If I Can’t Have Her No One Can- The Story of Amber Lucius

If I Can’t Have Her No One Can- The Story of Amber Lucius

His ex-wife had been late dropping their daughter off before, so while it irritated him that she was late again, he didn’t suspect that anything was wrong.

But then, when more and more hours started to go by with still no sign of them, he knew that something was just not right.

The story I have for you today is about one person’s evil act of revenge for something that they had caused in the first place, and on top of that, an innocent nine-year-old little girl had to be the one who suffered. This is the story of Amber Lucius.

Amber Lucius was born on August 18, 2005, to her mother, Laura Coward, and her father, Dwayne Lucius. She also had an older sister who was born during her mother Laura’s previous marriage.

Amber was a bubbly, talkative little girl who easily made friends. She was also known to be compassionate, caring, and just full of joy. Some of the things that she enjoyed doing were playing with her older sister, playing soccer, and t-ball.

At the time of this story, little Amber was nine years old and was about to begin the fourth grade at Griffith Scott School in Millet, Alberta, Canada.

When Amber was born, her parents had been married for about a year at that point. But unfortunately, after their daughter’s birth, Laura would turn into a different person than the one that Dwayne had met years ago.

Not only was she possessive and controlling, but she would anger much easier than she had in the past. There was one particularly bad incident in September of 2007.

Laura had cooked dinner that night for the family, and her and Amber were sitting at the table waiting for Dwayne to join them. When he came in, Laura asked him to sit down. He told her that he wasn’t hungry, so he wasn’t going to sit with them that night.

Well, that was a big mistake, and it led to an even bigger fight between the couple. Laura demanded that Dwayne sit down at the table or she was going to cut Amber. She then grabbed a kitchen knife and held it to then two-year-old Amber’s neck.

Only weeks later, in October of 2007, Dwayne and Laura would go their separate ways. But for some reason, Laura was actually the one who filed for the divorce and not Dwayne, which doesn’t really make sense considering the incident that had just happened, but I don’t know.

Even though Amber’s older sister was not Dwayne’s biological daughter, when the couple went their separate ways, they shared custody of both girls. Even with the shared custody, the girls lived primarily with Laura, and she was also trying to get full custody of both girls so that Dwayne could see them even less.

Laura had claimed in court affidavits that her estranged husband, Dwayne, did not take his medication for his epilepsy, and this would cause seizures; therefore, she argued he was not capable of caring for the girls. She also said that he would have random outbursts of anger.

Laura claimed that this made her fear for her safety as well as her daughters’. But Dwayne said that she just made all of this up so that she could have full custody and he would have a hard time seeing the girls.

In fact, Dwayne hadn’t had a seizure from his epilepsy since he was 18 years old, and Laura knew that.

Laura was playing dirty, and she would oftentimes block Dwayne’s phone number and refuse to pay for any travel expenses that he incurred when he had to go visit his daughter, who now lived hours away because Laura had moved and didn’t tell him.

A custody assessment that was done in 2011 said that Laura constantly thwarted her former husband’s attempts to have a meaningful relationship with his daughter. Dwayne would repeatedly apply for sole custody, and Laura was repeatedly asked to pay her share of the travel expenses.

However, Laura had actually been laid off in the fall of 2009 and had been on unemployment insurance. She claimed that at this point she was having trouble fighting court proceedings, paying for travel expenses, as well as paying for Amber’s required asthma medication because money had been so tight.

With all the tension that was going on between Laura and Dwayne, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been called numerous times during their custody transfers.

During one exchange, Laura claimed that Dwayne had actually started yelling and hitting her, and that’s why she had called the police. And in April of 2012, Laura alleged that Amber had refused to go with her father, and he had gotten angry and grabbed the little girl.

The courts repeatedly noted that these custody arrangements were not working out, but Dwayne was doing everything in his power to obtain full custody of Amber. He was done dealing with Laura’s games, and eventually, in June of 2013, a custody order was issued that mandated Amber go live with her father in Millet. Her older sister was to remain with their mother.

Of course, the disputes between the couple only continued though now little Amber was thrilled to go live with her father. Dwayne actually lived on his parents’ farm, so Amber loved to be there and be around the animals.

Even though Dwayne had full custody now of his daughter, she was still required to go visit her mother every other weekend. Laura was not happy at all about this arrangement; she didn’t think that she got to see Amber nearly enough now.

So in order to see Amber more often, Laura would end up moving closer to where Dwayne lived in Millet.

During one visit with her mother in April of 2014, Laura did not return Amber back to her father when she was supposed to. Dwayne called the police and reported this, but luckily the little girl was dropped off at the police station a little while later.

On August 29, 2014, Dwayne dropped Amber off at her mother’s house for the Labor Day weekend. Just a few days prior to this, their divorce had actually been finalized and Dwayne’s full legal custody had also been granted.

At the end of the Labor Day weekend, on August 31, Laura was expected to return Amber back to Dwayne’s house, but she didn’t show up on time. Dwayne tried to call her numerous times, but after she wouldn’t answer, she decided to go over to her house and see if her and Amber were there.

Unfortunately, once Dwayne got there, there were new tenants moving into Laura’s house. The new tenants told him that Laura had moved out about a week ago and never said anything.

So Dwayne decided to call Laura’s sister to see if she had any idea where Laura and Amber could be. She had no idea, but she decided to call around to other family members and see if they knew.

Laura’s sister ended up finding out that Laura had dropped her older daughter off with another family member, but unfortunately, regarding Laura and Amber, nobody knew where they were.

Now Dwayne was thinking that Laura had fled the jurisdiction with Amber, so he went down to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police station and filed a report. It was then that the search started for nine-year-old Amber.

For two days there was nothing; nobody had heard from Laura at all. But on September 2, 2014, the police received a 911 call, but nobody on the other end of the line said anything, and then it hung up.

Luckily, they were able to trace the call, and this led them to Laura’s Ford Escape SUV. It was parked outside of her ex-boyfriend’s property, but Laura’s SUV looked like it had been set on fire.

Inside the SUV, they finally found Amber, but unfortunately, she was no longer alive.

Police also discovered a handwritten note on the driver’s side of the SUV. It said, “Help me, it was an accident, locked keys in.” Huh? Would Amber’s nine years old—if you locked the keys in the car and she was in there, you would have been able to have her get them out. So I’m not sure I understand that message. Is it just me?

Soon after police had arrived on the scene, Laura came strolling out of her ex-boyfriend’s house in a bathrobe. She was then arrested and charged with abducting Amber in violation of a court order, along with breaking and entering as well as theft. This was in regards to her ex-boyfriend’s RV, which we’ll get into in just a minute.

Laura Coward admitted to causing her daughter Amber’s death either late in the night on August 30 or in the early morning hours of August 31.

Laura had driven her daughter to a remote area in Alberta, about 60 miles north of Calgary. She had told some friends that she was going to take Amber stargazing that night, but they ended up going to a Tim Hortons in Sundre instead.

After the mother and daughter had their meal together, Laura drove the SUV down a dead-end road near a remote rural property. This property belonged to her ex-boyfriend named Nick Smith. Laura knew where Nick kept his keys for both his house as well as his RV, and she took advantage of that—so that’s where the breaking and entering charge comes in.

After Laura had parked at the edge of Nick’s property, she admitted that she had administered her and Amber a toxic, but non-lethal, dose of zopiclone. The sleeping medication rendered Laura and Amber unconscious for a period of time.

When Laura woke up, she thought that she had killed Amber and she panicked. Amber, however, was not dead; she was only unconscious. But at this point, Laura had already gone and grabbed a propane torch from Nick’s RV.

She then filled the inside of the SUV with paper and plastic totes before she closed the doors and set the vehicle on fire with the propane torch, with Amber still in it.

Laura then left the scene where the vehicle was until an undetermined time after the fire had already extinguished itself and Amber was dead. Laura admitted that she intentionally caused the death of Amber, but not in the way that she had intended to.

When Amber’s autopsy was performed, it was determined that the little girl had died from a combination of smoke inhalation, hypothermia, and carbon monoxide toxicity. And even though Laura said that Amber had been killed on August 30 or 31, it was discovered that the little girl had actually been killed the very day that she was discovered on September 2.

Laura Coward appeared in court the day after Amber’s body had been found, and when she was in court, her charges were replaced with new ones. Instead, she was now being charged with first-degree murder.

The case was to go to trial in the beginning of 2017, and the judge decided to accept a plea deal from Laura to a lesser charge of second-degree murder. But don’t worry, this would still earn her a mandatory life sentence. So Canada gets it—why can’t all these other countries, including the United States, get on board with heavier punishments for child murderers, huh?

Since Laura’s life sentence would be automatic, the court was asked to determine how many years she would need to be in jail before she was eligible for parole.

In March of 2017, the crown prosecutor, Jillian Poole, urged the judge to require Laura to spend at least 20 years behind bars before she became eligible for her parole. The prosecutor stated that Laura’s primary motivation was revenge and was meant to inflict the most serious and permanent pain on Dwayne as possible.

But Laura’s defense attorney, Jim Lutz, was arguing that she should only have to serve 10 to 12 years before she was eligible for parole. He said that her guilty plea was a sign that she was remorseful for her crimes.

During her sentencing, Justice Scott Brooker would say that Laura’s punishment needed to reflect the disgust and outrage that the public had towards the crime that she had committed. He also said it was the ultimate betrayal for her to kill her own daughter. He went on to describe the murder as vile, random, and senseless.

In the end, it was decided that Laura Coward was to serve her life sentence and she would only be eligible for parole after 18 years. I don’t think she should be eligible for parole like ever, possibly.

At the end of the sentence hearing, Laura was given the opportunity to stand up and address the court. She said tearfully, “Every day and every moment, I miss my children more than anyone could understand. I think that Dwayne understands.”

Just saying—what a selfish and rude thing to say! Are you for real?

She would then turn towards Dwayne and her family and tell them that she knew she was responsible for her terrible actions and she tried begging them for their forgiveness.

Dwayne Lucius would read a victim impact statement at Laura’s sentencing. He also held a picture of his daughter Amber close to him as he read it.

First, he said that he would never forgive his ex-wife for the pain that she had caused. Fighting back tears, he also said, “Today is another reminder of my devastating loss. Amber was an innocent child, and a selfish act ended her life. I had only one year with Amber to renew our bond as father and daughter. During that time, Amber always helped me on the farm and loved playing outside. She was a happy little girl loved by the entire community. Since the moment Amber was born, she was the light of my life. She was energetic, talkative, and full of joy. I will never get to watch my daughter grow up, but I know she would have done great things in life. No sentence will do justice for what has happened to Amber. As a father, I have had to bury my child, and nothing will bring her back. I can only hope that other children are not being used as bargaining chips in a divorce or used to hurt the other parent. No parent should ever take a child’s life just to get back at the other. We are supposed to provide our children with love, not scare them because of this situation. She was taken away from me and all who loved her far too soon. Amber was my life, and I will miss her every day until the end of mine. I will never forget her.”

Amber’s aunt would also read a victim impact statement, but first, she told the court that she had thought about not writing a statement at all because she did not want Laura to know that she had been successful in causing the family such great pain. She also said Laura not only stole Amber’s life, but all of our dreams for the future; she replaced those dreams with nightmares.

Three first responders—two Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as one fire investigator—were put on long-term medical leave for the post-traumatic stress that they had incurred after they had found Amber’s body.

Amber Lucius’s funeral was held on September 10, 2014, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Millet. She was then buried close by in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Cemetery.

Well, thank you for listening to all of Amber’s story today. I do not understand the mentality of these parents who kill their children just to hurt the other parent. Laura even went on to say that she missed her daughter, so why do it?

This actually reminds me of the case that I covered a while back. Both murders were cruel, heartless, and extremely petty. And Amber’s death was made even worse too by the fact that the sleeping pills didn’t kill her and then she had to die in a much more painful way.