A Surrey man who choked his girlfriend to death, then wrapped her body in plastic and dumped her in a North Vancouver park has been given a four-year jail sentence.
Justice Gregory Fitch handed the sentence to 50-year-old Harvey Bracken on Tuesday, after Bracken pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Bracken will serve another two years and eight months in jail, after Fitch gave him credit for 16 months already spent in custody.
Crown counsel Kristin Bryson told Fitch that Bracken had been living with Jennifer Ferguson, 40, for three months and that the couple had been on a drug binge for several days when they got into an argument on the evening of Jan. 22, 2011.
Bracken choked and struck Ferguson, killing her. He also cut her throat after her death.
The next day, Bracken - who had been working on a construction site in North Vancouver - wrapped Ferguson's body in a duvet, covered it with construction-grade plastic and put it in the back of a pick-up truck. He then drove to Kirkstone Park in North Vancouver where he dumped it.
After she disappeared, Ferguson's relatives spoke with Bracken three times and were told each time he didn't know where she was.
Eventually they called the police to report her missing.
Ferguson's body was found Feb. 2, 2011 by a resident who was out for a walk. A pathologist who examined the body was unable to determine the cause of death.
Police kept Bracken under surveillance for more than a week after Ferguson's body was found, while he continued to show up for his North Vancouver construction job.
He was arrested Feb. 10 in Burnaby.
Bracken was interviewed seven times by police.
Crown prosecutors and Bracken's defence lawyer were in the middle of a voir dire - held to determine which of Bracken's statements should be admitted as evidence in a trial - when he changed his plea to guilty.
Ferguson, who also went by the name Jennifer Sondergaard, was a mother of three children who range in age from late teens to early 20s.
