Allan Schoenborn, the man who killed his three children during a psychotic episode seven years ago, has been approved for supervised trips outside Colony Farm Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.
The decision of the three-member B.C. Review Board to allow escorted outings was released Friday after a month of deliberations.
"This is the decision my family and I had been dreading," Schoenborn's ex-wife Darcie Clarke said in a statement. "The man who murdered my three children – Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon – will be re-entering our community even though the Review Board found him to be a high risk to public safety."
Schoenborn had been found not criminally responsible in the first-degree murder of his children. He killed them in his ex-wife's Merritt home in 2008 and was found hiding in the woods nearly two weeks later.
If he leaves the facility, he will be subject to strict conditions, including an order not to contact Clarke.
The federal government recently passed new legislation that allows mentally ill offenders to be held indefinitely and Clarke called it a "travesty" that the B.C. Review Board did not opt to use that power.
"He could be in our community at any time without the public’s knowledge because the Review Board does not have the public’s safety as their paramount concern," she said.
"I live in the Tri-Cities and I will now live in consistent fear that he will move ahead with his threats against me, because as he has said, I am 'unfinished business.'"
Clarke plans to apply to the courts to have Schoenborn declared a high-risk offender and revoke any ability to have escorted leave.
She's also urging the provincial government to intervene and review the outcome of the case and the operations of the hospital.
Schoenborn's 2014 application for escorted community day trips was denied after a hospital psychiatrist said he had difficulty controlling his anger and would be at risk in the community due to his notoriety.
Last year, Schoenborn applied for escorted day passes, saying he was making progress with his treatment and anger management, and hoped to "maybe have a swim or a cup of coffee."
A previous approval for day passes in 2011 was reversed after the B.C. Review Board said it was unaware Clarke was living nearby with family in Coquitlam.