Murder by nature

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Murder by nature

When Roomates Turn Deathly

November 05, 2022 • Jazmin Hernandez • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Growing up, life gets hard; you must pay bills, take care of yourself, and feed yourself daily. Some will stay at home with family while they finish college, some will work and go to school, and some fortune enough will live in dorms on campus while finishing their degree. But some will move in with roommates to help split the cost to keep a roof over their heads to make it through college.

Loretta Saunders grew up in a Christian household; they did not own a television and would sit around the table reading scriptures from the bible every night. The girls weren't allowed to wear pants or cut their hair due to their religion. Loretta grew up with an indigenous ancestry and had strong ties to her culture, which led her to the path she found growing up. The Saunders were the family you would watch on tv, they were close knit and spent the summers on road trips, frog catching, and more. As the children got older, their parents would allow their friends to join them on the trips, and it wasn't long before the Saunders children discovered alcohol and drugs. From the outside looking in, the family seemed like the Brady brunch, one big happy family, but in the shadows, there was more than met the eye.

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Intro

“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

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Loretta Saunders grew up in a Christian household; they did not own a television and would sit around the table reading scriptures from the bible every night. The girls weren't allowed to wear pants or cut their hair due to their religion. Loretta grew up with an indigenous ancestry and had strong ties to her culture, which led her to the path she found growing up. The Saunders were the family you would watch on tv, they were close knit and spent the summers on road trips, frog catching, and more. As the children got older, their parents would allow their friends to join them on the trips, and it wasn't long before the Saunders children discovered alcohol and drugs. From the outside looking in, the family seemed like the Brady brunch, one big happy family, but in the shadows, there was more than met the eye. The girls were being molested by a couple of their cousins during trips, and when they went to their mother for help, she didn't believe them. She didn't want them to tell anyone else about the abuse. As Loretta reached the age 15 she decided that she couldn't take it any longer and moved out of the house. To the trauma of her childhood, she turned to drugs and alcohol. Like most, I was wondering how a child 15 would be able to live on her own, but it turns out that she was able to collect welfare from choices in St John’s. As her sister turned 15, she left the family home and moved in with Loretta. As both girls were on their own, they struggled with addiction, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and a lack of education.

After some years had passed, Loretta made her way back home and decided it was time to finish high school. Quickly after graduation, she applied to St. Mary’s University in Halifax. She was accepted! She knew this was the next step within her journey to law school. As she attended school, she studied criminology and decided that her honors thesis would be on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. During her research, she discovered that hundreds of First Nations women and girls went missing or were killed in Canada. The New York Times reported, “Some 1,181 Indigenous women were killed or disappeared across the country from 1980 to 2012, according to a 2014 report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Indigenous advocates, and the report, say the number is probably far higher since so many deaths have gone unreported.”

For her thesis, Saunders began researching the murder cases of three Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq women — Nora Bernard, Tanya Brooks, and Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash.

Bernard, 72, was an elder of Millbrook First Nation, near Truro, and a residential school survivor. She filed the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history against the government, resulting in nearly 79,000 residential school survivors receiving compensation checks. Bernard received $14,000 from the settlement. In 2007, her grandson, James Gloade, a heavy drug addict, punched her several times and slit her throat when she refused to hand over more money for drugs. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison for the murder, but the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) released him to a halfway house in 2018. However, he violated his release's terms and was again in police custody.

Brooks, 36, was originally from Millbrook First Nation but resided in Halifax. She had a history of drugs and prostitution. An unknown person(s) murdered her in 2009, and her case remains unsolved.

Pictou-Aquash, 30, joined the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the early 1970s and was shot to death in 1975 by AIM members who thought she had betrayed them.

As Loretta began to flourish in her life, she knew she needed help with expenses. She decided that she was going to sublet her apartment to Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry. From what I gathered from research, it did not seem like the roommates were close. Blake and Victoria were dating and needed a place to stay, and Loretta was renting out the space. It was just three people who ended up needing each other at that moment.

Things did not start to take a turn until Loretta’s family started to receive strange text messages from her, but no phone calls were being answered. Her family and boyfriend attempted to call her numerous times before they felt like something was wrong. As the family retraced their conversations with Loretta, it was quickly realized that no one had talked to her since Feb 13th. This is odd to me, though, as I was going through this cause I can't get this part out of my head. Loretta was pregnant with her first child from her long term boyfriend. Valentines's day just went by with no conversation, no dinner, and nothing that made him feel weird. On Feb 17th, 2014, Loretta’s family officially reported her missing to authorities. Police launched a massive search and investigation into finding Loretta. Her family made flyers, and her siblings came into town to find her. 10 days after the initial missing persons case was opened, Loretta was found on the highway more than 450 miles from her home.

As police quickly worked to find out who dumped Loretta on the highway, they found out what she was doing in the days before the report had been filed. Little did they know that the Ontario police department would find Blake and Victoria driving around in Loretta’s 2000 Toyota Celica. This raised a lot of red flags for most working in this case. As the police continued to search the couple, they found Loretta’s cell phone, bank cards, identification, and other relatively minor personal belongings in their possession. The police quickly arrested the two charging them with Theft of the vehicle. It wasn't until Blake confessed to the murder in his journal while in jail for theft that the police quickly changed the charges to first degree murder.

Lets go back just a few days to tie everything together. Loretta found Blake and Victoria on a classified site Kijiji when looking to rent out her apartment. Since finding out that she was pregnant, Loretta moved in with her boyfriend and thought it was easy to make some extra cash. Unknown to her it would end up costing so much more.

On Feb 13th, 2014, Loretta had enough; she couldn't get the rent from the couple over the phone or in text and decided she would stop by the apartment. She told her family that she was going to get her rent, and if they didn't have the money, she was going to tell them to leave. When she got to the house, there was no one home. She quickly called them and told them she couldn't do this and they had to leave. Loretta waited for the couple to return home. When they got home Loretta waited on the couch for Blake and Victoria to get the money ready for her. As she was waiting she started to get frustrated, it should be taking this long to collect the money, like did she know Blake was in the room asking Victoria if he should just kill her. As Blake and Victoria argued about whether or not to go through with the plan Victoria told Blake that he didnt have the balls to actually go through with it and laughed. This pissed Blake off, and he walked over to the couch were Loretta was sitting, grabbed her by the throat and started choking her. As Blake struggled to hold his grip he grabbed a plastic bag and put it over Lorettas head. Loretta ripped the bag open in a desprate attempt to save her life. Blake then slammed her head on the floor over and over and over until Loretta was no longer moving. Victoria watched as Blake murdered Loretta never attempting to stop the attack. Blake watched as Loretta layed lifeless on the ground and decided to wrap her head with saran wrap and throw her body into a hockey bag. After the two cleaned up the mess they decided to leave in Loretta’s car to return a computer at the store for extra cash. After they ran their errands the couple came back to the apartment, and carried Loretta’s body out to the car, packed their belongings and left. They were headed away from the crime scene to a friends house. On the drive they stopped for food, and snacks all while using Loretta’s card. As they drove into Salisbury the pulled over on the highway and dumped Loretta’s body into a treed area in the median, then continued to drive to Ontario as if nothing happened. Now as the couple was driving to Ontario, Loretta’s family started to get strange messages from her phone that didnt make any sense. Victoria texted Loretta’s boyfriend as Loretta stating that she locked herself out of her online banking account and she couldnt remember her mothers maiden name to unlock it. They even went as far as texting Loretta’s sister to try and get more information about Loretta’s family. Again they were not friends with her nor did they even really know her. The couple thought they were in the clear, they got away. But the one thing they didnt bank on was that Loretta’s family would notify the police and all the items they stole would be linked back to them. The day after the missing persons report was filed police were able to track down Blake and Victoria by the bank transactions and cell phone data. On Feb 18th 2014 the police made contact with the couple by phone, but the two decided to provice fake names, date of birth and stated that they were in prince edward island. With police having the information that they needed and alerted the Ontario police force. Now they didnt know at that moment that this would end up being the murders but they knew they needed to bring the couple in for questioning as they was the last know location that the Loretta went before she disappeared. When the couple was pulled over they were inisitally arrested for different crimes, stolen vehicle, bankcards etc. It wasnt until they were in jail did the police know that they actually committed murder.

Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them initially. However, days before their trial was set to commence in April 2015, Blake pleaded guilty as charged, whereas his girlfriend pleaded guilty to the lesser count of second-degree murder. They dont know if their concious got the best of them but Blake was writing in his journal while awaiting trial about the murder. Since the couple pled guilty there would not be a trial, instead they went striaght to sentencing. During their sentencing they both apologized in court, with Blake adding that “Loretta was kind to me in the short time I knew her.” The parole decision though didnt buy it. The parole decision indicated that there was video evidence of Victoria and Blake discussing murdering Loretta five days prior to the murder. In this video, Victoria talked about having acquired three cats since renting the apartment, which Loretta did not appreciate. She discussed killing the victim as she and blake did not like each other over the issue of the cats.” Victoria on the other hand said that she was drunk and using Clonazepam when this video was recorded. She claimed that she was surprised when Blake attacked Loretta. But during the investigation police were able to find information that indicated Victoria knew the attack was planned and took action to keep Loretta in the apartment for Blake to finish the job.” Blake and his attorney sought a mistrial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court hours before he pleaded guilty. Blake’s lawyer, Terry Sheppard, claimed that journalists were tweeting information not allowed that might taint the jury pool. Arnold rejected Sheppard’s bid for a mistrial. Still, he instructed the press not to report about the challenge for cause process and “banned any mention of the mistrial application until after the case was dealt with,”

Blake was found guilty as charged and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Victoria was found guilty of second degree murder and recieved a life term sentence with no eligibility of parole for ten years. Now you would think that this is the end of the story and as much as I wish it was its not.

In 2017, Victoria attempted to withdraw her guilty plea but it was denied. In Feb of 2020 Victoria applied for a package of escorted temporary absences for personal development for rehabilitation purposes to attend the Healing of Seven Generations,” a Waterloo, Ont. organization that aims to help Indigenous people suffering the inter-generational impacts of the residential school system. In February 2020, the board approved only one (escorted temporary absence), having found her presentation at the hearing to be problematic and concerning, notably her disclosure continued to remain in contact with your co-accused. The victim's family contacted Healing of Seven Generations who decided that due to the severity of your crime against the victim, an Inuk woman, you would be banned from accessing their services for the duration of your sentence. As a result, the (escorted temporary absence) was not authorized by the institutional head.”

Victoria told the board that her grandmother was an American Cherokee, but her claim has been questioned. "You have no knowledge of where they resided or if any of your family members had any experience with the residential school system, the Sixties Scoop or a history of self harm or suicide," the board noted following its Feb. 16 hearing.

"While there is file information that challenges the accuracy of your heritage, it appears to the Board that you have made a connection and derived benefit from your involvement in cultural and spiritual events and ceremonies."

In November 2020, the board approved two escorted temporary absences so Henneberry could attend programs at a community residential facility, says the decision. “You have not yet completed these (escorted temporary absences) given the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The board said Victoria expressed remorse numerous times during the hearing but showed no emotion in doing so. The board said that made it difficult to determine whether the remorse was sincere or self-serving.

Victoria started serving her life sentence at the Nova Institute for Women in Truro, N.S.

But a verbal dispute with another inmate got her transferred to another prison in Ontario and classified as high security. She has since managed to work her security classification down to minimum.

"It is the Board's opinion that you will present an undue risk to society if released. Further, your release will not contribute to the protection of society by facilitating your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen."

The National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls held hearings across the country. The Saunders family was the first to testify at Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton in late October 2017.

Loretta’s mother, Miriam Saunders, discussed how different investigators treated her daughter’s case when they thought her daughter was white. They would speak with her regularly until they discovered her daughter was Inuk. Miriam Saunders became aggressive and demanded answers to her daughter’s death. Afterward, she started talking to a family liaison officer.

After her sister’s brutal murder, Delilah Saunders carried on her sister’s legacy and became a strong activist for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Outro

That brings us to the end of this episode! As always, thanks for listening to Murder By Nature. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any streaming platform you are currently on, and be sure to come back Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jazmin Hernandez, don’t forget to stay safe! Don’t get murdered or murder people, you lovely humans!

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