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By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen

B&E Trial

Woman charged with B&E says she slept through 2023 explosion downtown

Nov 23, 2025 | 10:00 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — A woman charged with break and enter to commit an indictable offence testified in Provincial Court on Nov. 13 that she was extremely exhausted from an urgent round-trip to Winnipeg, so she did not hear the natural gas explosion that rocked downtown Prince George.

Sonya Joyce Cecilia Korolyk, born in 1981, pleaded not guilty. She is accused of driving a pickup truck to help remove a fence so her ex-husband and another man could steal a dirtbike on Aug. 22, 2023.

Korolyk said she was staying in the Moccasin Flats homeless camp. Only 800 metres away, around 7 a.m., the former Achillion Restaurant near Fourth Avenue and Dominion Street blew up. She said someone told her later about the blast.

“You had no idea that somebody may have thought that, because all the police resources were consumed downtown, that they could go steal some dirt bikes from the RCMP at the time?” Crown prosecutor Rodney Withall asked Korolyk before Judge David Simpkin.

“I was exhausted, I didn’t know,” Korolyk replied.

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Korolyk said she agreed to drive elsewhere — an ICBC lot near Ospika Boulevard and 15th Avenue — as long as she could park and get some rest. She said she was recovering from an urgent, 24-hour road trip to Winnipeg and back in order to rescue her granddaughter from “an unsafe environment.”

Withall doubted she could have made the trip so fast. Korolyk said it took her “maybe a little longer,” but claimed she drove at 170 kilometres-per-hour to Winnipeg.

Withall also asked about a rope attached to the trailer hitch of Korolyk’s truck and suggested it was used to pry the fence open.

“There’s no way I can attach that to my truck and then attach the other side to the fence,” Korolyk replied.

Korolyk indicated that she realized her ex-husband was trying to steal a dirt bike and she decided to leave. The two men jumped in the back of the pickup truck and she drove to Moccasin Flats.

“I’m going to suggest you that, even on your evidence, you help these individuals escape from the scene at which they were committing a crime,” Withall said.

Korolyk denied and reiterated she was tired at the time, “but, now that I look at it, yes, I could see it that way.”

Korolyk’s lawyer, Wes Perrin, told Simpkin that his client is entering a residential treatment program next week. So the trial was adjourned to Nov. 26 to schedule a date for closing arguments.