Michael Wayne McGray

McGray was born in Collingwood, Ontario, but was raised in Argyle, Nova Scotia.[1]

On May 1, 1985, McGray murdered 17-year-old hitchhiker Elizabeth Gale Tucker in a wooded area near Weymouth, Nova Scotia.[2] Gregory George Ashford was interviewed in connection with this murder.[3][4]

On November 14, 1987, McGray and two accomplices, Mark Gibbons, and Norm Warren robbed a taxi driver in Saint John, New Brunswick. After police arrival, Gibbons' dead body was discovered at Market Square. Warren was charged with the murder of Gibbons, however he was found not guilty of murder after a jury trial. McGray received a five-year prison sentence for his role in the robbery, but was not charged in connection with Gibbons' death.[5][2]

In 1991, McGray was still serving time in prison due to his 1987 robbery conviction, however, he was given a three-day weekend pass to stay at a halfway house in Montreal, Quebec during Easter weekend. On March 30, 1991, McGray met Robert Assaly in Montreal's Gay Village. Assaly invited McGray back to his apartment where McGray fatally stabbed him in the throat and chest multiple times. On March 31, 1991, McGray returned to the Gay Village and met Gaetan Ethier, who invited McGray back to his apartment. After spending the night at Ethier's apartment, McGray stabbed Ethier to death. McGray did not return to prison after his three-day weekend pass, however, he was re-arrested only a few days later.[5]

The National Parole Board expressed concern in 1995 about McGray's problems with anger and substance abuse, and that McGray disappeared for more than a year while on parole, "which clearly indicated a serious breach of trust and a blatant disregard for conditions of release."[6]

On the morning of February 28, 1998, Joan Hicks and her 11-year-old daughter Nina in Moncton, New Brunswick were murdered at their apartment. Joan was found lying on the floor of the bathroom in a pool of blood, having been beaten, strangled and her throat cut with serrated knife. Her daughter Nina was found hanging in her bedroom closet by a piece of rope after having been choked with a rope.[5] McGray was named by a witness as the murderer and he was arrested the next day.[7]

He later confessed to murders of Robert Assaly and Gaetan Ethier in 1991.[7]

On March 20, 2000, he pled guilty to the murder of Hicks.[2] McGray claims to have killed 11 other victims across Canada, including Halifax, Saint John, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, and the American city of Seattle. He claimed that he would provide information to the authorities on the killings in exchange for specific demands being met.[8][2]

In May 2001, McGray was charged with a sixth murder, the 1985 killing of Elizabeth Gail Tucker in Nova Scotia. This charge occurred as a result of several interviews he gave the previous year; as a result of the interviews, police across the country re-opened cold case files.[9] McGray blamed his urge to kill on beatings he received as a child, and warned he would kill again if he did not receive proper treatments.[10]

In November 2010, following a transfer to the Mountain Institution medium-security prison in Agassiz, British Columbia, McGray killed his cellmate, 33-year-old Jeremy Phillips. The Crown prosecutor related that McGray claimed that Phillips invented a false hostage-taking scenario where McGray would tie him up, and Phillips would then be brought to an infirmary; McGray complied with the plan, and then strangled Phillips. Lawyers of the victim's family doubted the claims, as Phillips was scheduled to be released on parole, while two inmates related that Phillips had requested to not be held in the same block as McGray, but prison officers denied the request. A resulting coroner's inquest recommended that serial killers be housed in single cells. The Ste-Anne-des-Plaines Institution, which was reputed to be the highest-security prison in Canada, housed McGray in 2012.[11]

On July 12, 2019, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court revealed that McGray was the prime suspect in the 1995 murder of Brenda Way who was found with her neck slashed in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Her boyfriend, Glen Assoun had been convicted and spent 17 years in prison for the crime he always denied.[12]

The murders included random attacks of strangers and the killing of acquaintances.

1985

• 1 May 1985 – Murder of Elizabeth Gale Tucker, near Weymouth, Digby County Nova Scotia; she was a hitch hiker.

1987

• <date> Murder of Mark Daniel Gibbons, an alleged accomplice in a Saint John, New Brunswick; stabbed.

1991

• 29 March – Given 3-day parole from Atlantic Institution, Renous, New Brunswick.
• 31 March – Murder of Robert Assaly; retired school teacher he met at a gay bar in Montreal while on parole; bludgeoned and stabbed. [13]
• 1 April – Murder of Gaetan Ethier; met at a gay bar in Montreal while on parole; stabbed.
• Late May – Returned to prison in New Brunswick after eluding police for nearly 2 months.

1995

• November 12 (alleged) – As of 2019, prime suspect in murder of Brenda Way, Dartmouth Nova Scotia.[14]

1998

• 28 February – Murder of Joan Hicks and her 11-year-old daughter Nina in Moncton, New Brunswick; at their home.

1999

• March – Arrested in Moncton for murder of Joan and Nina Hicks.
• Fall – Charged in Montreal killings.

2000

• January – Charged in Saint John killing.
• 20 March – Pleaded guilty to the murder of Joan Hicks; denied murdering her child.[13]
• 25 April – Sentenced to 20 years for Assaly and Ethier murders.[15]

2010

• November – Murder of cellmate Jeremy Phillips at the Mountain Institution in British Columbia.