‘Sleeping’ man drove miles to homicide in-laws however was let off for one motive
A man killed his mother-in-law after driving seven miles to her house but was found not guilty in a bizarre court case.
In 1988, 23-year-old Toronto man Kenneth Parks was acquitted of the murder and attempted murder of his parents in-law. The year before in the early hours of May 23, 1987, Parks drove a short journey to his in-law’s house before breaking in and beating his mother-in-law Barbara Woods, 42, to death.
Parks got away with a not-guilty verdict, however, claiming he was asleep the entire time and wasn’t aware of what he was doing. He even remained married to his wife, the daughter of the woman he had killed.
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(Image: Diary of a CEO podcast)
Sleep expert Professor Guy Leschziner spoke about the case on Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast. Leschziner said: “Apparently in his sleep he drove several miles to his parents in-law’s house and apparently got a tire iron out of the boot of his car and bludgeoned his mother-in-law to death.
“Then tried to kill his father-in-law and ended up throwing him into a swimming pool, now this was made even more curious by the fact that there had been some evidence that he’d been having some financial difficulties and had some discussions with his parents-in-law about about financial issues, but it was deemed by a court of law that this happened whilst he was sleepwalking.”
(Image: Toronto Star via Getty Images)
The defence attorney Marlys Edwardh had claimed on the night Parks killed his mother-in-law, the accused had plunged into a deep sleep. “His next memory is seeing his mother-in-law’s face,” said Edwardh.
The lawyer added Parks fled the house and immediately drove to a police station once he regained consciousness. Bob Adair of the Toronto police homicide squad testified Parks had claimed he did not know how he’d got to his in-laws’ home, telling officers he had no reason to harm the couple.
Leschziner said on the podcast that it was rare to drive in your sleep, but there were some times that it happened.
(Image: Diary of a CEO podcast)
He said: “I’ve got a patient, who I don’t see anymore, who I mentioned in my book. She has driven several miles in her sleep, and in fact has driven a motorbike in her youth in her sleep and the only knowledge that she had, was her landlady at the time said ‘where were you going at 1:00 in the morning clutching your motorcycle helmet.’”
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