Monday, April 23, 2012

Remembering the Richardson Family




Six years ago on this day, Marc, Debra, and little Jacob Richardson were brutally murdered in their suburban home in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It was Jacob's best friend who discovered the bloody scene after peering through a basement window; he rushed next door to get his mother, but it was too late.

The only member of the Richardson family who escaped the massacre was 12 year JR, and nobody knew where she was. Initially, police suspected the worst -- that the beautiful, young girl had been abducted by the monster(s) who had murdered her family. As the hours ticked by, JR's disappearance began to take on a decidedly more sinister flavour.

JR was eventually convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, and sentenced to the maximum allowable penalty of ten years imprisonment under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. She was given credit for eighteen months spent in custody awaiting her trial. Her treatment plan entailed four years in a psychiatric facility, followed by 4.5 years under conditional supervision in the community.




JR's then-boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, was also tried and convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in the Richardson slayings. On December 15, 2008, Steinke was sentenced to three life terms to be served concurrently. After serving 25 years, Steinke will become eligible for parole. Steinke is currently in the process of appealing his conviction:

"I didn’t appeal sooner because I’m new to the system and did not know what I was doing, and at the time I could not find a lawyer who would take my case." 

After they were arrested about 100 km from the crime scene (reportedly laughing and joking about the killings with their friends), Jeremy and JR pledged to marry each other through jail house love letters they exchanged. However, as far as anyone can tell, their relationship failed to withstand the court proceedings. While Jeremy admits to stabbing JR's parents to death, he maintains that it was his young girlfriend who fatally wounded her little brother, Jacob. 

The way JR tells it, although she and Jeremy had sometimes fantasized about killing her parents, like Mickey and Mallory Knox did in the popular film Natural Born Killers, she never seriously meant them any harm. She suggested the dark fantasies they shared were simply part and parcel of the "goth" subculture to which they belonged. The emails and instant messages she had sent to Jeremy, the stick-figure drawings depicting the death of her family, and the jokes she made to her friends after the killings were all just an act; none of it was for real.

As of the time of this writing, JR is reportedly living in a halfway house while attending Mount Royal University in Calgary, and holding down a part-time job. She was recently awarded an extension of her curfew following "significant progress" in her young offender rehabilitation program along with the excellent grades she is making in school.



"I am the almighty Jaxz. Bow down."

13 comments:

  1. You should've fried

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  2. Anon: Agreed.

    What troubles me most is that in order to protect this little killer, law prevents us from honouring her victims by name.

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  3. Its scary to think shes going to school, that she will meet someone, marry and have kids after what she did! will the poor soul ever know what she did!!! How can she even live with herself. its far to scary to think shes out there! they should have found ways to keep her locked up even if she couldnt have been tried as an adult, surely they could have kept in for ten years then moved to a secure mental facility or something! its technically not prison. something should have been done to keep her off the streets!

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    1. I can tell you one thing: I'm sure glad I don't live anywhere near Alberta! Of course, I've heard rumblings that she could come to live with extended family in Ontario after her sentence is completed... Personally, I don't think she'd like it here; the mall goth scene is, like, *so* dead.

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  4. I'm From medicine hat, alberta.. Anyone house the address of the murder house?

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    1. In the interest of the peace and comfort of the family living in the house now, I don't feel comfortable posting the address online. I'd be happy to share via email, however. Toss me a line if you like :)

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  5. Such a horrible story. She should still be in jail.

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    1. Yup another psycho out in the streets! We will hear her name again in the future and not for good deeds

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    2. Yup another psycho out in the streets! We will hear her name again in the future and not for good deeds

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  6. Psychopathy is incurable. Like all psychopaths she has learned to fake looking normal, and most psychiatrists get fooled. She will always be a predator. When will modern society have the courage to protect itself from psychopaths.

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    1. Not until you put them down like rabid dogs. You can't be PC and be safe.

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