Roderick Sutherland has been found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the 2020 murder of Megan Gallagher.
A 12-person jury at Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon returned its verdict Friday afternoon, its second day of deliberations. Jurors also found Sutherland guilty on charges of unlawful confinement and offering an indignity to human remains.
Megan’s family and friends sat in the front row and gasped, sobbed and hugged as the jurors delivered their verdict to Justice John Morrall.
Megan’s father Brian Gallagher said outside court that when the jury foreperson read out the first verdict of “guilty,” it felt like something was released from his chest.
“The first thought I had after they started to say ‘guilty, guilty, guilty’ was the grandparents have heard us, the Creator has heard us, and they are happy and smiling and I think at least, at ease,” he said.
“Five years and 27 days since she went missing.… It’s been a journey and I don’t know how to describe it,” he told reporters.
“The only closure that we could ever get is if Megan could walk through that door and give us a hug, share a meal, a Christmas. That’s never going to happen. That’s been taken from us,” Brian said.
He said that Megan was a joyful spirit, humorous and compassionate.
“She was generous to the point that she would give up anything just to help somebody,” he said.
LISTEN| New CBC podcast series explores the life and murder of Megan Gallagher :
The decision is one more step on a legal journey for the Gallagher family that began five years ago when the 30-year-old disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
Police believed within months of her September 2020 disappearance that she had been killed. It wasn’t until two years later that her remains were found on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River, about 105 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, near the village of St. Louis.
During the trial, the jury heard graphic details about Gallagher’s death — she was tied to a chair, assaulted and ultimately killed by a group of people in a Saskatoon garage on Sept. 20, 2020.
Nine people were eventually implicated in her disappearance and death.

Robert (Bobby) Thomas was the first person charged, on Sept. 20, 2022. He pleaded guilty in October 2024 to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years.
Cheyann Peeteetuce and Summer-Sky Henry were both charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter in January 2025 and were sentenced to seven years each.
Ernest Vernon Whitehead, Jessica Badger (Sutherland) and John Wayne Sanderson pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to human remains.
Charges against Robin John (unlawful confinement and aggravated assault) and Thomas Sutherland (manslaughter) were stayed before coming to court.
Roderick Sutherland’s trial began Oct. 6. During closing arguments on Tuesday, the defence argued that Sutherland had found himself in a situation that got out of hand, and tried to stop the people in the garage after Gallagher was tied up.
The Crown argued that even though Sutherland wasn’t the person who killed Gallagher, it was Sutherland’s garage where she was confined, and Sutherland was involved from start to finish.
Defence lawyer Blaine Beaven told reporters outside court that he was disappointed with the verdict but said that juries make decisions based on the evidence they see. He said it was too early to say whether they would be appealing.
“I would say that this is obviously a very difficult day for our client, but we appreciate it’s a very difficult day for Megan Gallagher’s family. But it’s perhaps another step on the way to them healing and moving forward from this,” Beaven said.
A 12-person Saskatoon jury convicted Roderick Sutherland of manslaughter, unlawful confinement and offering an indignity to human remains in the 2020 death of Megan Gallagher. They reached their verdict on Friday, the second day of deliberations.
Sutherland taken into custody
Following the verdict, the Crown made a request for Sutherland’s release to be cancelled and for him to be taken into custody.
“He was involved in the confinement of a young Indigenous woman who was tortured and suffocated to death,” Crown prosecutor Jennifer Schmidt said.
“This is an offence that has shocked the community at the highest level.”
Beaven argued Sutherland should remain out of custody.
“Mr. Sutherland has been on bail release for two years. He has no intention of running away from these charges,” he said.
Justice Morrall ruled that Sutherland be taken into custody.
His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 19. The defence indicated it will be seeking a provincial jail sentence (the maximum provincial sentence is two years less a day). The Crown said it will be seeking a sentence in the double digits.