Her father defended the men accused of killing 2 Moncton police officers. It destroyed him — and her family

In December 1974, two Moncton police officers disappeared while searching for the kidnappers of a 14-year-old boy.

On Dec. 15 that year, Const. Michael O'Leary and Cpl. Aurèle Bourgeois were found shot to death and buried in shallow graves outside of Moncton.

Police picked up Richard Bergeron, who was known as Richard Ambrose at the time, and James Hutchinson. They were charged with kidnapping, then later capital murder.

The case still haunts the community. So why, 48 years later, was the daughter of the lawyer who defended Hutchinson and Ambrose totally unaware of it? And how did it destroy her family? 

These are the questions Amy Bell, history professor at Huron University College in London, Ont., and the daughter of then-defence lawyer Ed Bell, is trying to answer in her new book. The murders had a profound impact on the community and everyone involved, and her family was no exception.

"My father was away in Moncton so much during the trial that it ended his marriage," she said.

His law practice suffered, and he eventually stopped practising.

"A lot of clients deserted him. They didn't want to be associated with someone who would defend cop killers.

"Basically, we were never a family again."

One of the men found responsible, James Hutchison, died in prison. The other, Bergeron, was just denied parole last week. He's now in his mid-70s.

In writing Life Sentence: How My Father Defended Two Murderers and Lost Himself, Bell discovered a side of her father she hadn't known. He had kept the fact he was a lawyer secret and refused to speak of the case even on his death bed.

"He told people that he was a retired first-aid instructor," she said.

"He felt that the case had ruined his life, and he wished he'd never taken it."

Bell was only a year old at the time of the murders, so to discover how the trial changed her father, she spoke to uncles, her father's friends and some of his law colleagues.