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Girl apologises to dead parents
11/07/2007 22:48 - (SA)
Alberta - Canada's youngest multiple killer begged for forgiveness in an apology she wrote just two days after her parents and brother's bloodied bodies were found in their home in Alberta.
However, jurors in the 13-year-old girl's murder trial never got to see the newly released letter because the judge ruled that police used heavy-handed tactics to get her to confess and to pen the apology in late April 2006.
The girl, who cannot be named under a Canadian law that protects the identity of minors, was convicted late on Monday of three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her mother, father and eight-year-old brother. She is the youngest convicted multiple killer in Canada.
The court released her apology letter on Tuesday.
Angry with her parents
"To my parents, I hope you know that through all that has happened I loved you the whole while," the girl, then 12, wrote.
"I wish I could take everything back. I wish it hadn't happened, I wish you were with me right now. Because now I have no one."
The teen, who is scheduled to be sentenced next month, was angry with her parents who had grounded her and restricted her from using the computer after they discovered her relationship with a man more than 10 years her senior.
The boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, also is charged with murder, but his trial date has not been set.
The girl wrote the letter in a police interrogation room shortly after police arrested her and Steinke, who was 23 at the time.
Apologises to her little brother
Justice Scott Brooker tossed both the letter and a partial confession in which the girl admitted they killed her little brother because he was too sensitive to survive without parents. The judge condemned the police for denying the girl's repeated requests for a lawyer.
Medicine Hat police Chief Norm Boucher defended his investigators, saying they were simply trying to get as much information as possible out of the girl.
In the letter to her family, the girl also apologises to her little brother. She admitted at trial that she tried to make her brother go to sleep by choking him while her parents were being killed.
She also confessed in court to stabbing him once, but said Steinke was one the one who slit his throat.
Maximum penalty of 10 years
"To my little brother I apologise for letting you hear what had happened, also for causing you any pain and for frightening you so much."
In her letter, the girl also asked her parents to forgive Steinke, saying killed out of love for her and because he was "under the influence of mind altering substance."
"He is most possibly the kindest person I've ever met his wish being only for my happiness."
The girl is to be sentenced on August 23 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years, with six of those behind bars. Steinke is expected to enter a plea next week and have his trial date set.
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