The mother of Nova Scotia man who was killed inside a cabin in 2012 says the suspect dying is not going to stop her pursuit for justice.

Kirtley Beaver told CTV Atlantic that 65-year-old Elmer Percy Higgins died on Sunday. She believes he had a terminal illness and police are not investigating his death.

Higgins was accused in the deaths of 22-year-old Matthew Allan Hebb and 59-year-old Earle Clayton Stewart. His trial was set to begin Thursday.

Police and emergency crews responded to a 911 call near the 450 block of Highway 374 near Sheet Harbour, N.S. on Dec. 12, 2012 after witnesses spotted a fire at a camp in the area.

Fire officials found the bodies of Hebb and Stewart, both of Spryfield, N.S., inside the burned-out cabin.

Their deaths were confirmed to be homicides.

The RCMP say a man and a woman were arrested in connection with the case on Dec. 18, 2012 but they were released without charges. They were arrested again in March 2017, but were released without charges a second time.

The same individuals were arrested a third time in August 2017 at a home in Halifax. This time Higgins and his wife, 49-year-old Karen Marie Higgins, were charged with second-degree murder and related firearms offences in the deaths of Hebb and Stewart.

The victims’ families had made several public pleas for information over the years, and the homicides were added to Nova Scotia’s Rewards for Unsolved Crimes program.

"I don't want to stop. I don't want to give up. I want someone to go to jail for killing my son," says Kirtley Beaver.

At the time, police said a tip that came through the program was what enabled them to eventually lay charges against the couple.

However, the charges against Karen Marie Higgins were dropped last week in Dartmouth provincial court. Now that her husband has died, no one is charged in the deaths of Stewart and Hebb.

The family is grateful for all the police work that went into the case, they just wish it hadn't taken so long to lay charges.

"It's a closed case as of yesterday, but I don't want it to become a cold case. Please pick up that phone, call Crime Stoppers if you don't want to be identified," says Beaver. 

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Suzette Belliveau.