Richardson family murders

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The Richardson family murders are the murders of three members of the Richardson family in Medicine Hat, Alberta.[1] The murders were devised and committed by the family's 12-year-old daughter and her 23-year-old boyfriend.

Contents

Discovery

At 1:00 pm on 23 April 2006, the bodies of husband Marc Richardson, aged 42, and wife Debra, 48, were found in the basement of their home,[2] and the body of their son Jacob, aged 8, was discovered upstairs.[3][4][5] Absent from the home at that time was the couple's 12-year-old daughter.[6][3] For a time it was feared that she might have been a victim, but she was arrested the following day in the community of Leader, Saskatchewan, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) away, with her 23-year-old boyfriend Jeremy Allan Steinke; both were charged with the three murders.[6][7] Later, on May 3, 2006, Steinke's friend Kacy Lancaster, 19, was charged with being an accessory for disposing of evidence.[8]

Motive

According to friends of the daughter, her parents had punished her for dating Steinke,[9] due to the age disparity.[10] Her friends had also criticized their relationship.[10] Shortly after her arrest, Steinke asked her to marry him, and she agreed.[11]

According to friends of Steinke, he told them he thought he was a 300-year-old werewolf.[12] He allegedly told his friends that he liked the taste of blood, and wore a small vial of blood around his neck.[13] He also had a user account at the VampireFreaks.com web site.[14] The girl had a page at the same site, leading to speculation they met there.[15] However, an acquaintance of Steinke later said the couple actually met at a punk rock show in early 2006.[16]

The couple were also found to be communicating at Nexopia, a popular web site for young Canadians.[17] Various messages they sent to each were available to the public, before the accounts were removed by Nexopia staff.[17] The girl's user page, under the name "runawaydevil", falsely said she was 15 and ended with the text "Welcome to my tragic end".[18]

Just hours prior to committing the murders, Steinke and some friends reportedly watched the film Natural Born Killers, a 1994 film about a young couple who commit a violent spree of killings. Steinke asserted to his friends that he and his girlfriend should go about their plans in a similar manner, but without sparing his girlfriend's young brother.[19]

Legal outcome

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act the name of the daughter could no longer be published in Canada after she became a suspect. Under the same act, twelve is the youngest possible age at which a person can be charged with a crime; convicts who were under fourteen years of age at the time they committed a crime cannot be sentenced as adults, and cannot be given more than a ten-year sentence.[20]

On July 9, 2007, the girl was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the killings.[21] On November 8, 2007, she was sentenced to the maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment.[22] Her sentence included credit for eighteen months already spent in custody, to be followed by four years in a psychiatric institution and four-and-a-half years under conditional supervision in the community.

On December 15, 2008, Jeremy Allan Steinke was sentenced to three life sentences on each of three counts of first-degree murder. The sentences are to be served concurrently; Steinke will be eligible for parole after serving twenty-five years.[23]

The Richardsons' daughter is believed to be the youngest person ever convicted of a multiple murder in Canada.[21] Steinke admitted to the murder of the parents in conversation with an undercover police officer while in custody.[24]

References

  1. ^ "Three bodies discovered in Medicine Hat home", ctv.ca, April 24, 2006.
  2. ^ Punch, Rachel. "Do youth sentences fit the crime?: Sensational cases aren't the norm, but spark calls for tougher sentences". The Sudbury Star. http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1086366&auth=RACHEL+PUNCH. Retrieved 2008-07-02. [dead link]
  3. ^ a b Dohy, Leanne (2006-04-24). "Triple murder shocks city: Medicine Hat girl missing, family dead". Calgary Herald: p. A.1.. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=c3f96856-92e2-40da-b431-2a42761ae015&k=31322. Retrieved 2006-06-19. 
  4. ^ Sherri Zickefoose, Tony Seskus and Robert Remington, "Road to a massacre: Few could have predicted the bizarre twists after a young boy stumbles upon a triple slaying", National Post, April 29, 2006.
  5. ^ Zickefoose, Sherri, "Bodies of slain family flown to Ontario for funeral", National Post, May 1, 2006.
  6. ^ a b "12-year-old charged in Medicine Hat"[dead link], CBC.ca, April 24, 2006
  7. ^ "More charges possible in triple murders", Vancouver Sun, April 27, 2005.
  8. ^ Third person charged[dead link], Edmonton Journal, May 4, 2006
  9. ^ "Sudbury family mourn murder victims". Northern Life (Laurentian Media Group). 2006-04-27. http://www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2006/04-27-06-homicideTOP.asp. Retrieved 2006-06-19. 
  10. ^ a b Breakenridge, Dave, "Pre-teen's tryst 'gross' Friends of 12-year-old accused killer disapproved of boyfriend, 23", Calgary Sun, April 28, 2006.
  11. ^ Girl on trial for murder agreed to marry lover, Toronto Star, June 30, 2007.
  12. ^ "Mother Of Accused Family Killer Speaks Out Against Vilification Of Son"[dead link], CityTV Calgary, April 26, 2006.
  13. ^ "Chilling stories emerge; Mother of accused in triple slaying denies her son was a werewolf"[dead link], Daily Herald-Tribune, April 28, 2006.
  14. ^ Algar, Selim, "'VAMPIRE' BLOG AN EERIE SITE"[dead link], New York Post, April 29, 2006.
  15. ^ Reynolds, Richard, "Accused killer, 12, linked to goth site", The Sydney Morning Herald, April 28, 2006.
  16. ^ "Medicine Hat Murder Suspects Appear in Court"[dead link], 630 CHED AM, April 26, 2006.
  17. ^ a b Walton, Dawn, "Net holds dark hints on slayings: Pair accused in deaths of Alberta family posted messages on notorious websites"[dead link], The Globe and Mail, April 26, 2006.
  18. ^ Johnsrude, Larry, "Goths say Medicine Hat killings give them bad name", Edmonton Journal, April 26, 2006.
  19. ^ "Steinke, girlfriend smiled at murder coverage: Witness", Calgary Herald, November 27, 2008.
  20. ^ D'Aliesio, Renata, "If convicted, girl would be free in 10 years", Edmonton Journal, April 27, 2006.
  21. ^ a b "Medicine Hat girl guilty of first-degree murder". cbc.ca (CBC News). 2007-07-09. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/07/09/med-hat.html. Retrieved 2007-09-10. 
  22. ^ "Teen gets maximum sentence for Medicine Hat killings". cbc.ca (CBC News). 2007-11-08. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/11/08/girl-sentence.html. Retrieved 2007-11-08. 
  23. ^ "Steinke gets life in triple-murder". The Calgary Herald. 2008-12-16. http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=67c05ce9-ef5b-491e-ae51-a705cef3b0e7. Retrieved 2009-07-24. 
  24. ^ ctv news story

Further reading

  • Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose. Runaway Devil: How Forbidden Love Drove a Twelve-Year-Old to Murder Her Family. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7710-7360-1. 

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_family_murders"
Languages