Igloolik man accused in death of Yellowknife parole officer

An Igloolik man on parole for killing an Igloolik woman in 1992 now stands accused of first-degree murder in the death of his parole officer in Yellowknife last week.

Eli Ulayuk, 36, formerly of Igloolik and now a Yellowknife resident, was arrested at around 1 a.m. Oct. 7 in the bush northwest of Yellowknife. A missing correctional services vehicle was found nearby.

His parole officer, Louise Pargeter, was found dead on the afternoon of Oct. 6 in Ulayuk’s Yellowknife apartment. She is only the second Canadian parole officer to die while on duty, and the first to die while working in a community.

Members of Yellowknife’s Inuit community say they’ve seen Ulayuk around the community on and off for several years. He has been on day parole for some years and on full parole since June 2004.

Most Inuit in Yellownife avoided Ulayuk because of what they knew about his 1993 manslaughter conviction. That conviction was in connection with the death of a young Igloolik woman, whose partially-clothed body was found in a shed in 1992.

A Yellowknife Inuk who does not wish to be identified said that until recently, Ulayuk appeared to be getting his life together, because he had a job, his own apartment, a car, and was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. But he stopped showing up for A.A. about three or four weeks ago.

Ulayuk was also homesick for Igloolik, but was too ashamed to go home and face his community, a Yellowknife Inuk said.

In 2003, he attended adult education classes at the Tree of Peace friendship centre in Yellowknife. A Tree of Peace employee refused to talk when asked for comment last Friday.

On Oct. 9, the Globe and Mail reported that a National Parole Board decision sheet contains a psychiatric opinion suggesting Ulayuk might be a necrophiliac — a person who harbours fantasies about have sex with a dead person.

Another psychiatrist suggested that he has “borderline personality disorder,” and substance abuse problems, the Globe and Mail reported.

Meanwhile, a corrections Canada official said this week in Yellowknife that they will conduct a full investigation into Pargeter’s death.