Doug French, father of Kristen, dead at 92

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The father of slain teenager Kristen French died Sunday at the St. Catharines Hospital at the age of 92.

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Doug French leaves behind his wife of 53 years, Donna, and five children – Pam, Brad, Dwayne, Brian and Darren.

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There will be a visitation on Thursday at George Darte Funeral Home on Carlton St., in St. Catharines, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8p.m., as well as on Friday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

The funeral is planned for 2 p.m. on Friday at St. Alfred’s Church.

Memorial donations can be made to the Kristen French Child Advocacy Centre Niagara.

Kristen was 15 years old when she was murdered in 1992 after being abducted while walking home from school by Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka.

The couple held her for three days, torturing and sexually assaulting her before killing her. The teen’s body was found in a ditch along No. 1 Sideroad in north Burlington.

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She was the third Canadian murder victim of Bernardo and Homolka after 15-year-old Tammy Homolka, Karla’s younger sister, in 1990 and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy in 1991.

In 1995, Bernardo and Homolka went on trial for the deaths of French and Mahaffy.

Homolka took a plea bargain and was released from prison in 2005.

Bernado was convicted of several offences – including two first-degree murders, two aggravated sexual assaults – and sentenced to life in prison without parole for at least twenty-five years.

He was also convicted of manslaughter in the death of Tammy Homolka and was designated a dangerous offender, making him unlikely to ever be released.

He has repeatedly been denied parole.

More recently, Bernardo was controversially transferred from a maximum security prison to a medium security jail.

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