As per the press conference at 2:00, the information is as follows. They have a 23 year old male, Jeremy Steinke in custody. He lives in Medicine Hat and is well known to police. Also a 12 year old girl is in custody, and obviously they can not release her name. The police apprehended the pair in Leader, sask. and they are now in Maple Creek waiting for a bail hearing to be transferred here. The police would not confirm that the girl is Jasmine Richardson that they were looking for yesterday.
Although yesterday they did say she was 13. I will try to keep you updated.
- National Post
- Canada.com
- CTV (with a pic of Jeremy in the police car?)
- CBC
- Medicine Hat news (which was down for a bit today as the site could not handle the hits.)
I don’t like coincedences, I am sure this 12 year old is Jasmin, who else could it be. An interesting sidenote that I have heard from 3 different people in the neighbourhood is that this girl went extremely goth about a year ago.
This doesn`t sound good.
Someone else put forward the ‘girls parents don`t approve of the much older boyfriend and he/they kill the parents’ theory.
To me it either is that OR there is a mistake and by ‘in custody’ they mean ’saved from kidnapping’. That doesn`t sound too likely from the sounds of this however.
As an aside, I grew up down the street from another Steinke (possibly an older brother going by the age), and that kid was *bad news*. He was also well known to the police…
It’s all over the news here in Calgary today. It’s really sad.
I don’t think “going goth”, has anything to do with this. That is purely a self expression, and all teenagers do it, just in different ways.
On another note, does anyone remember the name of the kid who killed his mom for the insurance money about 10 - 15 years ago?
Korlack
my boss just called me
driving back from Brooks…
he passed two big PRISON vans heading towards Calgary…
perhaps they were hauling off the child and the guy….
have both of them been officially charged yet??
I’m not sure, but isn`t there a place inside medicine hat to hold minors, rather then shipping them to Calgary? Maybe there used to be but it closed..
According to the press release, the two (Jeremy and the 12 year old) are being charged with three counts each of first degree murder. They are currently in Maple Creek (I believe), waiting to be transported back to Medicine Hat.
I don’t believe it coincedences, I am sure at least part of this girl’s problem was refelcted it her decision to dress like a freak. Keep in mind I am not claiming she is a murderer just because she is goth, nor I am suggesting the goth lifestyle promotes murder and violence. I am sure most of the kids dressing like that are too ignorant to even know what it really means.
the most screwed up part about this, is i knew the guy on a first name basis (jeremy fricken steinke..jeeeez)
i heard jasmine richardson was found in a safe place but they wont say where
apparently there was a bail hearing in Swift Current not Maple Creek as was reported earlier and they are enroute back to the hat where they could have a hearing as early as tomorrow.
As far as causes, people always want to find a convienient answer or scape goat for a horrific crime, it makes them feel better I guess - but my formula for tragedy looks like this:
X + Evil = bad
its weird that whenever something terrible happens people want to blame “X” and overlook the evil part. When I was young Dungeons and Dragons was the culprit, now its video games and bad music. Goth lifestyle is the “X” but tragedy befell this family because they crossed paths with a very bad person.
12 years old is pretty young …its hard to say what role if any the “minor youth” had in all of this…how much is stupidity, how much is fear? Maybe she didnt believe him, maybe she didnt know it would happen until it was over…I guess we dont know. I hope the Police havent rushed to a quick decision - she may well be a giant victim.
Does anyone remember the Eileen McCoy Murder? They took her husband into custody and interrogated him for like 23 straight hours accusing him of murdering his wife…turns out he had nothing to do with it. Can you imagine dealing with the loss of your wife and then having all of that besides? he moved back to North Ireland shortly after the trial for the real killer - he said he felt safer there.
This is obviously a bit different since they have charged both of them, they must feel they have a case. My heart goes out to this young girl, 12 years old is just a child - I have a feeling that if not for a 23 year old criminal this tragedy never happens.
Medicine Hat News Website has this confusing link right under the news of Jeremy Steinke being charged
I know its just coincidence but where is their web guy on that?
http://www.tricubemedia.net/mdhnews/publish/article_1273.php
You went to the wrong story, that is a different Steinke “Steinke named Redcliff’s Lion’s Citizen of the Year”, Jim Steinke. You should go here:
http://www.tricubemedia.net/mdhnews/publish/article_1280.php
That should be the story of the arrest.
Lol, “N”, did you even read DangerMouse’s post above yours?
N
O
Oops, guess i read it wrong
lol…. no prob N… was just havin’ fun with ya!!!
i was trying to make a play on letters… the N was your nic, and the O was kind of like “oh”… PLUS it all spelled no, which was the correct answer to willy’s question. meh, it’s late.
Maybe unrelated…..BUT….
As I drove to the office tonight (about 5 to 7:00), I was on 6th ST SE, right near Alexandra Junior High. I noticed a police car parked right near the school, on the north side.
Slowing down (thinking it was radar), I noticed a second police car parked about a block and a half up the road.
Then I noticed the police van, sitting at the next intersection..not doing…anything. By now I’m wondering “WTF is going on??”
At this point I notice one of the cars I’m passing (as I’m passing it) has a crouched SWAT team officer in front of it, holding an assualt rifle (no idea what type), looking at a house just over. As I pass him, I see another cop, (gun drawn) running toward the house. Just as I finish passing the van pulls into the middle of the road, blocking all traffic and providing more cover possibly for the guy by the car. I don`t know if there were other officers in the car.
I didn`t stick around to see what happened, but from my building I could see the van blocking the street for some time..
?? Wierd …
that is wierd …maybe the police are a little more jumpy today too.
I have seen the SWAT guys with shotguns out before (at the crack house downtown on 3rd st)it is unnerving, but thats how they respond to certain calls based on dispatch info as far as I know.
I have to comment, and I hope it won’t be taken in an offensive way but that it might give some insight into “goth” kids. I happen to know several, they attend youth functions I help supervise. Alot of them are A students, full of love and laughter and have a personality unique to them. They dress that way to draw attention to themselves that sometimes they aren’t getting from home, or sometimes just from other kids. Some are making a bold statement, others are “outsiders” who just want to fit in. Please don’t judge them by how they dress, take the time to get to know them as a person instead of judging them by what you feel are “normal standards”. Look at Paul Bernardo …. he looked fairly “normal”. These kids are our future, like it or not. Cut them some slack and don’t rush to judge when you haven’t taken the time to find out what makes them tick. There. I said it. Hopefully haven’t offended anyone, and maybe, just maybe enlightened a perspective or two.
Fantastic post Hatter Citizen. I agree with you completely. I have been speaking to some people recently as this goth rumour has taken off, and many people paint them with the same brush. Like you say, many times it is just kids crying out for attention. Reminds of the bowling for columbine movie when they interview Marlyn Manson and they ask him what he would have told the killers, and he said I wouldnt have told them anything, I would have listened to them.
Ivan
The thing by Alezander school was a guy who’s wife called 911 because he was going to kill himself. Its accross the street from a lady I work with. Apparently it all worked out well in the end.
yeah it was in the paper this morning …guy surrendered to police without incident …but it is unnerving to see the SWAT team with weapons drawn in our community.
The Medicine Hat News is trying to capitalize off these murders by sticking their crappy tri-media banner all over that website.
Not only is the site poorly developed and at times, tabloid in nature, Poirier is using his connection to tri-media to try and drum up business.
Time for a change there, I think.
Just to clarify my point about her being goth. I did not mean to say being goth was the cause of what she did, being goth would be a sympton of whatever abnormal psychological (sic?) she had.
Yes Fat Elvis, that is true. Even my own kids (who I think are pretty normal) chat with other kids on MSN. I monitor their conversations (they are aware) and some of the stuff these kids talk about is crazy. It’s like once they get behind a computer, they can become anyone they want. They can feel important, tough, badboy, whatever and get drawn into other kids fantasy worlds too. Girls that appear so innocent and sweet can have the most vulgar thoughts and words, I’m sure it is just a facade to be liked and included. And the boys are just as bad. I’m not sure what we’ve opened up for our kids with the internet, but I know we have to monitor very closely as some of these relationships can take off rather quickly and lead them into places they are not really ready to go. Am I saying the internet is evil? Nope. Just that as parents (and concerned citizens) we need to be really aware of what is out there. And yes Mo, thank you for that comment too about what Marlyn Manson said about listening - that is so much of the problem nowadays, our society (including us as parents) can become so busy trying to make a better world for ourselves and those to follow that we forget that what they really need is an ear and genuiness (is that a word? hm, is now).
Dictionary.com: genuineness
Thank you
I thought it was close
I am a very opinionated person so here it goes… Do people honistly think the clothing you wear or how much makeup you wear turns you into a psyco? I do not think whats on the outside that has anything to do with how messed up you are on the inside. My hair has been many different colours i wear thick eyeliner and dark makeup and yet i find it realy distrubing that someone could kill their own family let alone kill anyone. Even if the makeup or the whole “turning goth” had anything to do with it do you realy think that changeing these kids on the outside by makeing them dress like preps or washing off their makeup is going to fix how truely messed up these people are on the inside?? Out if sight out of mind? I think not. Id also like to note that even the most normal looking person can be truely messed up on the inside. My family is a mess but to the public they seem perfect so id like to point out that if you honistly think its just the makeup wearing dark people you are wrong. Insted of everyone pointing fingers i think people should start to listen and not just try to fix the outside but take a look at whats on the inside because most oftin the inside is ware it truely counts.
What you wear does not make you a psycho, but if one dresses darkly and immerses themselves in negativity it would contribute. But as I said before I believe the whole goth freak thing is more of a symptom rather than a cause.
A symptom, fat elvis? It is a fad, nothing more.
In my day it was bell bottom pants, hot pants, army jackets and the like. How we dressed had nothing to do with what we thought.
Goth is popular amongst today’s youth. It is a ‘look’, nothing more.
What happened with this child came from inside. She was obviously struggling with who she was and what she wanted to be.
Perhaps she looked to the 23-year-old for love. Who knows?
The fact remains that during our teen years, most of us struggled with one thing or another. In today’s world, there are more things for these kids to cope with.
Drugs like crack/cocaine are one. Another is technology and then there is an educational system that expects these kids to be adults by Grade 4.
Obviously this girl was troubled. To paint an entire group with the same brush is unfair.
…and then there was hippi’s, flower children, pot, communes and all the other “evils of society” that at the time, were considered to be taboo.’
Times have changed, sure, but as far as youth, the only thing that has changed is the fad, and the fact that they have far more pressures than we did.
Also, in my day, technology and the TV set were not subsitutes for parenting.
We as a society have to take some responsibility with what we see happening today.
Anybody who dresses like a freak(i.e goth) is obviously troubled and has some sort of problem. Whether its feeling unloved, bored, upset that they are not getting everything they want in life, etc. there is something wrong with them.
To comment on your second comment about society taking responsibilty, I don’t think so. There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of teenagers who survive the age of 13-19(some from very underprivilaged backgrounds, much worse than this Jasmin) and actually make something of themselves. There are two kinds of people in this world, those that look for excuses to fail and those that look for reasons to succeed. The only fault of society is that we make it too easy for people to be part of the first group.
I don’t agree with you Fat Elvis.
We as a society have to take responsibility for not taking responsibility for our children.
We have to take responsibility for the Young Offenders Act.
We have to take responsibility for an educational system that expects children to be adults by age 10.
Those who fall through the cracks are the ones who commit crimes. Why do they do it?
Because no one cares.
The Goth thing is nothing but a fad. Talk to some dressed in black with piercings. They are decent, well-mannered kids.
Being a Goth does not make them murderers.
Whenever an accident or other critical event occurs in aviation (I have some expertise here), there is an investigative model called the “Reason’s Model”, named after the creator, James Reason, that is used to help identify the various factors that contributed to the incident. This model is also used in numerous other industires/fields including human factors/failures, medical, etc. Sometimes referred to as the “Swiss Chesse” model, it describes how there are numerous levels/conditons/situations, etc that if they all line up just right(or wrong), an incident occurs. Although the media and society as a whole often look for one causal factor to describe a tragic incident, it is never that simple. Is ‘goth’ to blame for this (or any other) horrible event? Absolutley not..by itself. Embracing the goth culture is a totally harmless method of expression for thousands (if not more), but in this case, it may have been a contributing factor. Listening to certain kinds of music does not cause most fans of that artist/genre to act out in a negative fashion, but can be a contibuting factor in a specific incident. Access to the Internet is a powerful and incrediblely useful tool in modern society, but used by the wrong people for the wrong things can lead to terrible events. So to end this rant, when tragedy strikes, there are numerous things that contribute to the final outcome. Recognize that they were a part of what happened, but do so with a detail brush, not a paint roller!
Great post Dutch.
That is a great post dutch …and here is my never too humble position.
My problem with the “blame society” position is that it completely ignores the individuals that did the deed. In my view the blame for this tragedy can be placed solely and simply on the shoulders of the perpetrator(s) of this heinous crime. My bugaboo in instances like this is the overwhelming desire to explain it externally from the participants of the crime. It seems that the whole of society is comfortable ignoring the elephant in the room. All the factors in the world do not explain the choices and misdeeds of one or more dark hearts. The murderers are responsible for the murders – it isn’t any circumstance that led them there. As proof you can just point to the millions of other people in similar circumstances that never lead to triple homicide. The difference is simply the individual and evil choice that certain individuals made – and that’s tough for people to accept. Wouldn’t it make us feel better to think that if only we prevent people from listening to Marilyn Manson (or whatever the scapegoat dejour is) that we could prevent tragedies? Sure it would and that’s why people do that, but it isn’t logical.
The deeper and scarier truth that nobody reaches for, but seems painfully obvious to me – is that our world consists of different kinds of people. Mostly good (in my experience), but some of them are very disturbed and dangerous. In my experience the disturbed and dangerous people are:
1) suffering from mental illness …often untreated and or
2) creating a mental illness or similar state through substance / drug abuse and or
3) Plain old evil.
If you take those 3 conditions in the society you will see that in all ages and all time those people produce tragedy. Whether its 1950, 1985 or 2006. It was never leather jackets, rock music, Dungeons and Dragons, piercing, Marilyn Manson, Harry Potter, Goth lifestyles or the Internet. Those were just things that bad young people did that marginalized them from adult society. (though I admit external pressures and environment contribute to their state to a certain degree)
Its like we are more apt to think of and analyze these alleged killers in the Goth community, or as teens instead of thinking of them in the proper category that they should belong to – mass murderers. It’s just my opinion but I believe if you looked at this young man in relation to other mass murders you would probably see more commonality than if you compare him to the youth goth culture - even though he may be a member of both groups.
EXELLENT thoughts, DangerMouse. However, you do need to consider something else. Either of the party’s involved may not have necessarily gone down the path they did, had they not connected with each other. Look at Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, both were evil on their own, but together….they reached new heights of depravity. “Both Lucas and Toole had committed homicide before hooking up with each other. Other cases, however, are examples of what the French call a folie a deux- a shared psychopathology that only operates when the two individuals come together. Separately, each man-however potentially violent-might never commit murder; together, they bring out each other’s most monstrous impulses” (The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, Harold Schechter and David Everitt)
Also look at Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, they certainly brought out the worst in each other, maybe this case is like that too, but of course, all of us are just hypothesizing, hopefull the truth will eventually come out.
Well presented positions both DM and mystic. Consider the following simplistic factors:
-predisposition to violence (evil by birth)
-access to a weapon
-association with like-minded individuals/groups
-failure by others to see warning signs
-providence (fate/luck/karma)
alter any one of these factors, and you MAY prevent an incident. If the person who committed the violence wasn’t ‘evil’ by nature, the other factors may not have been enough to trigger the sequence of events. Likewise, if other’s were able to detect and recognize warning signs, the event may have been averted. To quote Depeche Mode (whoa, dating myself here!) “Everything counts in small amounts”
“Everything counts in small amounts”
/consider yourself dated… good vintage tho. Heh!
I agree that people in combination might produce the “perfect storm” or that there is an awful kind of synergy produced when two or more people combine to produce something terrible…but even giving that all the other external factors are just excuses. It isnt Jello, or commericialism or Wayne Gretzky gambling that causes this to happen - its bad people making evil choices (or bad people forming a group that make even more evil choices) - if as a society we could just temper our anger and fear and direct it appropriatly at the people responsible - I think we would be more apt to catch and prevent situations like this from occuring…but so long as we focus on the boogeyman we miss any chance to understand what really happened …its almost lazy to just think video games and goth nail polish are to blame …because those things are easy targets and its a simple explaination.
just to date myself …in my day it was Wizards Castle and video arcades that would lead you to mass murder.
I think like-minded individuals will try to seek each other out… if a mind tends to lean in a certain direction (evil or not) it’ll feel more comfortable around minds that increase that comfort level….
Here is an interesting thought. The police made an error in releasing the girl’s name on Sunday night. Well we can see it was an error now but we can’t unring that bell and now we all know who the 12 year old is. In this day and age of the internet this means anybody can figure it out too by looking on blogs such as this. Now of course whatever the Young Offenders Act is called now prohibits the media from publishing her name(which is a shame because they are taking the criminal’s rights over the general publics rights but this is another discussion) but what laws are there governing websites, newsgroups and blogs? Is there any precedent on this? I am just curious because I think again we are seeing where technology is moving faster than the law and perhaps such publication bans will become impossible to enforce.
Danger Mouse, you may have opened up a whole new topic…Wizard’s Castle???? I LOVED that place!! See you at Bingo in the common area, I just got my walker!!
When a peson dresses in a way as to make themself stand out, such as in “goth” they make themselves more visabal to others that may prey apon more suseptable individauls, someone who feels unloved, feels the world is against them, there are a lot of people out there like this but we do not advertise it, if a girl or guy for that matter dresses in a fasion that says’”i’m unloved, not special, and i need attention” they make themselves more suseptable to people like 23 year old pedophiles.
As far as I know, it’s like the wild wild west out here in cyberspace, Fat Elvis, but there must be some pull somewhere, because certain posts at vampirefreaks.com have disappeared, and articles have been revamped.
We all know who the 12-year-old is, it’s her age that we’re not quite sure of.
First, the city’s finest said she was 13…now she is 12. Her profile says she is 15, some say she is 16.
One would think that prior to the release of her name, the cops could have at least gotten the details right.
…but then we are talking about rookies who feel it is ok to call someone up in the middle of the night, accuse them of not pulling over for an emergency vehicle…but?
No ticket ever shows up in the mail.
The Medicine Hat News and some of the City’s finest do us all proud.
Not.
Fat Elvis-
I think that was not an error, but a calculated move by the police sunday night. By going to the media saying she may be in danger, they were allowed to release pictures of her, and her name for the people to be on the lookout. by implicating her in the murder, then they would not have been able to plaster her picture on the news, etc. When they apprehended her, now shes a suspect, and they can not release her name. They side-stepped the YOA. It was a little weird that they got her age wrong, but otherwise I thought it was fairly smart on there part.
Dutch Pirate–
I think you meant Wizard’s eye down by the sin bin? now I might be dating myself….see you at bingo, senior.
That thought crossed my mind too that they might of did it on purpose but I also thought it could be an unfair accusation.
I think when the police called her thirteen it was a legitamate mistake, perhaps it was a neighbour or friend who gave them the age(after all they had no family here so maybe next of kin was unavailable). It does seem that they are calling her 12 now because that is her age and they have heard from an official source.
Personally I hope it is the wild wild west out there. I think everybody should know who she is and what she did. Maybe somebody should start a site with her picture on it called **edit by moderators*-(named 12 year old suspect and insulted her harsly)**.com. The owner could sell advertising on it and donate the profits to victims rights groups. I would do it but I have this laziness problem.
Wow. OMG Fat Elvis, that was blunt. How do you really feel about her? (grin) I still think that although EXTREMELY difficult, we need to refrain from getting to the point of judging without knowing the whole story.
You cant finish investigating a crime like this in 1 hour - a girls family is murdered and she is missing - it doesnt matter if some evidence points to her as a suspect or not you have to presume that she could very well be in imminent danger. Releasing her name on Sunday was not a mistake - its completly justified and well within the rules of investigating a crime like this….Just my two cents.
and obese Elvis….we dont have any EVIDENCE in front of us to determine if she had anything to do with it. Little girls deserve their day in court too ;)(or especially?)
As for publication bans - I think thats from a bygone era. Its the information age - I respect the young girls right to privacy but different media outlets all met the publication ban in their own way.
eg - Medicine Hat News - again yesterday published the names of the victims in the paper, which of course means they cant discuss the 12 year old girl as their article would imply her identity.
eg2) Sun Media - published a story about a 12 year old girl being charged with triple homicide in relation to the deaths of her parents and brother…all kinds of detail - but didnt publish her name or the families name to protect her identity
both newspapers complied with the legislation to my knowledge - but did so in different ways.
The problem with the Internet is that who controls it? Do us bloggers control what fat elvis types? To a certain extent yes but its slow and the cat gets out the bag anyways.
I think information is out there in any form if people want to dig for it, I personally think protecting her identity is a moot point.
Medicine Hat News today has a story about vampirefreaks.com - about 3 days after we talked about it here - would keeping the web site a secret changed anything or protected her identity further?
TO: Fat Elvis
When you made this particular statement:
“April 26th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Anybody who dresses like a freak(i.e goth) is obviously troubled and has some sort of problem. Whether its feeling unloved, bored, upset that they are not getting everything they want in life, etc. there is something wrong with them”
I have something to say about that. I will agree that some of todays youth are exactly what you described, but not all of them. I guess if someone was to look at me, they would see the heavy eyeliner, the fishnet nylons, the black hair, etc. but that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with me. I come from a wonderful home, my parents and I are extremely close, I don’t have any psychological issues, and I am not at all unloved. I am actually a happy, and healthy young person. I have marvelous grades, and am active in my community. I know that you were just stating what “in general” these young, and emotionally disturbed children do/act, but not all of us are like that. But I do understand where you were coming from in that statement.
Good post Alyssa!
“they would see the heavy eyeliner, the fishnet nylons, the black hair, etc. ”
do you have a picture
Andy… stay on topic.
heh.
trust me i know jazzy and hse is an amazing person! she didnt do it!!!i lu jazzerz!!
MIKKI
goth has turned into a way of life where have hal of u been??? in a cave!!!
Alysha, although I am sure you are confident in your self diagnosis I stand by my original statement. Please do not confuse it and think I mean all goths are like that one charged with murder. I would most likely say most people have issues and problems including myself.
And for those who think I am jumping the gun on my verdict of the girl being guilty I am not refering to legal guilt. I have no doubt that she was involved in the crime so as far as I am concerned she is morally guilty. As far as our justice system goes, only time will tell what the verdict will be(her legal guilt if any). I think they are wasting their time prosecuting her as the Canadian justice system exists to protect the criminals and not the victims or the citizens.
Mikki…you are not helping yourself by being callous. That is where the problem lays I think, is that these kids (not just the goth but the other groups that exist) go on the offensive (and can you blame them??) rather than using respect to get their point across. Not many people enjoy the “in your face” attitudes, therefore do not look past that to see the wonderful human beings most of them are. You included MiKKi - You are someone so full of potential and you need to not let anyone make you feel otherwise.
The thing that bothers me the most is the little brother thing - Why? If it was the parent’s that had the problem with them dating or whatever?! What did the little brother have to do with it, that is the sick, sick thing about the whole murder. Why, how could you kill a little kid!!!!!!
I heard the only reason why the boy was killed was he tried to escape. This is from my cousin who knows one one their accused’s friends. So although a somewhat believable explanation, you can take the statement for what it is worth.
bottom line.
WTF is a 12 year old doing on a vampire chat line putting up pictures of herself with a Webcam?
12 year olds shouldn’t know that CHAT exists
Wow i cant believe some one can be on here and say that little girl jasmine richardson never did this.
You know what you might have known her but that is just it how well did you know her i mean no matter if she was just there and never raised a hand in the killing she is guilty she knew this was going to happen and she never stopped it.
Dont tell me either she is young and he is old she can pick a phone up right she was caught in leader saskatchewan with the guy she was to have called friends and bragged that she and dumby there killed them.
Even thow she might not have killed them with the knife and just let him in the house she is guilty right dumby up there mikki