Man pleads guilty to the second degree murders of two women in Grande Prairie

A man in northwestern Alberta has been sent to prison for killing two women. (Photo: Jordan Gillespie/ Flickr)

GRANDE PRAIRIE –A man in northwestern Alberta has been sent to prison for killing two women.

Mark Phillips of Grande Prairie pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in Court of Queen’s Bench.

He was given the mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 15 years on each count to be served consecutively.

The bodies of Amber Diebert, 24, and Jody Topilko, 30, were found in a rural area a few kilometres from one another in 2015.

Phillips is already serving seven years for a 2014 drug bust where RCMP seized over 1,800 fentanyl pills, the largest fentanyl bust in Grande Prairie at the time.

He pleaded guilty to five charges in that case including trafficking, fraud and money laundering.