A man who killed a vulnerable M\u00e9tis woman nearly two decades ago in Manitoba was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Kevin Queau, a 44-year-old man from Vancouver, was charged in 2024 with second-degree murder, after advances in technology linked him to DNA found on the body of Crystal Saunders.<\/p>\n
Saunders was 24 when she was last seen in Winnipeg in April 2007.<\/p>\n
An off-duty RCMP officer found her body that same month near St. Ambroise, about 80 kilometres northwest of Manitoba\u2019s capital, when he was checking his trapline in the area.<\/p>\n
Queau pleaded guilty last week to a reduced charge of manslaughter, and Crown and defence lawyers both recommended a 12-year sentence.<\/p>\n
Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice Sadie Bond said in her sentencing decision that the manslaughter conviction doesn\u2019t diminish the loss and harm the victim\u2019s family has suffered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe loss is profound \u2026(the family) has suffered years of not knowing and have had a long and painful wait for the resolution of this matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
During the two-day sentencing hearing, court heard details about how police solved the cold case.<\/p>\n
DNA had been collected from the woman\u2019s neck and fingernails but, at the time, it was considered insufficient to\u00a0be\u00a0placed in the national DNA databank.<\/p>\n
Police later caught a break when advancements in technology found a link to the sample.<\/p>\n
Queau had been found guilty of sexual assault and aggravated assault in British Columbia in 2015, and his DNA was entered into the databank.<\/p>\n
RCMP established a \u201cMr. Big\u201d sting. Undercover officers arranged 52 interactions with Queau between February 2023 and January 2024 while he was living in B.C., said an agreed statement of facts.<\/p>\n
It said Queau told officers that he had killed a sex worker in Manitoba. He said he was in a vehicle with Saunders, when she pulled a knife and tried to rob him.<\/p>\n
He drove her body to a campground near St. Ambroise and later returned to his fraternity house, burning her clothing and purse.<\/p>\n
During sentencing, prosecutor Michael Desautels outlined why the Crown accepted the manslaughter plea.<\/p>\n
He said prosecutors became aware of disciplinary hearings against the main undercover officer who investigated Queau, and that presented credibility issues with potential testimony.<\/p>\n
Desautels said the misconduct allegations relate to events that happened two years after the officer\u2019s interactions with Queau, but they still pose concerns.<\/p>\n
In order to prevent further trial delays, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain, Desautels said.<\/p>\n
Queau declined to provide a statement to the court.<\/p>\n
His lawyer, Saheel Zaman, said Queau is very apologetic and accepts responsibility for the crime.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s mother, Sandra Saunders, told court she\u2019s not happy with the manslaughter plea. Her victim impact statement was read in court by Amara LeClair, a family support worker with the Infinity Women Secretariat, which is part of the Manitoba M\u00e9tis Federation.<\/p>\n
Saunders said she wants her daughter to\u00a0be\u00a0remembered for being a good person and not defined by her struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrystal was a beautiful, young lady, who had dreams for her and her daughter and was trying so hard to change her life. She was brilliant and caring,\u201d wrote the mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hurt and pain (Queau) caused\u00a0cannot\u00a0be\u00a0forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who killed a vulnerable M\u00e9tis woman nearly two decades ago in Manitoba was sentenced Friday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-566902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}