Outrage has greeted Canada‘s decision to let one of the country’s most notorious killers back on the streets, just 10 years after she murdered her young pregnant landlady for trying to collect the rent.
Inuk student Loretta Saunders, 26, was three months pregnant with her first child and writing a thesis on murdered indigenous women when she was bludgeoned and strangled to death by Victoria Lee Henneberry and boyfriend Blake Leggette.
The killers set off on a 2,000 mile road trip in their victim’s stolen car from the apartment in Halifax, Nova Scotia – dumping her body in a hockey bag on the side of a highway along the route.
Henneberry, now 39, was sentenced to life but has now been granted a month’s unescorted day release from her minimum-security prison so she can attend courses on ‘stress management’, ’employment readiness’, and ‘trauma support’.
‘Letting a depraved murderer out on unsupervised 30-day visits to the community makes perfect sense,’ wrote Farly Tawamski. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’
Pregnant student Loretta Saunders was three-months pregnant with her first child when she was murdered by her tenants as she tried to collect $400 rent
The pair discussed their plan five days before the murder. ‘Should I do it?’ Blake Leggette asked girlfriend Victoria Lea Henneberry. ‘You don’t have the balls,’ she goaded.
The murderous tenants had contacted Saunders on the lettings 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 the balls,’ she goaded.
The Parole Board of Canada noted what happened next as they announced their decision to prepare Henneberry for release last week.
‘Your boyfriend choked the victim, tried to suffocate her with several plastic bags, and hit her head off the floor twice,’ they wrote.
‘The victim fought back until he hit her head on the floor, and she stopped moving. (Leggette) put the victim’s body into a hockey bag, and then cleaned up around the apartment.
‘Your boyfriend carried the victim, in the hockey bag, to her car and placed her in the trunk. You both packed some items and left the apartment. You used the victim’s bank card to buy food and supplies.
‘When you drove into New Brunswick, you and your boyfriend dumped the victim’s body, still in the hockey bag, on the side of the highway.’
Hours later Saunders’ boyfriend received a bizarre text message saying she had locked herself out of her online banking account and could not remember her mother’s maiden name to unlock it.
Henneberry has now been granted a month’s unescorted day release from her minimum-security prison so she can attend courses on ‘stress management’, and ‘trauma support’
Leggette remains in prison and is currently ineligible for parole for the next 15 years
Saunders also had a ‘suspiciously short’ text message conversation with her sister before all contact ceased.
The pair drove all the way to Harrow, Ontario, next to the Detroit river where Henneberry found refuge in 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 dates of birth for her and her boyfriend, and claiming they were 1,300 miles away on Prince Edward Island.
But police arrested the pair later that day after spotting the stolen car, bringing them back to Nova Scotia on February 24.
The pair 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, but told she would be allowed to apply for parole after ten years.
Saunders’ family was outraged at the sentence, with her mother Miriam leaving the court house in tears.
‘My girl is gone,’ she told the judge on her return. ‘She’s not gone for 10 or 25 years, she’s gone forever.’
Saunders’ sister Delilah Saunders, who later killed herself, screamed ‘Do you know what you’ve done?’ at Henneberry in court as sentence was passed.
‘You’ve stolen my sister.’
The case became a cause celebre in Canada and prompted PM 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 in a halfway house before deciding she could take the three-hour bus rides herself despite their ‘serious concerns about (her) low level of insight and limited responsibility for the index offence’.
The trip will involve 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 one-time mortgage worker, who is now a practicing Wicaan began claiming indigenous heritage herself while in prison, identifying as an ‘American Cherokee’.
Five years ago she tried to secure early release from prison with the help of an indigenous women’s support center, but the center denied her application.
The Inuk student was studying law and writing a thesis on murdered indigenous women when she herself was bludgeoned and strangled to death
The case became a national scandal in Canada and prompted PM Justin Trudeau to establish a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2017.
The murderous tenants drove nearly 2,000 miles from the murder scene in Saunders’ car
She was granted permission in 2020 to attend a drumming session at the ‘Healing of the Seven Generations’ in Waterloo, Ontario.
But the organization banned her after being warned by Saunders’ family that she had murdered a woman who herself had Inuk heritage.
‘The victim’s family have suffered lifelong loss, noting that three lives have been taken; the victim, her unborn child, and a sister through suicide,’ the board noted in their decision.
‘Your criminal offending has had a lasting impact on the victim’s family and community. The family continues to experience significant trauma.’
Nevertheless, they concluded: ‘It is evident that you have developed a positive rapport with the program facilitator and staff and your motivation to attend further programming (there) is viewed as risk mitigating.
‘The board concludes that your risk is manageable in the context of the (unescorted temporary absence), which is a limited form of release for a specific purpose and with a structured plan in place.’