Death of inmate at Regional Psychiatric Centre closes book on horrific 1982 murder of Regina professor

Warning: this story contains details of violence and sexual assault.

The death of Robert Wapuchakoos at the Regional Psychiatric Centre on April 27 concludes a story that began with a brutal slaying that sent a shock wave through Saskatchewan in the summer of 1982.

Joseph Duffy was a University of Regina education professor working on his Ph.D. at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. On June 30, 1982, a hot and sunny Wednesday, the 51-year-old was commuting home on Highway 11 to Regina in his yellow Pontiac Lemans.

About 10 kilometres south of Kenaston, Sask., 84 kilometres south of Saskatoon, Duffy came across a car broken down on the side of the road. Two women were waving for help and Duffy pulled over to give assistance.

Once he stopped, two men — Robert Ironchild and Brian Obey — emerged from the ditch where they had been hiding and overpowered Duffy.

"For his efforts he was attacked and taken at knife point, in his own car, to a farmer's field. He was slashed with the knife and forced from his car. The four then chased him with the car and ran him over, and over," Duffy's son, Mike, wrote in a letter to his MP in 1997.

Ironchild drove the car for next several days before asking a relative to dispose of it.

The murder triggered a provincewide manhunt that ended one week later in Regina when the police tactical squad arrested Ironchild in a house after a two-hour standoff. At his trial in early 1983, Ironchild, then 27, was convicted of first-degree murder, thanks in part to his co-accused testifying that Ironchild was the one who stabbed Duffy and then killed him with his own car. The co-accused, Brian Obey, was later stabbed to death in Regina.

Former Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney and Saskatchewan Chief Justice Edward Bayda served as honourary pallbearers at Duffy's funeral. Duffy had been on the national executive of the Canadian Council of Teachers of English since 1975, and on the executive of the Saskatchewan Opera Guild.

Ironchild was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. While in prison in Drumheller, Alta., he changed his name to Robert Wapuchakoos.

Wapuchakoos was released on full parole in 2007. In 2022, he was re-arrested and placed at the Regional Psychiatric Centre on an indeterminate sentence.

Wapuchakoos died at the Saskatoon prison hospital on April 27 of apparent natural causes, according to the Correctional Service of Canada. He was 69.

Parole Board of Canada documents detail how Wapuchakoos never really fully re-integrated into society after serving his 25-year sentence.

He was released on day parole in 2005 and then full parole in 2007. He was brought back in and released again twice from 2009 to 2013.