Girl on trial for murder agreed to marry lover

Two exchanged emails days after her family slain
MEDICINE HAT, Alta.–A young Alberta girl who was behind bars and facing three first-degree murder charges for allegedly killing her family accepted a written marriage proposal from her boyfriend and co-accused, court documents reveal.

The offer came in a series of misspelled jailhouse love letters that the girl, then 12 and now 13, and her much-older boyfriend swapped days after the bloodied bodies of her parents and 8-year-old brother were found in April 2006.

Jurors have heard the girl was angry at her parents for grounding her and trying to stop her from dating Jeremy Steinke, then 23.

"U said you want to get engaged?" Steinke wrote to her. "Then here's a Q ... Will U marry me? If so then it is a verbal agreement!"

The accused wrote back the same day: "Ahahaha! I never thought I'd find myself hystericaly laughing in a holding cell in these kinds of circumstances. But still! ahaha you make me so happy! Yes! Yes! I will, I would love to."

Steinke also asked the girl to come visit him when she gets out of jail.

The letters were passed back and forth between cells at the Medicine Hat remand centre by police.

Jurors also saw emails that included a plan from the accused to kill her parents – a month before the slayings.
The accused can't be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Steinke also faces first-degree murder charges but hasn't entered a plea or had a trial date set.

Goths say Medicine Hat killings give them bad name

Alberta’s on-line Goth community is reacting with anger to a triple murder in Medicine Hat alleged to involve a 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend believed to be part of the Goth culture.
April 26, 2006
Alberta’s on-line Goth community is reacting with anger to a triple murder in Medicine Hat alleged to involve a 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend believed to be part of the Goth culture.

This comes as Edmonton-based youth site Nexopia (click here) removed the girl’s profile from it’s website. She described herself as 15 years old and used the name Runawaydevil.

A message board posted on the Goth website VampireFreaks.com (click here) states: Wanna-Be Vampires giving us a bad name.

In one entry, an 18-year-old Calgary woman who goes by the name Goth Sugar accuses the media of portraying everyone who follows the Goth culture as “a murderous blood-fending vampire.”

“I read a very chilling article in the paper stating that a 12-year-old bi-sexual goth girl with ambitions to become a piercer/tattoo artist and a Vampire Freaks account” member was charged along with her boyfriend of murdering a family.

“Now I don't know about any one else, but I'm completely outraged by the information they actually printed in this article, it hints at every single person fitting this ‘description’ to be a murderous blood fending vampire!!!”

Other website members use the site to trade information, some of which would be prohibited from the mainstream media by law. The girl cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because of her age. That also means her relationship with the dead family cannot be described because it might identify her.

In a posting, Nikki07 from Quebec says: “This is creepy. Did any of you hear about what happened ? There was this girl who was 12 years old she had an account here and apparently she met some dude that was 23 years old from here and I don’t know what happened.”

Friends of the 12-year-old girl say she met boyfriend Jeremy Allan Steinke on the website. VampireFreaks.com claims 510,000 users.

Observers of the Goth culture say it is fueled largely by fantasy and teenage angst. Goth websites are filled with dark poetry, often with suicidal thoughts, allowing members to share feelings of depression, loneliness and anger with gallows humour.

Operators of the website took the 12-year-old girl’s posting down Tuesday.

The site featured seven photographs of the girl, all of which made her look much older than her 12 years. She wears heavy dark eye makeup and has dark hair.

She listed:

Activities: Cooking, listening to music, partying, shopping and traveling.

Art: Astrology, Body Art, Cartooning, Clothing design, Drawing, Film/Video Making, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, Singing, Song Writing, Web Design.

Computers: E-mail, Instant Messaging, Surfing the net.

Movies: Action, Anime, Comedy, Horror, Psychological Thrillers, Science Fiction.

Music: Alternative, Classic Rock, Death Metal, Goth, Happy Hardcore, Hardcore, Industrial, Metal, Punk, Rock.

Musical Instruments: Electric Guitar.

Sports: Boxing, Gymnastics, Martial Arts, Rock Climbing, Swimming, Yoga.

Among the lines of poetry were the phrases:

Cut my wings and let me bleed away.

Welcome to my tragic end.

Sudbury family mourn murder victims

Apr 27, 2006
The triple-murder of a Medicine Hat, Alta. family is being felt in Greater Sudbury where relatives are mourning the death of the slain family.

Marc Richardson, who grew up in Sudbury, was found dead in his home April 23, along with his wife Debra and 10-year old son Jacob.

Police in Alberta have arrested 23-year old Jeremy Allen Steinke, and a 12-year old girl, said to be Steinke's girlfriend, in relation to the murders.

Arthur Richardson, Marc's father, who lives in Sudbury spoke with a reporter from the Calgary Herald April 24 about the crime.

Richardson told the newspaper his son was on the verge on opening his own business and was excited about the opportunity.

"He was so happy. He was just starting out," the man's father told the Herald. "He had lots of friends, he was very loved," he added. "He was a very easygoing guy."

Steinke and the Grade 7 girl appeared in court for the first time Tuesday.

More charges possible in triple murders

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. - Police investigating a triple-slaying in this southern Alberta city say there could yet be more charges in the case, which has already led to the arrest of a 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend.
By CanWest News ServiceApril 27, 2006
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. - Police investigating a triple-slaying in this southern Alberta city say there could yet be more charges in the case, which has already led to the arrest of a 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend.

The girl, who cannot be named, and Jeremy Allan Steinke, are each facing three charges of first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of a couple and their eight-year-old son.

But Medicine Hat police Sgt. Dave Townsend told reporters at a press conference Wednesday that police are continuing to follow up on the 100-plus tips they have received so far this week.

"The present team of investigators is dedicated to interviews, forensic-evidence collection, and file co-ordination, which will ensure that a compelling case will brought to trial," Townsend said.

"The investigation is continuing and we will not rule out the possibility of further charges, if evidence comes to light that will support these charges."

Townsend would not speculate as to what the future charges might be.

"Depending on the information that we receive, it could be either other parties or the parties we have in custody."

To that end, he said police were sifting through "numerous rumours, conjecture and innuendo" to discover the truth.

Steinke and his 12-year-old girlfriend, who are being held in custody, are to be back in court next week after making a brief appearance Tuesday.

The charges of first-degree murder indicate premeditation in the deaths of Marc and Debra Richardson and their son Jacob, whose bodies were spotted by a friend of Jacob on Sunday afternoon in their quiet suburban home.

Steinke and the girl, whom friends described as dating, were arrested about 8 a.m. Monday in Leader, Sask. The bodies of the victims were taken to Calgary for autopsy.

Investigators won't release the cause of death until the trial.

Police have finished searching Steinke's residence at a trailer park in the southeast end of the city. Officers continued Wednesday to keep watch over the Richardsons' home.

A forensic-evidence expert with the RCMP has returned to Edmonton, but Medicine Hat's forensic teams continues to gather evidence, Townsend said.

The police service has been working around the clock on the case, which has so far involved four forensic identification officers, 10 criminal investigation section officers, four community resource officers, four canine units and a number of patrol officers.

The city employs 96 police officers in total.

In 2001, the city also had a triple-homicide involving a lengthy standoff with a suspect whose parents and brother were later found dead inside the home.

Still, the Richardson deaths are taking a toll on the community.

"It's going to take months, maybe even years, for the community to heal, especially the children that are involved that might have had some intimate knowledge of the people that are involved in this case," Townsend said.

In Okotoks, Alta., where the Richardsons lived for several years until relocating to Medicine Hat in 2003, questions lingered among both young and old.

Eight-year-old Josh McKinlay, who chummed around with Jacob when the families lived a few houses apart in a condo complex and went to kindergarten together, was trying to comprehend what happened.

The boys were inseparable, said Josh's mother, Lea McKinlay. They attended each other's birthday parties, went swimming in the river together and played at the park. She tried to explain to her son Wednesday what happened to his friend.

"This is way too close to home for me," she said.

Josh has fond memories of Jacob.
"He was fun to be with and my best friend," said the young boy. "We used to run around and play, go to the park and for ice cream. I am sad now."

Meanwhile, the 12-year-old girl accused of killing three members of a Medicine Hat family is facing backlash from the online community she claimed to be a part of.

At least one of the preteen's personal websites on Nexopia is still up and running, and bloggers have been leaving messages of anger.

"If your (sic) the actual girl then I hope you (expletive) rot," read one entry left on the site Wednesday. "You disgust me."

Another blogger posted a picture of his or her pet hamster near a running wheel. A handmade sign with the word "murderer" painted in red hung on the front of the cage.

Bodies of slain family flown to Ontario for funeral

The remains of three slain family members are being flown to Ontario, while a 12-year-old girl accused of their killing is making her second court appearance today.
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. -- The remains of three slain family members are being flown to Ontario, while a 12-year-old girl accused of their killing is making her second court appearance today.

A funeral home visitation for Marc Richardson, 42, his wife Debra, 48, and their son Jacob, 8, is planned today, and a funeral service will be held Tuesday at La Toussaint Church in Sudbury.
On Tuesday, the girl's boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke, 23, is scheduled to make his second court appearance. They're both charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

They were arrested in Leader, Sask., on April 24, a day after a neighbourhood playmate discovered the family had been killed in their southeast Medicine Hat home.

Homicide detectives have wrapped up their investigation inside the family's house. Once the murder scene has been cleaned, relatives will be allowed inside to pack up their loved ones' belongings.

Medicine Hat police have not revealed how the Richardsons were killed. They continue probing the relationship between the 12-year-old and Steinke, an unemployed high school dropout.

Part of their investigation includes messages sent over the Internet. Plans to carry out a triple slaying of a local family may have been foretold to friends days in advance.

An April 20 message on vampirefreaks.com is believed to have been sent from accused killer Steinke.

The message, from what friends say is Steinke's souleater52 account, makes reference to "doing morbid stuff to others! ...which i'm going to do this weekend," days before the Richardson family was killed.

"We're looking into all connections between these two, which includes their friends, the Internet, or any other connection," said Sgt. Dave Townsend of Medicine Hat police.

The murders have rocked the city of 55,000, but it's not the first time Medicine Hat has endured the terrible sadness of a triple slaying.

On Jan. 18, 2001, 23-year-old Chris Anton LeClaire murdered his parents and brother Raymond, 60, Janet, 58, and Raymond Jr., 21.

LeClaire, a paranoid schizophrenic, kept police at bay during a 28-hour standoff.

A judge found him not criminally responsible for the shooting deaths of his family, whom he believed were imposters.

During sentencing, a surviving daughter of the couple said the family sought help from the medical and legal communities for two years prior to the killings, but it never came.
LeClaire shot his father once through the hand and chest, which was almost immediately fatal. He shot his mother while she was sitting in her bed in the arm and then in the chest. Next, LeClaire went into his brother's room and shot him in the left wrist, left bicep and then through his right wrist and right temple. He then covered their bodies with blankets.

Calgary Herald

Road to a massacre

The town of Leader is an oasis on the vast prairie of southwest Saskatchewan. Its tree-lined streets and green boulevards make for an idyllic setting for the 1,000-plus residents who live in a region billed as one of the sunniest places in North America and located in the district of Happyland.
By The Calgary HeraldApril 29, 2006
The town of Leader is an oasis on the vast prairie of southwest Saskatchewan. Its tree-lined streets and green boulevards make for an idyllic setting for the 1,000-plus residents who live in a region billed as one of the sunniest places in North America and located in the district of Happyland.

On Monday morning, Bill Clary, a custodian at the local school, rose to arrive for work early because he had to install a clock in the gymnasium before kids arrived for 9 a.m. classes. But as the 48-year-old pulled up in his van on the edge of the normally quiet town at 7:45 a.m., he was startled by what he saw.

Three RCMP vehicles had surrounded a small, green pickup truck in the school parking lot.

Two girls were face down on the pavement, another was being put inside a police cruiser. Small purple bath beads had spilled from the pick-up onto the asphalt.

Among the group was 23-year-old Jeremy Allan Steinke and his 12-year-old girlfriend, suspects in a triple slaying about 160 kilometres away in Medicine Hat. Their friends who were along for the ride thought they were on a camping trip.

The group offered no resistance and, from what Clary could see, were not wearing the heavy makeup, studded wristbands or black clothing typical of the goth subculture to which they belonged.

"They just looked like normal teenagers," says Clary, who'd recently returned to his hometown from Vancouver.

"When I saw it, I thought it was maybe just a drug bust," he says, adding he hadn't yet heard of the horror down the highway in Alberta's Gas City.

As Steinke was being arrested, he told one of the girls: "Tell my mom she can have my TV and that I love her."

The arrests occurred less than 16 hours after a little boy went up to the door at 304 Cameron Rd. S.E. in Medicine Hat to call on his friend Jacob Richardson, 8, who said in his kindergarten yearbook that he liked to run fast and wanted to be a policeman, or a soldier.
His six-year-old playmate saw a body inside the house.

When police arrived at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, they found the bodies of Jacob and his parents, Marc and Debra Richardson, who had moved to Medicine Hat from Okotoks three years ago.

The Richardsons were the picture of middle-class suburbia in southern Alberta's heartland.

Steinke, by contrast, had been into goth culture since his teens. Until three years ago, his young girlfriend had been an apparently average young girl.

In August, 2005, she joined a website and began posting profiles of herself. On one, she is seen holding a pistol. On another, under the heading, "The Storm of Sadness," she professed a love for "sharp junk," dark poetry, piercings, death metal music, bisexuality and wrote: "My heart and soul are filled with fear."

Her middle-class existence has left many wondering how a 12-year-old can go from Norman Rockwell to Norman Bates, dating a troubled 23-year-old man who lived in a trailer park with his mom and once professed to be a werewolf.

He, too, posted a personal profile on the Internet, in which he apparently fantasized about killing: "Their throats I want to slit," it said.

"Especially when I see that they are gone . . . Their blood should be payment!"
The girl was charged Monday along with Steinke with first-degree murder, indicating premeditation, in the three killings.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, she cannot be identified by name nor can anything be written that may tend to expose her identity, such as her online nickname, her school or the names of relatives and family.

Despite the disparity in their ages, friends say Steinke did not hold power or influence over the girl.

The pair met at an all-ages punk rock show in Medicine Hat and their relationship appears to have grown over the Internet.

The 12-year-old is not the first younger girl Steinke dated.

One woman, who asked not to be identified, bore him a child when she was 17 and he was 20. But she does not remember the relationship fondly and he's never met his child. Steinke was abusive and dating him was a big mistake, she says.

"I know exactly how (the 12-year-old girl) feels. She's probably regretting ever meeting him," the woman says.

But Steinke, a diminutive young man who was picked on in school, could be charming, too, and was eager to please. Despite rarely being able to hold down a job, he always had $10 or $20 in his pocket, she adds.

"He'd buy gifts and spend every penny he has and try to get close to the parents," she says. "He was fun. He always wanted to do what you wanted."

But she also remembers his quick temper and odd behaviour.

"He'd sit up in the middle of the night and start talking to himself," she says of Steinke, whom she dated for more than a year.

"I probably only know 10 per cent of him. He can change in a blink of an eye."

Since their break-up, the woman has watched his girlfriends "getting younger and younger."

Still, when it emerged that he'd started dating a 12-year-old girl, some of Steinke's friends warned him not to get involved.

"I told him that, 'You're 23-years-old, you're a grown man. You're dating a kid," says Daniel Clark, 22, an acquaintance.

"He stopped for a minute and looked at me. And I said, 'Well, that's just my opinion, Jeremy, but you should be having a job . . . you should not be living with your mother. You know, doing something with your life, not hanging around little high school kids."

Regardless of his age, Steinke lived with his mom much of his adult life, despite her own series of setbacks, including a terminal lung disease. Most recently, they lived in a trailer park near a graveyard and the municipal airport. Their lifestyle was unexceptional, according to one neighbour.

"He was a good guy," says Stephen Oldford, 21. "He was a good, young fella."

But a family friend, who asked not to be named, hinted at a troubled side. She said Steinke would start fights he couldn't finish, often with older boys.

"He was likable kid," adds the woman. "But he can be manipulative."

In recent weeks, however, Steinke's eccentric behaviour seemed to spiral.

His friend Jordan Attfield, 17, says he lived with Steinke for about three months but moved out after his buddy became increasingly agitated after breaking up with another girlfriend.

"And it started going downhill from there," he says. "He would sit there and stare at nothing."

Steinke then met the pretty 12-year-old girl at a punk show and the relationship seemingly blossomed. He often spoke of his love for the Grade 7 student with friends, insisting to some she was 14.

The infatuation seemed to know no limits. Friends say last Saturday his behaviour grew more erratic.

He made three phone calls to the home where his former roommate Attfield was living, looking for help to "scare" Marc Richardson.

"That morning he told me, 'We're doing it today.' I was like, 'What? You're doing what?' And he's, like, 'We're going to kill (them),'" Attfield recalls.

But Attfield says he didn't take his friend seriously.

Across town, meanwhile, there was no hint of trouble at the Richardson home.

Marc's new, white truck shimmered in the driveway outside their two-storey, suburban house. It was a picture-perfect evening for a family barbecue.

Jacob's friend from next door joined them for dinner that night, after Jacob had slept over at his little buddy's home on Friday.

At about 8 p.m., Steinke arrived at Attfield's residence to pick him up, but he wouldn't go, wanting no part of any trouble.

Steinke slammed the door and left.

Clark, a friend who'd known Steinke for about five weeks, said he called the 23-year-old at around 10:45 p.m. to ask what he was up to.

"He said, 'I'm watching a movie, I'll have to call you back when I'm done,'" recounts Clark.

But he never did.

On Sunday, about 1:30 p.m., the nightmare scene at the Richardson home was unearthed.

Steinke and the girl left town with three friends, eventually taking the pock-marked road into Leader, no more than an hour away from the home of Steinke's estranged father in Saskatchewan.

Crime scene investigators, dressed in white with hoods and foot coverings, descended upon the Richardsons' property.

A crowd watched Monday as they began removing the bodies, wrapped in purple coverings, from the house at 4:38 p.m.

As time passed, a shrine of sorts began to appear on a corner of the home's lawn as tribute to the family, growing nearly every day.

Throughout the week, relatives, friends and the people of Medicine Hat struggled to make sense of it all.

The connection between Steinke, a young man with no job living with his mother, and a junior high girl remains baffling to those outside the couple's social circle.

A family friend says his interest in underaged girls was inappropriate.

"Mentally, I think he was so young," the friend says.

His preference for teenaged friends paints a Svengali-like picture of Steinke only made clearer by the girls' devotion to him.

When the accused killers appeared in court Tuesday afternoon in Medicine Hat, a number of Steinke's young female friends filled the seats.

Several wept.

"I would have started crying if he'd looked at me," says Meghan, who has only seen her friend in court since the Friday before the murders.

"He gave me a hug and said 'See you later,'" she remembers.

"I'm going to hold him to the 'see-you-later' part."

szickefoose@theherald.canwest.com

tseskus@theherald.canwest.com

bremington@theherald.canwest.com

Calgary Herald Headline: Triple murder shocks city

The bodies of a man, woman and a preteen boy were found in a home in Medicine Hat on Sunday, and police are looking for a missing 13-year-old girl.

By The Calgary HeraldApril 24, 2006
The bodies of a man, woman and a preteen boy were found in a home in Medicine Hat on Sunday, and police are looking for a missing 13-year-old girl.
The adults were identified by neighbours as Marc and Debra Richardson, and the child their 10-year-old son. Police are asking for the public's help in finding Jasmine Richardson, 13, "on an urgent family matter." No Amber Alert was issued.
The Richardsons' next-door neighbour, Phyllis Gehring, had no idea anything was amiss at the home until police arrived at her door shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday.
"They just asked if we had seen anything unusual," said Gehring, still in shock at the news. "I hadn't seen anybody there today. I saw Marc barbecuing last night, but that was all I saw of them yesterday.
"I never heard a cross word between them, ever -- nothing like that," Gehring said. "They all went motorbiking together just the other day, and in the summertime, they played ball in the backyard together."
Medicine Hat Police Sgt. David Townsend said the incident is not believed to be a murder-suicide.
Townsend said police received a call at 1:34 p.m from a caller who said she thought she could see a body inside the home. According to reports, a young boy made the initial discovery when he went to call on a friend.
Townsend said he could not confirm the names of the deceased or how they died until after autopsies are performed later this week and next of kin have been notified.
ldohy@theherald.canwest.com