Secret Burke Mountain burial leads to two-year manslaughter sentence in Jodine Millar case

Warning: Disturbing details

A man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a Coquitlam woman whose body was buried in a clandestine grave on Burke Mountain has been sentenced to two years in prison.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Layton sentenced Carson Saul MacKay on Sept. 15 for the death of Jodine Millar, who was 57 when she died in November 2022.

MacKay had originally been charged with second-degree murder in October 2023, but pleaded down to manslaughter in January 2026. 

Crown and defence lawyers jointly proposed a sentence of two years and 99 days, with MacKay receiving 99 days of credit for time already spent in custody.

Millar had moved from Manitoba to B.C. in 2021 to live with her adult daughter, Sara Millar. In May 2022, Millar, her daughter, and MacKay moved into a house in Coquitlam. Millar lived in the basement while the couple lived upstairs. Sara Millar ended her relationship with MacKay that August and moved out the following month, while her mother remained in the home.

According to an agreed statement of facts outlined in the sentencing decision, Millar was experiencing a manic episode on Nov. 26, 2022 and behaving in a paranoid and erratic manner.

MacKay was cleaning up dog vomit outside Millar’s basement bedroom when she opened the door holding a steak knife she used to cut up her medication and began yelling at him.

The two became involved in a physical altercation and MacKay pushed Millar hard enough that she fell back into her bedroom. The court found MacKay was not acting in self-defence but “out of frustration,” making the push an unlawful assault.

MacKay went upstairs and returned about 10 minutes later to find Millar dead on the floor. She had fallen onto the knife she was holding, which became lodged in her body.

Rather than contact police, MacKay wrapped Millar’s body in blankets, bound it with tape, rope and a dog collar, put it in her Hyundai and drove to an empty lot on Burke Mountain.

There, he buried her in a clandestine grave in a forested area before later reporting her missing to police.

Millar’s remains were not discovered until May 16, 2023, nearly six months later. By then, they were in an advanced state of decomposition and showed signs consistent with animal scavenging.

Layton described several aggravating factors, including that MacKay was significantly younger, taller and heavier than Millar and that she was killed in her own home.

The judge was particularly critical of what MacKay did afterward to her body.

“Instead of reporting Ms. Millar’s death to the authorities, Mr. MacKay tried to hide what he had done, taking actions that desecrated Ms. Millar’s body and made it difficult to discern the exact cause of death,” Layton wrote. “This conduct was particularly aggravating.”

The judge said burying Millar in a secret grave also deprived her family of the chance to promptly bury her and properly mourn her death.

However, Layton also identified several mitigating factors. The fatal encounter was brief and unplanned, MacKay did not use a weapon and pushed Millar only once, and the judge found there was a “significant element of chance” in her death.

MacKay also pleaded guilty relatively early, sparing Millar’s family from a contested trial and her daughter from having to testify.

The court heard MacKay had also given up what Crown and defence agreed was a “very strong” Charter application over trial delays, along with other potentially viable arguments challenging Crown evidence and identification. Layton said those circumstances gave his guilty plea an unusually significant mitigating effect.

Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and Layton noted most cases fall within a range of four to 15 years. But the judge found the circumstances of MacKay’s case justified going below that range.

After accounting for 99 days already served, MacKay was sentenced to two years in prison. He was also handed a 10-year firearms prohibition, a lifetime prohibition on certain restricted and prohibited weapons, and a DNA order.

MacKay is also prohibited from communicating with Sara Millar, other members of Jodine Millar’s family, and another named individual while he is imprisoned.