CALGARY — A twice-convicted Calgary man who brutally killed a 58-year-old woman by stabbing her almost 80 times, dousing her body in gasoline and lighting it on fire has been sentenced to life in prison.
Christopher Dunlop, 51, was found guilty earlier this month of first-degree murder in the 2023 death of Judy Maerz. He had previously spent 13 years behind bars for manslaughter in the 2009 death of a sex worker in Calgary.
Court heard Dunlop stabbed Maerz 79 times, set her body on fire and left it in a Calgary park.
"I must confess, I have struggled to put into words something that appropriately expresses the heinous nature of this crime," Court of King's Bench Justice Colin Feasby told a sentencing hearing Monday.
"What was done to Ms. Maerz was shocking, horrific."
Dunlop was given an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, at which time he will be in his mid-70s.
He will serve that sentence concurrent with a five-year sentence for indignity to a body.
"I don't know why you do these things. I don't know how you make peace with yourself," Feasby told Dunlop. "But you're going to have a long time to do that."
No victim impact statements were submitted. Dunlop, who sat largely expressionless wearing a white button-down shirt, declined Monday to verbally address the court.
Prosecutor Hyatt Mograbee called Dunlop's actions a "shocking and brazen murder" and said the lack of victim impact statements could indicate the emotional impact of Maerz's death on loved ones.
"Mr. Dunlop learned from his crime the first time, and he tried again to cover his tracks and conceal evidence," Mograbee told court.
"(Maerz) was deprived of her dignity — the dignity of her death."
Dunlop's defence lawyer, Allan Fay, did not object to the sentence.
Dunlop was charged in Maerz's death less than a year after completing his sentence for the death of Laura Furlan, a sex worker whose decomposed body was found in a bush by a dog walker in 2009.
Court documents say Furlan, who was 38 at the time, had a 15-year-old son, had recently lost her job as an administrative assistant, and was concerned about not having enough money to pay her bills.
Mograbee, who also served as a prosecutor in the 2015 manslaughter trial, told reporters outside the courthouse that Maerz's and Furlan's deaths will likely be felt by people in similarly vulnerable positions.
"For those that are vulnerable out on the street — working like Laura Furlan did and Judy Maerz did — they're likely to hear about this, and they're vulnerable for a reason. They're out at night alone oftentimes."
Kathryn Furlan, Laura's mother, attended Monday's hearing.
Speaking outside court, she told reporters she came to see justice served.
"He should have never gotten out," Furlan said of his initial release.
With Dunlop likely to spend the rest of his life in prison, Furlan said she's ready to move on.
"I made a promise to myself that I was going to advocate for my daughter till the end, and this is the end for me," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025.
Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press
