A B.C. Supreme Court justice has handed down a guilty verdict in Prince George linked to the death of a young boy in 2000, but the convicted man wasn’t in court to hear it

On Friday, the judge found Lloyd Cook not guilty of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death, but guilty of unlawful confinement and interference with the dead body of 13-year old Adam Williams Dudoward.

Police are actively looking for Cook and the judge has deemed him an “absconder,” or voluntarily absent.

While the judge gave his verdict in Cook’s absence, he decided to hold off on sentencing until Cook turns up, or until after “a suitable period of time.”

During the trial, the court heard how 13-year old Adam Williams Dudoward died in January 2000 after his mother Judy Williams and Lloyd Cook, her common-law partner at the time, tied him up to a bed in their trailer home in Prince George.

Lloyd Cook, now at large, was convicted in absentia Friday. (RCMP)

After two or three days Cook and Williams found Adam in distress. Cook tried to revive Adam with CPR, but was unable to.

No one called 911. Instead the couple wrapped up the body in a blanket and put it in the trunk of a vehicle for several weeks, which they drove around Prince George.

Adam’s death was never reported to the authorities and they eventually buried his body in a shallow grave off North Nechako Road in an isolated wooded area just outside the city.

When the Ministry of Children and Family Development paid a visit to the family’s trailer five days after Adam died his mother told the social worker Adam was staying somewhere in town.

There was no follow-up done and Adam’s mother withdrew him from school and the family eventually moved to Oliver.

from the CBC