Canada’s decision to allow one of the country’s most notorious killers back on the streets, just 10 years after he murdered his young pregnant landlady for trying to collect rent, has been met with outrage.
Inuk student Loretta Saunders, 26, was three months pregnant with her first child and writing a thesis on murdered Indigenous women when Victoria Lee Henneberry and her boyfriend Blake Leggette beat and strangled her to death.
The killers set out on a 2,000-mile road trip in their victim’s stolen car from his apartment in Halifax, Nova Scotia, dumping his body in a hockey bag on the side of a road along the route.
Henneberry, now 39, was sentenced to life in prison, but has now been granted a month of unescorted release from her minimum-security prison so she can attend courses on “stress management,” “employment preparation ” and “trauma support.”
“Letting a depraved killer make unsupervised 30-day visits to the community makes a lot of sense,” Farly Tawamski wrote. ‘What could go wrong?’
Pregnant student Loretta Saunders was three months pregnant with her first child when she was murdered by her tenants while trying to collect $400 rent.
The couple discussed their plan five days before the murder. ‘Should I do it?’ Blake Leggette asked his girlfriend Victoria Lea Henneberry. “You don’t have guts,” he prompted.
The killer tenants had contacted Saunders on rental site Kijiji in 2013 after she advertised her apartment for rent in a bid to pay her student fees at Saint Mary’s University.
The couple soon fell behind on their rent and video was later recovered of them planning to murder Saunders the next time she came to the apartment.
‘Should I do it?’ Leggette asked Henneberry.
“You don’t have guts,” he prompted.
The Parole Board of Canada took note of what happened next when they announced their decision to prepare Henneberry for release last week.
“Her boyfriend strangled the victim, tried to suffocate her with several plastic bags, and slammed her head against the ground twice,” they wrote.
‘The victim fought back until he hit her head on the ground and she stopped moving. (Leggette) put the victim’s body in a hockey bag and then cleaned the apartment.
—Your boyfriend took the victim, in the hockey bag, to his car and put her in the trunk. They both packed some things and left the apartment. He used the victim’s bank card to purchase food and supplies.
“When you arrived in New Brunswick, you and your boyfriend dumped the victim’s body, still in the hockey bag, on the side of the road.”
Hours later, Saunders’ boyfriend received a strange text message saying she had been locked out of her online banking account and couldn’t remember her mother’s maiden name to unlock it.
Henneberry has now been granted a month of unescorted release from his minimum security prison so he can attend courses on “stress management” and “trauma support.”
Leggette remains in prison and is currently not eligible for parole for the next 15 years.
Saunders also had a “suspiciously short” text message conversation with his sister before all contact ceased.
The couple drove to Harrow, Ontario, along the Detroit River, where Henneberry found shelter at a friend’s house.
Four days after the murder, police picked up a signal from Saunders’ phone in nearby Windsor.
Henneberry answered the phone when they called the next day, giving the investigator false names and birthdates for herself and her boyfriend, and claiming they were 1,300 miles away, on Prince Edward Island.
But police arrested the couple later that day after seeing the stolen car and brought them back to Nova Scotia on February 24.
The couple pleaded guilty at trial and Leggette was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.
Henneberry admitted second-degree murder and was also sentenced to life in prison, but was told she would be allowed to apply for parole after ten years.
Saunders’ family was outraged by the sentence and her mother, Miriam, left the court in tears.
“My girl is gone,” he told the judge upon his return. “She hasn’t been gone in 10 or 25 years, she’s gone forever.”
Saunders’ sister, Delilah Saunders, who later committed suicide, screamed: “Do you know what you’ve done?” in Henneberry in court when the sentence was handed down.
“You have stolen my sister.”
The case became a cause célèbre in Canada and prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to establish a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in 2017.
The parole board has granted Henneberry seven escorted stays at a halfway house before deciding that she could make the three-hour bus rides herself despite her “serious concerns about (her) low level of knowledge and her responsibility.” limited by the index crime”.
The trip will include visits to the gym and community outings to ‘renew personal identification’.
“You appear to be motivated to participate in each of these activities as part of a slow and gradual reintroduction to the community,” the board wrote.
The former mortgage worker, who now practices Wicaan, began reclaiming her Indigenous heritage while in prison, identifying as an “American Cherokee.”
Five years ago she tried to get an early release from prison with the help of a support center for indigenous women, but the center denied her request.
The Inuk student was studying law and writing a thesis on murdered indigenous women when she herself was beaten to death and strangled.
The case became a national scandal in Canada and led Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to establish a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in 2017.
The murderous tenants drove almost 2,000 miles from the crime scene in Saunders’ car.
In 2020 he was granted permission to attend a percussion session at ‘Healing of the Seven Generations’ in Waterloo, Ontario.
But the organization banned her after Saunders’ family warned her that she had murdered a woman of Inuk heritage.
‘The victim’s family has suffered lifelong loss, noting that three lives have been taken; “The victim, her unborn child and a sister committed suicide,” the board said in its decision.
‘His criminal offense has had a lasting impact on the victim’s family and community. “The family continues to experience significant trauma.”
However, they concluded: ‘It is evident that you have developed a positive relationship with the program facilitator and staff and your motivation to attend more programs (there) is considered risk mitigation.
“The board concludes that his risk is manageable in the context of (unaccompanied temporary absence), which is a limited form of release for a specific purpose and with a structured plan in place.”
