The man who pleaded guilty to the April 2016 murder of a Shuswap woman is to be sentenced this morning at the Salmon Arm Law Courts.
What was supposed to be the first day of a scheduled 20-day trial on Monday, Oct. 30, concluded when Derek Lee Mathew Favell pleaded guilty in Salmon Arm to killing Ashley Simpson.
Simpson, then 32, went missing from the Yankee Flats area near Salmon Arm in April of 2016.
Favell was charged with second-degree murder in December 2021,after Simpson’s remains were discovered in a wilderness area outside of Salmon Arm on Nov. 26, 2021.
In December 2021, after Simpson’s remains were located on Nov. 16, 2021, they were returned to her parents.
Favell’s sentencing is set for Wednesday, June 12 at 10 a.m. in Salmon Arm.
Simpson was one of five women who disappeared in the Okanagan-Shuswap about eight years ago. This year brings the eight-year anniversary of the disappearance of Caitlin Potts and Deanna Wertz, and seven years for Nicole Bell.
Vernon’s Traci Genereaux, 18, was also missing but her remains were found in October 2017 on a farm in Silver Creek. No charges have been laid in connection with her death.
