Daniel Bryce, 31, began driving for Prince George Taxi about six months before he was killed. He had been laid off from his job as a maintenance worker at School District 57 and turned to taxi driving to make ends meet. As an inexperienced driver he found he was making only about $27 per shift after expenses so to improve his skills he spent a lot of his own time at the dispatch office, trying to learn more about his new job. Co-workers described him as pleasant and well-liked. Sometime before 11 p.m. on Sunday, October 14, 1984, Mr. Bryce picked up a man at the McDonald Hotel and drove toward Moran's Trailer Court. One of Mr. Bryce's friends, another driver, was across the street at a cafe and saw him leave. About 11 p.m. a woman who lived near a landfill site in bushed area in South Fort George heard her dog barking at something or someone and called the RCMP. Mr. Bryce was found dead in his taxi with 19 stab wounds. His throat was cut and his spinal cord severed. Witnesses described a man running north from the murder scene in the southbound lane of Highway 97 at about 11:25 p.m. He was described as over 30 with short hair and wearing blue jeans. At about 5 p.m. the following day RCMP officers arrested a 33 year old man in a Prince George hotel and charged him with first degree murder. The man had been released on parole from Kent Maximum Security Prison under mandatory supervision on April 30. He was serving nearly 18 years for various offences: a 1971 charge of causing bodily harm with intent and assaulting a police officer, a 1974 charge of unlawful confinement and a 1976 charge of forcible confinement. The man's criminal record dated back to 1969 and included a dozen convictions for violent crimes. His current sentence was due to expire on September 18, 1989, but the law required that he be paroled. At his murder trial the killer said that he became enraged when Mr. Bryce made a wrong turn while looking for the trailer court. He said became abusive and accused Mr. Bryce of deliberately running up the fare. When Mr. Bryce pulled over and made a move to eject him from the cab the killer pulled out a knife with a five-inche blade and swung at him. He hit Mr. Bryce in the eye and then pulled him over the back of the front seat, slashing his throat and stabbing him multiple times. Something exploded in my head.... I was stabbing and slashing all over the place. The killer then robbed Mr. Bryce and abandoned the cab. After returning to his apartment he discarded his clothes, wiped the blood off Mr. Bryce's money and took another cab to purchase alcohol from a bootlegger. He spent the rest of the night drinking with friends. The killer testified in his own defence, telling how he had suffered a head injury at the age of nine and had been in institutions ever since. His prison career was punctuated by violent confrontations with guards and stints of solitary confinement. The killer's testimony was contradicted by the prosecution, citing a statement by one of the killer's friends that in three different conversations prior to Mr. Bryce's murder he talked of robbing and killing a cab driver. After the killer's arrest police recruited another prisoner to entice a confession from him. According to the prisoner the killer said that Mr. Bryce voluntarily surrendered his money but was killed anyway. "That's one redneck ... that won't be ripping off anybody for fares anymore," the killer allegedly remarked. Two psychiatrists who observed the killer during the trial characterized him as having "antisocial personality disorder" and being "undersocialized" and "an explosive reactor". The killer was allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder since his crime was apparently spontaneous and a first degree murder charge required evidence of advance planning and deliberation. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 18 years. The jury had recommended that he not be paroled for at least 20 years "if he receives therapy" but that if no therapy was available he not be paroled for at least 25 years. Justice John Boeck recommended that the the killer receive psychiatric treatment while in prison and also ruled that the killer not be allowed to possess firearms for at least 10 years "after he is released." In November, 1995 the man was convicted of murder in the death a year earlier of fellow William Head Penitentiary inmate. He was sentenced to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years. The killer beat his victim with a rolling pin and then slashed his face and neck, almost severing his head. The injuries rendered the victim (himself a convicted murderer) almost faceless.

Daniel Bryce. (Source: Prince George Citizen, October 16, 1984, p. 1) The conviction was overturned on appeal and in a second trial the killer was found to have acted in self-defence. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was to be eligible for parole in 2004. In explanation of the 20-year term, the judge noted that "intense efforts" had failed to get (the killer) to control his notoriously quick temper. Rehabilitation "is not a realistic possibility at this stage in his life." The killer had a history of violent assaults and was frequently sentenced by warden's courts to indefinite solitary confinement because of continual fights he had within prison. Despite his eligibility for parole in 2004, he was still in jail in 2011 at Dorchester medium-security institution near Moncton, New Brunswick. In February of that year he got into a fight with a 63-year-old inmate, another murderer, and beat him to death. He was again convicted of murder in March, 2012, and sentenced to a further 25 years behind bars. Mr. Bryce was born in Williams Lake, BC and came to Prince George as a young man. We was a tow-truck driver before working for the school district. His father at one time had been a shareholder in Prince George Taxi. In addition to his wife and four-year-old daughter Mr. Bryce was survived by his parents, a grandmother, three sisters and two brothers. About 200 people attended his funeral including about 90 taxi drivers from Prince George Taxi and Emerald Taxi. More than 50 cabs, flying black streamers from their radio antennas, joined his funeral procession. "Taxi driving is like playing roulette," said one driver. "It could have happened to any one of us." The 2011 murder in Dorchester Institution stirred up old memories of Daniel Bryce's death. His nephew Mike Bryce wrote: My uncle Danny was killed a month and a half before I was born by ... this individual... [who] took away the uncle I never got to meet. He left my Aunt with no husband and my cousin with no father. [He] took away my dad's best friend and the beloved brother of a large family. I am honored to have been given Danny's name as my middle name, although I never met him. My uncle's death is part of what drove me to become a Police Officer. I take pride in bringing people in to face the consequences for their crimes against the innocent. I only wish I could be proud of the consequences that our judges hand down. Please contact your local MP's and voice your concerns. Also please support your local Police. We work tirelessly day and night to keep those who seek to steal, hurt or even kill the innocent behind bars.