Abbotsford (Correctional Service Canada and files from Postmedia) -On September 19, 2025, Thomas Anthony McDonald, an inmate from Pacific Institution / Regional Treatment Centre, died while in custody of apparent natural causes.
At the time of death, the inmate was 74 years old and had been serving an indeterminate sentence, which commenced on November 20, 2015.
The inmate’s next of kin have been notified.
Postmedia reports that he committed two murders and was deemed a dangerous offender. In 2011, McDonald was charged with first-degree murder after a so-called Mr. Big undercover operation for the 1981 fatal shooting of Earl Dean Jones following a barroom confrontation in Dawson Creek.
In 2003, in the UK, McDonald bludgeoned a roommate to death with a sledgehammer because he found the roommate rifling through his belongings. He was sentenced to six years for the killing but was granted parole in 2007.
Soon after, he breached his bail and sneaked back into Canada. In 2009, the B.C. RCMP unsolved homicide unit was able to gather new evidence, leading to an undercover operation in which officers posed as members of a criminal gang to gain McDonald’s trust.
It was then he was deemed high risk.
