Remembering Adrienne McColl: best friend seeks justice in historical Calgary murder

Shandi Bard and Adrienne McColl were best friends–two peas in a pod.

“Somebody referred to us as Timon and Pumbaa…she was a tall, slender, beautiful person and I was a little, short, stocky thing,” Bard recalls.

The pair was inseparable for a decade: going on family vacations together, celebrating high school graduation and making plans for the future.

Then on Valentine’s Day 2002, McColl suddenly disappeared.

“They say you have a gut feeling at times, and I remember a phone call asking if I had seen Adrienne, and I hadn’t,” Bard said.

Moments later she saw on the news that a body had been found in a farmer’s field south of Calgary near Nanton.

Bard still cries when she talks about McColl.

“My life definitely changed.”

For years, the murder went unsolved.

“A couple of years ago, I really struggled to hold onto hope…at around 14 years,” Bard said.

But police had not given up.

Last month, McColl’s former boyfriend Stephane Parent was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Parent had been a suspect for years and moved to Quebec shortly after the homicide.

“I just remember my hand shaking and I put the phone down and I just said, ‘They got’em [in custody],’ and cried a lot for a minute…and then I had a moment of peace.”

READ MORE: 49-year-old Quebec man arrested in 2002 death of young Alberta woman

Parent made his second court appearance Tuesday via CCTV from the Calgary Remand Centre.

He’s in the process of retaining a defence lawyer.

The case has been put over until April 24.

“I’m happy to see him in a small room, shackled up, not looking very good,” Bard said.

Bard said the years waiting and wondering were hell and she can’t help but wonder what McColl would have become–had her life not been so senselessly stolen.

“The world lost a beautiful, beautiful soul.”

“We all have a person like that in our life. Hold them close, because you don’t know what might happen one day.”