Attempt to withdraw guilty plea in Tsay Keh Dene double murder case denied

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A man has been recorded as admitting to a 2024 double murder in the town of Tsay Keh Dene, after an application to overturn his guilty plea was denied.

Orlan Marcel Dennis was charged with second-degree murder in relation to the deaths of his wife and son.

He had tried to withdraw the plea, but presiding judge Justice Simon Coval rejected the application in a decision dated Monday, March 9th.

The murders led to a lengthy standoff in the small Indigenous community located approximately 360 kilometres north of Prince George.

The ruling earlier this month contained the names of the victims: his wife Darlene Dennis and 18-year-old son Dorian.

It read Orlan had been drinking with friends in the house across the street at his mother’s residence on the night of April 9th, 2024.

Upon returning to his house following an argument with his brother in an inebriated state, Orlan began arguing with his wife at around 10 p.m., before Orlan retrieved a firearm from his gun safe and shot her, then his son as Dorian walked up the stairs.

Following the shooting, he went to his grandmother’s house, who promptly called 9-1-1 at approximately 10:15 p.m., while Dennis sat on the steps of his mother’s house holding a shotgun.

He then gained access to his mother’s house and refused to leave for several hours after police had arrived on scene, according to the report.

A crisis negotiator came on the scene, speaking to Dennis on-and-off until around 5 a.m., when the Prince George emergency response team arrived.

After RCMP units sprayed tear gas into the residence, Dennis emerged, shotgun in hand, at around 5:41 a.m., where he was shot in the hip and the arm.

The civilian-led Independent Investigations Office, a bureau charged with looking into cases involving police related death or harm in B.C, was called in to investigate.

They found no evidence law enforcement committed an offence in the case. Orlan has yet to be sentenced.