Boyfriend sentenced to life in prison for murder of Ashley Simpson

The boyfriend of slain Salmon Arm, B.C., woman Ashley Simpson has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 12 years, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Derek Favell was sentenced on Wednesday afternoon after pleading guilty to the killing last October.

In 2016, Simpson, 32, went missing from a rural property near Salmon Arm — a southern Interior community around 75 kilometres east of Kamloops, B.C. — where she was living with Favell, her boyfriend at the time. 

Her remains were discovered in a wooded area outside Salmon Arm in late 2021, and Favell was charged with second-degree murder a week later.

Justice Alison Beames announced the sentence in a Salmon Arm courtroom on Wednesday after Simpson's father and mother read out victim impact statements detailing how their daughter was taken in a "brutal and senseless killing."

Simpson was far away from her family in St. Catharines, Ont., when she was killed in 2016. Favell dumped her body down a slope, the court heard. Her remains were found after Favell confessed the crime to an undercover officer.

"As a family, we shed enough tears to fill a lake," Cindy Simpson, Ashley's mother, told the courtroom.

"She was the one bright light in my life, and now it has dimmed."

Simpson was one of five women reported missing in the North Okanagan-Shuswap region between 2016 and 2017 — a fact that, along with consistent awareness efforts from her family, kept her story in the media over the years despite little word of progress from RCMP investigators. 

According to Ashley's father, John Simpson, in spring 2016, she told her family in Ontario that she was planning to hitchhike back to her home province. 

But she never arrived — and her parents told CBC News how they always hoped that one day she would walk through the door unharmed. Then, news came of her remains being discovered in November 2021.

"It's so unfair," Cindy told CBC News. "When people do things like this, I don't care if it's in a fit of rage, whatever ... [they should] call right away, saying, 'Oh my God, look what I did.'

"Then, the children, people, have time to heal. The longer you go searching for your loved one, it takes longer to heal."

Confession obtained through 'Mr. Big' operation

The court heard how police had suspected foul play in Simpson's disappearance and began a "Mr. Big" sting operation targeting Favell, 41, in the fall of 2020.

The Mr. Big sting operation involves Mounties concocting a fake crime operation and involving a suspect. The court heard how Favell was "eager" to join the quasi-criminal organization and helped out whenever it asked.

After the operation began, Favell gave an undercover RCMP officer a detailed confession of the crime. In court on Wednesday, prosecutors said that the killing came after the couple had a fight.

In his confession, the court heard, Favell said he punched Ashley while they fought when his girlfriend told him he was going to jail. He then strangled her and dumped her body off his truck near a forest service road the next day.

In a letter that he read out in court, the killer apologized for the pain he had caused Simpson's family — and said that he had had a troubled upbringing, which led to issues with substance dependence later in his life.

He said that the killing of Simpson came in a burst of anger and said he wants to recover and rehabilitate in jail.

A life sentence is mandatory for those found guilty of second-degree murder. Justice Beames said that Favell had no prior criminal record, and pleaded guilty to the crime only after his confession to undercover officers was accepted as evidence.

However, she said that the fact the killing was a result of domestic violence and that Favell took deliberate steps to hide Simpson's body and destroy evidence were aggravating factors in her sentencing decision. 

"The victim impact statements show [what] a heart-rending and clearly devastating effect her loss has had in the family," Beames said.

"Those statements made clear how loved Ashley Simpson was by family and friends, and how big a hole her absence leaves."