BATTLEFORDS – Just eight months after being granted day parole, Danita Thomas, one of 10 people convicted in the brutal 2019 gang torture and murder of Tiki Laverdiere, is back in custody after a Canada-wide warrant was issued for her arrest.
Sept. 16 parole documents reveal that Thomas was wanted after violating her day parole conditions.
In January 2025, the Parole Board of Canada granted Thomas, now 38, day parole to a Correctional Service of Canada approved facility for six months. The decision came with strict conditions, including abstaining from drugs and alcohol, reporting all relationships, and following a treatment plan.
Initially, Thomas appeared motivated and parole documents note that she sought employment, used Cows and Plows settlement money from her reserve to pay debts and support her children, and began post-secondary applications. She was released from a Healing Lodge to a community-based residential facility (CBRF) on Jan. 23.
But by spring, Thomas reported conflicts with the guardian of her children in relation to government funding. The guardian had been charged with attempted murder and was incarcerated, reveal parole documents.
Thomas started receiving texts from former gang members asking if she needed help but she told the parole board that she didn’t reply. She also experienced the loss of a friend to a fentanyl overdose and struggled with difficult anniversaries, including the date of Laverdiere’s death.
Thomas’s first major breach was on May 23, when a urinalysis test confirmed she had used methamphetamines. Her release was temporarily suspended, but her Case Management Team (CMT) developed a plan recommending she remain in the community. She returned on June 17.
A secret relationship
In the early morning hours of June 30, staff at the CBRF grew suspicious when they couldn’t locate Thomas during a check. They found she had stuffed clothes under her bedding to mimic a sleeping figure.
For 25 minutes, her whereabouts were unknown. When contacted, she gave conflicting stories about her location, eventually claiming she was smoking outside. Staff noted she seemed “unusual” and avoided eye contact.
The situation escalated hours later when Thomas’s parole officer received an anonymous email from a “concerned citizen” containing screenshots from her social media. The posts, which included a status about being “hungover,” contradicted her conditions, reveal parole documents.
A case conference determined her risk was “unmanageable.” A warrant was issued, and she was arrested at the CBRF without incident.
During a post-suspension interview on July 23, Thomas denied selling drugs but admitted to being in a car with a “new boyfriend,” a relationship she had not reported to her parole supervisor as required. Parole documents say her new boyfriend was “non-Canadian.” She claimed the “hungover” post was due to a migraine.
A legacy of trauma
A recent victim impact statement from September 2024 specifically requested Thomas not be released to the same province, Alberta, as the victim’s family.
Laverdiere’s remains were discovered in a rural area outside North Battleford in July 2019, months after she was reported missing. The investigation that followed, spanning two provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan) and involving over 120 witnesses, led to the conviction of 10 people.
North Battleford Senior Crown Prosecutor Chris Browne described the murder during trials as a “real-life horror movie.” Thomas, identified in court as gang leader Soaring Eagle Whitstone’s “right hand,” was sentenced in June 2022 to 12.5 years for manslaughter and interfering with human remains.
Parole documents acknowledge Thomas’s troubled background, including placement in a group home at age 11 and substance abuse, noting the “intergenerational effects of residential schools” as factors in her criminal path.
