A quarter century after the death of his daughter, Michael Manning said the pain has never gone away. But with her killer up for parole, he is heading to British Columbia to fulfill what he calls his duty to her.
Manning found his daughter Tara’s body on May 5, 1994 in their Dorval home. As he slept, Tara was raped, smothered and stabbed 51 times.
“I will never forget trying to give Tara mouth-to-mouth when I found her,” he said.
Gregory Bromby was convicted of first-degree murder but wouldn’t confess to the killing and the rape of three other women until 10 years later.
For each of Bromby’s parole hearings, Manning has travelled to give a victim impact statement. This time, he said he’s frustrated by numerous delays that have come on short notice.
“You get emotionally involved and emotionally pumped up and then it just slips out from under you,” he said.
For families of murder victims, parole hearings can renew the pain of losing their loved ones, said Darlene Ryan, a spokesperson for the Associations for the Families of Murdered or Missing People.
“You have to face the killer again, 10, 13 or 15 years later and you do it on a repetitive basis,” she said.
In 2012, Bromby’s request for day parole was denied when the parole board deemed his chances of reoffending to be moderate to high. Manning said that despite having gone through the ordeal before, it remains a difficult process.
“That’s why I talk about what I talk about,” he said. “It’s not easy, but that’s why I have to do it. If I won’t, who the heck will?”
The Tara Manning murder became a landmark for DNA testing in the Canadian justice system. A judge granted a warrant forcing Bromby to give a genetic sample and Manning was an instrumental figure in the campaign for a new law making DNA testing mandatory for suspects in rape and murder cases.
“Tara didn’t die in vain. By getting this law passed, she’s helping hundreds or thousands of people with her death,” he said.
