A former Barrie woman who drowned her two young daughters 17 years ago in a local apartment building, and whose “institutional behaviour has been very positive,” has been granted permission to continue to leave her minimum-security facility on escorted temporary absence (ETA) passes.
The Parole Board of Canada extended the passes for Frances Elaine Goodine, formerly Campione, on Sept. 25 following a review.
She has been granted the ETAs for personal development since 2018, when she began escorted visits to attend church once per month.
Goodine, now 48, is serving a life sentence for two counts of first-degree murder with no chance of parole for 25 years.
She drowned her two young daughters, 19-month-old Sophia and three-year-old Serena, in the bathtub of her Coulter Street apartment in north-end Barrie in 2006.
Goodine had been involved in a custody dispute with her ex-husband at the time.
According to the board’s review of the facts, Goodine contacted police, admitting to the murders and then attempted suicide.
"Over the course of the investigation, police determined that you drowned the victims in the bathtub of your home before dressing them and placing them in your bed," noted the parole board's decision. "Police also found video recordings you made, in which you addressed your estranged husband, showing the victims in the bathtub two days earlier, later describing them as being in heaven and blamed your failed suicide attempt on him."
Police found the girls lying on their mother's bed, holding hands with a rosary and a photo album between them.
Goodine was later convicted of first-degree murder. An appeal was rejected in 2015.
She has claimed to not to recall the drownings.
“According to the most recent (psychological risk assessment, in June 2023), consistent with previous assessments, you present in the low range of risk to re-offend both general and violently,” the panel stated in its decision.
The parole board describes Goodine’s participation in previous ETAs as being “without concern on numerous absences whose plans were very similar, if not identical. Given the locations involved, the board is content that there are no specific victim concerns.”
The decision outlines six different kinds of absences that have been approved, with a total of 213 absences for her to visit church once per week, a library twice per month, and 78 visits to an unnamed location, which was redacted on the document provided to BarrieToday by the parole board on Wednesday, as well as 12 visits to attend an unnamed program, which was also blacked out.
In the Correctional Service of Canada's recommendation, it noted in its decision that they believe it is "desirable" for Goodine to be absent from the institution in order to allow her to “continue developing strategies to manage (her) problematic emotions and build a community support network as part of a very gradual reintegration plan.”
The parole board states that Goodine remains “several years away from eligibility for any form of conditional release. As such, these absences remain an element in a very gradual reintegration plan. These ETAs can help to prevent you from becoming ‘institutionalized.'”
The board concluded that Goodine “will not present an undue risk to society during these absences."
