We all know that when people are young, they all like to dream. Some people want to be heroes like Guo Jing and Cheng Lingsu, some people want to be alchemists, and some people take mary sue life as their goal... No matter how absurd these ideas are, they are actually part of youth, beautiful, innocent, and equally worth cherishing.
Of course, if you can't distinguish between dreams and reality, or even ignore the rules in real society, then it will not only be dreams that will eventually be broken, but also your own life. The case I'm going to talk about today is such a strange example...
prompt
◆There are minors among the victims in this case.◆
The case took place on April 23, 2006, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, CAN, Alberta, Canada.
That morning, a 6-year-old child passed by the door of a family while playing. Out of curiosity, or providence, he leaned over the window and took a look, and this look frightened him and cried and went home:
On the living room floor of the family,200 corpses lay impressively, covered in blood.
After receiving the alarm, the police rushed to the scene. The two bodies on the floor were the man and woman of the family: Marc Richardson, who died at the age of 42, and Debra Richardson, who died at the age of 48.
The police then searched the house and found a body in the bedroom on the second floor: the family's son, Jacob Richardson, who was only 8 years old!
▲ Once a happy family of three
The police went to the surrounding neighbors to find out what was going on, and unexpectedly learned of a special situation: the family actually had another child: daughter Jasmine Richardson, who was 12 years old.
The police did not dare to be idle, and carefully searched the outside of the house again to determine that Jasmine was alive and dead. The murder of her parents and the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl are of course heart-wrenching, and no matter what the murderer's purpose in kidnapping her, the result may not be much better...
▲The police transported the body of the deceased out of the scene
At the same time, the police also carried out investigation work at the scene.
First of all, the police confirmed that the doors and windows of this small building were intact, and there was no trace of prying or dialing of the door locks, that is, the murderer entered the door peacefully. The property at the scene does not appear to have been lost, and the murderer did not come to rob the property.
▲The scene of the crime in this case
From the autopsy, Ms. Debra was stabbed 12 times in the body; Mr. Mark seemed to have fought with the gangsters, and there were scars left by the robbery of the knife on his hands, and he was stabbed a total of 22 knives; Jacob seemed to have been killed in his sleep, and was directly cut by a knife in the neck artery, and the blood stained the entire bed red.
Obviously, the murderer had an iron heart to kill three people, and the means were extremely cruel, what kind of hatred would be so mad?
Thinking about it, the police suddenly thought of a problem: if Jasmine had been robbed by the murderer, then of course she was dangerous now, probably right next to the murderer; if she had not been robbed by the murderer, such a big thing had happened in the family, and she should come back as soon as she knew about it.
In any case, finding Jasmine is an important direction to solve this case.
Soon, through various channels, the police determined that Jasmine had gone to Leader, Saskatchewan, about 130 kilometers from the scene of the crime, with one of her boyfriends in the early hours of the night of the crime. With the cooperation of the local police, the day after the crime, the two were caught in Reed.
From the expression, the two were quite calm, neither shocked nor sad, but with a smile that could not be suppressed, even if the police told her that her parents and brother had been killed, she did not react.
The police suddenly had a strange feeling: Shouldn't it be, this bloody case was done by her and her boyfriend?
▲ Miss Jasmine Richardson
The police quickly found out that Jasmine was usually addicted to various vampire and werewolf legends, played computer games with such themes, and often spoke on forums about werewolves, which seemed to be very serious.
Usually, on the Internet, she also likes to dress herself up as a non-mainstream look, so that her parents have a lot of criticism.
▲ Non-mainstream photo of Jasmine
Her boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke, was 23 years old, almost twice her age!
These two people, it is reported that they met through this vampire forum and developed a good feeling.
At the forum, Jeremy Staat always boasted that he was a werewolf with an immortal body, and was already more than three hundred years old at the time- this kind of stupid thing is certainly scorned by ordinary people, but Jasmine still seems to take it seriously.
▲ Jeremy Sturgeon's true appearance
Jasmine and Staat were quickly brought back by the police for investigation.
Since they did not have any strong physical evidence at hand, the Canadian police had a strange solution: they found two policemen, disguised as prisoners, and locked them in the same cell as the two men, looking for clues from their usual conversations.
Soon, the undercover officer became acquainted with Stan, who began to brag about the crime he had committed. The undercover officer asked him, have you heard of the bloody case of the Richardson family of three?
Stace grinned, "Haha, me and my girlfriend, this is famous!" ”
Subsequently, he gave a detailed introduction to the crime process, including the two adult victims who were stabbed in which parts and how many knives were stabbed, which were information that the police had not disclosed, and he could tell it so smoothly, indicating that it was deeply related to the case. Speaking of the crime, he said a chilling sentence:
The old man asked me, "Why?" "I told him, this is what your daughter asked me to do!" Ha ha!
Speaking of Jacob, Tank gives a surprising answer: the knife-wielding partner was actually his girlfriend, Jasmine, who personally killed his 8-year-old brother.
On Jasmine's side, the police found a text message she sent to Staat on her mobile phone, which was quite straightforward:
I have a plan. The plan began when I killed them, and the plan ended with me with you. （I have this plan. It begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you.）
The police soon find Jasmine's friends and learn that the Richardsons are adamantly opposed to Jasmine and Tank coming together, and are cutting off their financial resources as a means.
For a 12-year-old girl, of course, it is difficult to do without financial resources, perhaps, this is what makes her kill?
▲News reports on the case
In 2007, the case was officially opened, and both were charged with 3 murders. Both said they did not admit guilt, but Jasmine admitted in court that the case was her own doing, and explained her motives:
I love him so much. I think that by doing so, we can get closer to each other. （I loved him so much. I thought it would bring us closer together.）
The prosecutor asked her, even if your parents opposed you being together and made you kill, your brother Jacob, who is only 8 years old, why are you so cruel that even he has to be killed?
Jasmine replied that it was for his own good, because she felt that since both of her parents were dead, leaving him alone in the world would be cruel. ”（it was too cruel to leave him without their parents.）
The prosecution also recruited Jasmine's classmates as witnesses, proving that she had carefully said many times before the crime how to kill her parents, but unfortunately, no one took it seriously at that time, nor did they report to the school for psychological counseling in time, and when the catastrophe caused, everything was too late.
In September 2007, both were convicted. Given that Jasmine was only 14 years old at the time and could not be severely punished according to the law, she was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison, the first 4 years of which she had to be educated in a correctional institution, and the rest of the time allowed for parole under community supervision.
Jeremy Staat was sentenced to 3 life sentences, with a minimum of 25 years, before being released on parole.
In addition, Jasmine's good friend Kacy Lancaster, who drove the two away after the crime, was also accused of complicity in the case.
However, considering that she counterattacked at the trial and acted as a tainted witness to testify against the two men, the court finally found her guilty of "obstruction of justice" and sentenced her to 1 year in prison, suspended for 1 year.
In 2012, Jasmine Richardson was released on parole and later at the University of Calgary (Univ. of Calgary) to complete his studies. In 2016, she was officially released from prison, and under Canadian law, her criminal record was sealed, and she started her life again.