so that the individual faces a consistent moral front. Indirect outer controls are mainly relational – control derives from the need to maintain role relationships. This kind of control is most effective when conforming others hold the power to reward or punish, and when role networks overlap such that indiscretion in one area will be detected in many, thus multiplying its costs (Deutschmann, 2002, p. 307).

Terry Driver, the subject of this paper could not control his deviant impulses. The actions of Terry Driver show him to be a psychopathic hedonist. He was cold, callused, calculating, and selfish. He lacked the presence of a strong, healthy self-concept. And could not defer his sexually perverted gratification. There was nothing normal about Terry Driver.

Tourette Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, would not cause Driver to commit these vicious assaults and the behaviors that were committed afterward. However, Driver was also diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. So when Driver saw the two girls in a vulnerable position he could not contain his obsession.

He was so obsessed with gratifying his sexual urges that he viciously attacked them, with the intent to gratify his sexual urges. As one victim lay there, dying, he viciously raped her, leaving a bit mark on her breasts. Fortunately, the other victim escaped with her life. Unfortunately, her injuries will be with her as a reminder for life.

REFERENCES

Deutschmann, L. B. (2002). Deviance and Social Control, Third Edition.

Hall, N. (1997, October 17). Convicted Abbotsford killer suspected in 3 more murders. Vancouver Sun, pp. A1-A2.

National Film Board of Canada (2004). Terry Driver: The Abbotsford Killer

Steele, S. (1996, May). Abbotsford Killer Arrested. Maclean’s