# Update to a Depressing Headline: 12 Year Old Girl Charged with Murder **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2007, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337 "2007-06-17T05:19:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/1 "2007-06-17T05:19:20Z")
A year ago, we had a bit of a discussion about this topic: [Here’s a Depressing Headline: 12 Year Old Girl Charged with Murder](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368974). The matter has now gone to trial, and it’s fully as depressing as the original reports. [Girl’s Blood found on Knife](http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=3afa7ecb-ec2c-4c2d-9484-9c4838bf0ee3) > [@](#): > > Blood belonging to a 13-year-old girl accused of murdering her parents and brother was found on a knife that also had traces of blood from one of the victims, an expert testified Friday. > > The RCMP’s Robert Schimpf, a DNA expert, told the court Friday the girl’s blood was found on a black-handled knife found in an upstairs bathroom at the suburban Medicine Hat home. > > Inside the blood-soaked home, the bodies of the girl’s eight-year-old brother and her parents were discovered on April 23, 2006. > … > The 13-year-old girl faces three counts of first-degree murder. > > The parents’ bodies were found in the basement of their four-level split home. The father, who was wearing boxer shorts, had 24 stab wounds. The mother was stabbed 12 times and was wearing a blue nightgown. > > Their son was found in bed upstairs with his throat hacked open. [Girl had murderous fantasies, court told](http://www.thestar.com/News/article/225642) > [@](#): > > A cartoon showing one person coating three others in gasoline and laughing as they’re burned alive was seized from a girl’s school locker just hours after her family was found stabbed to death, a jury heard yesterday. > > Police and school staff discovered the cartoon during a search for the girl after her parents and younger brother were found in their blood-soaked home in April 2006. > > … > > The 10-frame drawing starts off with four stick figures going for a walk as the sun shines. There are two clearly larger figures, a small third figure and a fourth labelled “Angry.” > > The pencil-drawn narrative shows the fourth figure pouring gasoline into a sprinkler system, turning it on and drenching the others. The smallest figure is on a swing when it says, “Oh no, we’re covered in gasoline.” > > The fourth figure then lights the gasoline and smiles as the others run around in flames and cry for help as their flesh is burned off. > > The sequence ends with one stick figure lying on the ground. A caption reads “The Unimaginable Pain.” Two other smiling stick figures look on. A final frame depicts the fourth figure running off to a vehicle labelled as “Jeremy’s truck.” ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/2 "2007-06-17T06:08:39Z")
It just goes to show what I’ve always said about Canadians … turn your back on them and they go hacking people up left and right. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/3 "2007-06-17T07:14:44Z")
WTF? Note this part from the article: > [@Leader-Post](#): > > The same blood is identified on seven stained pieces of black clothing that court heard were worn by Jeremy Allen Steinke, 24, who was identified in court as the accused’s boyfriend. > > Steinke is also charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He has not entered a plea and will be tried separately. She’s 13 and had a 24 year old boyfriend (who seems like a probable accomplice)? I think there is more to this story than meets the eye. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/4 "2007-06-17T08:27:35Z")
Isn’t this the same girl who claimed she was a vampire, and her boyfriend’s a 400-year-old werewolf? Since vampires & werewolves are mortal enemies, I find that oddly romantic. Well…aside from the killings. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/5 "2007-06-17T18:10:14Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy] It just goes to show what I’ve always said about Canadians … turn your back on them and they go hacking people up left and right. [/QUOTE] Yeah. I’m sure that’s exactly what you believe. More likely we’ll get stepped on by someone and say ‘sorry!’ to them. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/6 "2007-06-17T18:52:12Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] \She’s 13 and had a 24 year old boyfriend (who seems like a probable accomplice)? I think there is more to this story than meets the eye. [/QUOTE] No, actually, she was 12, and had a 23 year old boyfriend when they killed her parents and younger brother (she’s 13 now). She was obviously not your average tween, and a 23 year old guy dating a 12 year old isn’t much to write home about, either. All around, it’s a sickening story, and yeah, we probably won’t ever know why any of it happened. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/7 "2007-06-18T00:53:02Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] we probably won’t ever know why any of it happened. [/QUOTE] I don’t know, this is the kind of story those Dateline-type shows eat up with a spoon. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/8 "2007-06-18T03:23:25Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy] It just goes to show what I’ve always said about Canadians … turn your back on them and they go hacking people up left and right. [/QUOTE] It’s that six months of darkness every summer that does it. Turns 'em into vampires. Or werewolves. Or both. Vampwolves! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/9 "2007-06-18T04:07:53Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] I don’t know, this is the kind of story those Dateline-type shows eat up with a spoon. [/QUOTE] They can do all the stories they want; I don’t think we’ll ever really know why a 12 year old would kill her family, or why a 23 year old would help a 12 year old kill her family. **Enter the Flagon** , six months of darkness in summer? Are you sure about that? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/10 "2007-06-18T05:46:30Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] They can do all the stories they want; I don’t think we’ll ever really know why a 12 year old would kill her family, or why a 23 year old would help a 12 year old kill her family. [/QUOTE] Maybe not, but that won’t stop them from interviewing every third-cousin in Siberia, until they can claim that the kid was the sexually abused love-child of Karl Rove and Hillary Clinton. Not that we know she isn’t, mind you - all the facts aren’t in yet. [QUOTE=featherlou] **Enter the Flagon** , six months of darkness in summer? Are you sure about that? [/QUOTE] Well, obviously. We know this by the simple process of didaction. Since the autumn in the Northwestern Hemisphere lasts just 3 months, this leaves only 6 months of summer. Duh? Or was that some kind of trick question? You a vampwolve? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/11 "2007-06-18T15:24:22Z")
[QUOTE=Enter the Flagon] \Well, obviously. We know this by the simple process of didaction. Since the autumn in the Northwestern Hemisphere lasts just 3 months, this leaves only 6 months of summer. Duh? Or was that some kind of trick question? You a vampwolve? [/QUOTE] Now I’m sure you’re just messing with us. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/12 "2007-06-18T16:54:58Z")
How can a cartoon with stick figures show their skin burned off? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/13 "2007-06-18T18:48:32Z")
In the accompanying narrative. More detailed summary of the cartoon here: [Disturbing sketch found in girl’s locker shown to jury - Stick figures drawn on single sheet of paper tell the dark tale of a family burned alive](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070615.MEDHAT15/TPStory/National) > [@](#): > > It begins with two large stick figures holding hands and one touching the head of a smaller figure under the caption, “Let’s go for a walk.” Off to the side is another small stick figure labelled “angry.” > > Next is a picture of the seemingly happy threesome while the smaller figure makes its way along a road, into the sun and toward a vehicle labelled “Jeremy’s truck.” > > The cartoon also shows a figure purchasing gasoline, pouring it into sprinklers and then holding a flaming lighter. The utterance “mwahaha” is written. > > The couple appears to be seated on a bench. The child is playing on a swing. The words “Oh no” are written by them. So is the phrase, “We’re covered in gasoline.” Flames engulf both the child and the larger figures. > > " **Ahh, I’m burning alive!" is written. So is “Help! Help! My flesh is being burned off!”** At one point, a figure appears to run along a road while another lies on the ground screaming, “The unimaginable pain!” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/14 "2007-06-30T15:02:21Z")
More depressing testimony: [Online messages talked about Medicine Hat killings, says witness](http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/06/29/medhat-trial.html) > [@](#): > > A 12-year-old girl sent an online message to her boyfriend detailing a plan to kill her parents one month before her entire family was found stabbed to death in their Medicine Hat home, a jury heard Friday. > … > Sgt. Timothy Schottner testified that the girl went by the name “Runawaydevil,” and her boyfriend and co-accused, Jeremy Steinke, called himself “Souleater.” > … > Runawaydevil replied with a message saying she had a plan that “begins with me killing them, and ends with me living with you.” > > In response, Souleater said he loved the plan, but added they needed to get “a little more creative” with the details. [Accused Told Gruesome Tale](http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2007/06/28/4296588-sun.html) > [@](#): > > MEDICINE HAT – The victims of a triple slaying were “gutted like fish” and the young boy among them “gargled” as he died, the couple charged with their killings said, court heard yesterday. > > Jeremy Steinke and his pre-teenage girlfriend made the comments to one of his best friends just hours after the gruesome killings, jurors were told. > > James Whalley, 24, testified he spoke privately with Steinke and the girl, who was 12 at the time, the afternoon of April 23, 2006. > > Whalley said Steinke asked to speak to him in a bedroom of the Medicine Hat home the accused killers went to hours after the triple murders. > > “Jeremy said they’d, him and (his girlfriend), had murdered her family,” Whalley said of the conversation which took place in the pre-teen’s presence. > > “And Jeremy said he gutted them like fish and (she) said her brother gargled,” Whalley told Crown prosecutor Stephanie Cleary. The Crown has closed its case. The trial continues with defence evidence on Tuesday. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/15 "2007-06-30T15:24:12Z")
What the heck do you do with a kid like that? Mental institution for the rest of her life? Or only until she is an adult? I can’t imagine it would be a good thing to let her go after she has 10 years to learn more things from other criminals. As much as I would love to believe that in the right place she could be helped- I just don’t think it’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/16 "2007-06-30T15:34:34Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] How can a cartoon with stick figures show their skin burned off? [/QUOTE] This is what I came to add. Methinks the writer of the story was projecting and elaborating to make the whole thing more gruesome. 😕 But really, a story about a pre-teen murdering her family doesn’t need to be made more gruesome. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/17 "2007-06-30T15:35:44Z")
[QUOTE=Enter the Flagon] It’s that six months of darkness every summer that does it. Turns 'em into vampires. Or werewolves. Or both. Vampwolves! [/QUOTE] No, silly…werepires! Sorry for the flippancy, but since I have a nine year old son, I find myself gagging over here… ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/18 "2007-06-30T15:42:26Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Lendervedder] This is what I came to add. Methinks the writer of the story was projecting and elaborating to make the whole thing more gruesome. 😕 But really, a story about a pre-teen murdering her family doesn’t need to be made more gruesome. [/QUOTE] Post number 13 has more details that make the account more understandable. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/19 "2007-06-30T15:53:13Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Post number 13 has more details that make the account more understandable. [/QUOTE] Lendervedder’s Law: Shortly after pointing out to somebody that they have not fully read a thread before posting, you will have it pointed out to you that you have not fully read a thread before posting. [Cite.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8732658&postcount=126) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337/20 "2007-06-30T16:35:05Z")
[QUOTE=Spit] What the heck do you do with a kid like that? Mental institution for the rest of her life? Or only until she is an adult? I can’t imagine it would be a good thing to let her go after she has 10 years to learn more things from other criminals. [/QUOTE] Well, it doesn’t sound from the media reports that she’s alleging mental disorder - I think she’s just entered the basic “not guilty” plea. Since she was under 14 at the time of the killings, if found guilty she’s looking at a maximum sentence of ten years. And, we’ve not yet heard the defence evidence. I imagine it will be a cut-throat defence, that the boyfriend did it and she couldn’t stop it. But we’ll have to wait and see. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/update-to-a-depressing-headline-12-year-old-girl-charged-with-murder/408337.md?page=2)