How a 12-year-old girl helped murder her family with her 23-year-old ‘boyfriend’

Jasmine Richardson and her adult boyfriend Jeremy Steinke were arrested the day after the brutal murders

It was a crime that shocked the small Canadian town of Medicine Hat, Alberta.

On April 23, 2006, the bodies of Marc Richardson, 42, and his wife Debra, 48, were found in the basement of their split-level home, the CBC reported.

Both parents were brutally attacked. Marc was stabbed 24 times and Debra 12 times, according to CBC. Their 8-year-old son, Tyler, was found dead in his upstairs bedroom. The boy’s jugular vein was severed and he had stab wounds to his chest and face, according to the outlet.

The case took a shocking turn when the couple’s 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, whose name is being withheld in Canada due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, a high school dropout, were arrested in Saskatchewan the next day for the brutal murders, according to Global News.

Authorities believe Jasmine plotted the murder because her parents disapproved of Steinke, who was 11 years older than her, according to Global News.

“I have this plan,” she allegedly emailed Steinke, a 300-year-old self-proclaimed werewolf who wore a vial of blood around his neck, whom she met at a punk rock concert earlier that year, according to The New Zealand Herald“It starts with me killing them and ends with me living with you.”

Jasmine allegedly left the basement window open so Steinke could enter, according to The HeraldHe entered around 5 a.m. and killed Debra before attacking Marc. Before he died, he allegedly asked Steinke, who was wearing a mask, “Why?”

Steinke reportedly replied, “That’s what your daughter wanted,” according to The Herald.

After the murders, the couple was seen making out at a house party, according to Global News.

During the trial, the Crown suggested that the murders may have been inspired by Steinke’s favourite movie. Natural Born KillersOliver Stone’s story about a serial killer couple (played by Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson) who kill their parents before going on a killing spree across three states, according to Global News.

Jasmine was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder after a jury deliberated for three hours in Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat, CBC reported.

She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada to be convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder, according to CBC.

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In 2007, Jasmine was sentenced to 10 years of intensive detention and supervision at an Intensive Rehabilitation Centre (IRCS), the maximum sentence for young offenders aged 12 to 14, according to Global News.

The following year, Steinke, who changed his name to Jackson May, was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years, according to Global News.

“He said he was extremely sorry,” Steinke’s lawyer, Alain Hepner, said, according to CBC. “If he could take it back, he would, but he just couldn’t talk. He really said those things. I think it’s an apology. I really think that’s what it is.”

Jasmine spent four years in a psychiatric facility and four and a half years under parole supervision in the community before being released in 2016, according to The Herald.

At her final sentencing review before her release, a judge told the then 22-year-old that she had met all of her rehabilitation goals.

“I think your parents would be pretty proud of you,” the judge said, according to CBC. “Clearly you can’t erase the past; you can only live each day knowing that you can control your behaviour and what you do each day.”

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