Pod Insights Canadian True Crime The Richardson Family Murders [2] About this episode [Part 2 of 3] After three members of the Richardson family are found dead, the police continue to search for the missing 12-year-old girl. But a darker picture has started to emerge involving her 23-year-old boyfriend.
* Additional content warning: this episode includes the death of a child. Please take care when listening.
The intention of this series is to take a look back at a shocking crime sensationalized through headlines and explore how it impacted the community.
Some names have been changed to respect the privacy of those involved.
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0:30 Speaker 01 Hi, this is Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman. I've been writing about food and restaurants for almost 50 years. My whole career, really. And what I know is that the good restaurants all have something in common. They're busy, genuinely, chaotically busy. And somehow, in the last few years, the best of them have begun to make it look easy. And do you know why? Because they're running on Toast's technology. Toast is built for restaurant owners who understand that Toast's tools keep the line moving and keep their customers happy with fewer mistakes and hiccups in ordering and paying. For owners, that turns busy into business. To learn more, head to toasttab.com.
1:15 Speaker 01 That's T O A S T T A B, toasttab.com. Toast: Built for Busy.
1:26 Speaker 02 Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon Music, included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening.
1:46 Speaker 00 This is part two of a now three-part series. I'm sorry, I can't help myself. Part three is available now as well. As a reminder, some names have been changed to respect privacy and a Canadian publication ban.
2:04 Speaker 03 Previously, in the case of the Richardson family murders, the police were on a desperate hunt for 12-year-old Jade Richardson and the 23-year-old man she was calling her boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke. Jade's immediate family members, parents Mark and Deborah Richardson, and eight-year-old brother Jacob, had been found dead in their home in the early afternoon of Sunday, April 23 of 2006. There had been serious tension brewing inside the Richardson family home for several months. Investigators soon learned that Jade Richardson had told a number of people that she wished her parents were dead,
2:47 Speaker 03 and Jeremy Steinke had asked a few of his own friends for help to kill Jade's family, but they dismissed him. The day before the murders, Jeremy appeared to be growing increasingly frustrated that his friends weren't taking him seriously. That Saturday night, he was hanging at his trailer with a group of teenagers, drinking and using drugs, and watching Natural Born Killers. Jeremy Steinke seemed fixated on the 1994 film, which tells the story of a young couple who embark on a violent killing spree across America. By about 1:00 a.m. on the Sunday morning,
3:30 Speaker 03 most of the teenagers had gone home. A 17-year-old named Mike went to grab his things from Jeremy's bedroom, but the door was locked, and he heard Jeremy talking on the phone. At about 2:00 a.m., Jeremy grabbed his keys and left. He drove over to the apartment of a local drug dealer named Charlie, where he took cocaine, wine, vodka, ecstasy, and more cocaine. He left at about 4:00 a.m.
4:07 Speaker 03 Back in the trailer, seventeen-year-old Mike was still asleep on the couch. It was about 5:30 a.m. and Jeremy Steinke had been gone for a couple of hours. The door suddenly opened and Mike woke up. It was Jeremy, returning home from wherever it was that he went, and Mike heard him breathing heavily as he went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. A short time later, another car pulled up outside the trailer. This time, it was a taxi and Jade Richardson got out. Mike would describe Jade's hair as looking tangly.
4:47 Speaker 03 The twelve-year-old was wearing a black sweatshirt and carrying a pair of black Converse running shoes. Jeremy stuffed some items that looked like clothes into a white plastic grocery bag, cursing under his breath. Jeremy and Jade grabbed their things and left without saying a word.
5:13 Speaker 03 Jeremy pulled his truck up outside the apartment building where his cocaine dealer Charlie lived. It was the second time in two hours. Charlie immediately noticed that Jeremy now had a huge swollen bruised eye, oozing blood, and his left arm was injured. Jeremy was looking rough, and his girlfriend was with him. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. Later, Charlie would tell police that as Jeremy pressed an ice pack to his eye, quote, "He asked me to clean blood off knives, not our knife, knives." Jeremy then disappeared into a bedroom with Jade for the rest of that Sunday morning.
6:03 Speaker 03 It was just after lunchtime that day when the six-year-old boy went over to the Richardson family home to see if his young neighbour Jacob could play. No one answered the door, so he peeked through a window and saw someone lying motionless inside. Police used a battering ram to enter the home. They found the bodies of Mark and Deborah Richardson in the basement and the body of little Jacob in his bedroom. There was blood everywhere.
6:36 Speaker 03 At around the same time, less than a kilometre away, Jade Richardson and Jeremy Steinke finally woke up, got dressed, and headed over to another party house nearby. This was a house where young people lived and others crashed on the couch. Some of them noticed that Jeremy was wearing dark sunglasses and at one point lifted them up to show his fresh black eye.
7:04 Speaker 03 As the afternoon progressed, several others showed up, including Mike, the seventeen-year-old who crashed on Jeremy's couch the night before. His mother lived in Leda, Saskatchewan, and he wanted to see if anyone would drive him home. Charlie, the cocaine dealer, and his girlfriend Heather were also there, as well as a guy called James, who was the same age as Jeremy and one of his long-time friends. But James wasn't there to party, he was staying at the house at the time. At one point, Jeremy called him over and quietly, calmly, informed him that he and Jade had just killed her family.
7:47 Speaker 03 They'd been, quote, "guttered like a fish". Jade chimed in that her little brother pleaded for his life and gurgled as he died.
7:59 Speaker 03 James did not know what to make of it. They didn't seem to be at all upset. They seemed happy together. They were probably just saying things for shock value again. Several others at the house party also noticed Jeremy and Jade were kissing, cuddling, giggling and happily whispering to each other. Mellow was the word that was used. At one point Jade said she was hungry. Jeremy turned to one of the other partiers there, a nineteen-year-old named Casey, and asked her to drive Jade to get some food. Quite a few people there would report that Casey had a crush on Jeremy and was always happy to help him out when he asked.
8:43 Speaker 03 And this Sunday, he was asking a lot. When Casey returned with burgers and fries, Jeremy asked her to take his truck and clean it out. He explained to her that it was actually his mum's truck and he wanted to clean it to return to her. Casey sprang into action once again, this time bringing fifteen-year-old Heather to help. They drove Jeremy's truck to a secluded area and cleaned it with wipes, noticing that there were some stains on the seat. Casey assumed it was blood from the obvious fight that Jeremy had been in. Heather would say she was too high on weed. She had no idea what was going on.
9:30 Speaker 03 By the early evening, news reports were broadcasting the public plea to find the missing twelve-year-old. A couple of the people at the party house caught a flash of the broadcast and would later tell the police they assumed Jade was on the run from her parents. No one was going to snitch about that. Some of them had run away from home themselves. They knew the feeling well.
9:58 Speaker 03 Casey announced that she was driving Mike home to his mother's place at Leda Saskatchewan. Heather was coming too, along with another younger teenager. Casey asked Jeremy if he wanted to come along for the ride. He and Jade said yes, but they insisted on lying under the covered canopy on the back of the truck, at least until they got out of medicine hat. They were on the run from her parents after all. They all set out in Casey's small Mazda truck. It was about a two-hour drive to Leda.
10:36 Speaker 03 That same evening, two young men saw the news broadcast and decided to call the police. One of them was Jeremy's friend James, who was described as frantic as he told the police he'd seen Jade Richardson just a few hours earlier at his home, along with Jeremy's donkey. James recounted their comments about Jade's family. Once James saw the news broadcast, he was shocked to realise they were probably serious and he had to do the right thing. The other young man who contacted the police was Jordan, the seventeen-year-old who had spent a couple of months crashing on Jeremy's couch until very recently.
11:21 Speaker 03 That's the one he'd been planning to start a heavy metal band with. Jordan was described as very emotional as he told police about his recent interactions with Jeremy. Just before he moved out of the trailer, he'd accidentally overheard a troubling phone call. Jordan said he picked up the phone not knowing that Jeremy was already on a call in his bedroom. He heard a girl's voice ask, "Will you kill them?" And Jeremy's voice replied, "Let me think about it." Jeremy's increasingly aggressive and weird behaviour was one of the reasons why Jordan moved out of the trailer.
12:07 Speaker 03 The day before the murders, the Saturday, Jeremy phoned Jordan at his new place several times, asking for help to scare Mark Richardson, Jade's father. Jordan told the police that Jeremy said, quote, "We're doing it today. We're going to kill them." But he didn't take it seriously because Jeremy often complained about Jade's parents. He thought it was just angry talk. But that evening, Jeremy showed up at his actual house, again, asking for help. When Jordan refused, Jeremy stormed off, slamming the door. The police would later learn that this happened at the same time
12:50 Speaker 03 the group of teenagers back at the trailer were watching Natural Born Killers. They saw Jeremy leave, then returned shortly after that, angry. They didn't know why. And an hour or so later, they heard him yelling at someone on the phone in his bedroom, slamming it down and muttering under his breath, "Someone's chickening out." Jordan told the police that he was the one that Jeremy phoned. And Jeremy was angry. He threatened Jordan that if he or anyone else told the police about any of this, quote, "I will kill all of you because I won't know which one is the rat."
13:32 Speaker 03 It was only then that Jordan realised his former roommate might be serious. But he didn't want any trouble and he'd started to fear for his own safety, so he didn't say anything. That was until he saw the news broadcast the following evening. The police were desperate to find Jade Richardson and Jeremy Steenke. They had last been seen at the house party less than a kilometre away from the Richardson home. What happened to them after that? Where did they go? James told them that a bunch of teenagers had left the party in a small Mazda pickup truck bound for the town of Leda, Saskatchewan.
14:15 Speaker 03 And Jeremy Steenke and Jade Richardson were passengers.
14:27 Speaker 03 Law enforcement in Saskatchewan had been alerted to be on the lookout for a small Mazda pickup truck. The next morning, which was Monday, a constable in Leda was monitoring one of the town's two gas stations. He figured that a car driving from Alberta would need to get gas. He was in luck. He spotted a small Mazda pickup truck pulling in that fit the description. When three young girls exited the cab, one of them wearing no shoes, he called for backup. He then followed them to a nearby car park. Suddenly, the vehicle was surrounded by police with guns drawn.
15:10 Speaker 03 They found Jeremy Steinke and Jade Richardson hiding underneath a sheet in the truck's back canopy. Jeremy's left eye was swollen shut. As he was put in handcuffs, he yelled at his friends, "Tell my mum she can have my TV and that I love her." The others were arrested too. Casey, Heather, and the other young teenager in the front of the truck reportedly hurled profanities at the police and laughed. So did Jade. They all claimed they were just going on a camping trip together. But they had no camping gear,
15:49 Speaker 03 and they'd just spent a very uncomfortable and freezing cold evening sleeping in the truck in a school parking lot. Police searched Casey's Mazda truck thoroughly. They found a white grocery store bag containing seven pieces of black clothing that belonged to Jeremy Steinke, his black suede runners with hot pink laces, a black bandana, a black ski mask and black wristband and fingerless fishnet arm stockings.
16:21 Speaker 03 Forensic testing would determine they were covered with traces of Mark Richardson's blood. Several pieces of Jeremy's clothing also had traces of Debra Richardson's blood. Police found Debra's purse in Casey's truck with Debra's identification. And tucked behind the seat of the truck was a newspaper. The murders were on the front page news.
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17:30 Speaker 01 Hi, this is Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman. I've been writing about food and restaurants for almost 50 years, my whole career, really. And what I know is that the good restaurants all have something in common: they're busy. Genuinely, chaotically busy. And somehow, in the last few years, the best of them have begun to make it look easy. And do you know why? Because they're running on Toast's technology. Toast is built for restaurant owners who understand that Toast's tools keep the line moving and keep their customers happy, with fewer mistakes and hiccups in ordering and paying. For owners, that turns busy into business. To learn more, head to toasttab.com.
18:15 Speaker 01 That's T-O-A-S-T-T-A-B, toasttab.com. Toast: Built for Busy.
18:34 Speaker 03 After their arrest, Jeremy and Jade were taken to the station for processing. Jade had minor red spots and scrapes on her hands, upper arm and lower leg, which were photographed along with Jeremy's injuries. Jeremy Allen Steinkie and Jade Richardson were each charged with three counts of first-degree murder. But because Jade was no longer just a missing person, she was a 12-year-old minor associated with a crime, her identity was placed under publication ban for her protection. This meant that although she had already been named and identified in those first broadcasts,
19:15 Speaker 03 the Canadian press had to revert to calling her "the 12-year-old girl" who was arrested alongside Jeremy Steinkie. Her identity as the fourth member of the Richardson family was a well-known secret after that. But the press certainly did dig into Jeremy Steinkie, and there were quite a few people in his life who were willing to talk. Jeremy's own mother, Jacqueline May, was one of them. She was photographed by the Calgary Herald, holding a framed photo of her son. It's a yearbook photo, and he's 16 years old.
19:57 Speaker 03 He's got white blonde hair and a large smile. Jacqueline May said: "This is my son. He's not the man everyone thinks he is. We may not be rich, but we have a lot of love." The photo was part of a shrine she'd set up for her son, along with a wooden cross and religious ornaments. She said she prayed for him often, and described him as "respectful and loving, someone who has a heart of gold." Quote, "If we ever disagreed, he would always apologize after. We were like that."
20:35 Speaker 03 In later testimony, Jaclyn May would admit that Jeremy hadn't had an easy life. She said his biological father, her first husband, came home drunk every day and used a belt on him. Her second and third husbands were abusive as well, beating Jeremy often. She said one of them tied him to a chair and the other pushed him into a freezer. And she had longstanding issues with alcohol abuse herself and bad judgment in choosing men. She'd all but raised Jeremy and his younger sister as a single mother.
21:14 Speaker 03 Jaclyn May said she's always been overprotective of Jeremy because throughout his childhood and beyond, he was picked on mercilessly by classmates and even teachers. He was reportedly hyperactive as a child and always struggled to fit in at school, despite doing everything he could. They used to call him "stinky stonkey". Jaclyn said she once went to the principal's office and demanded they stop, but nothing changed. Jeremy eventually gained a reputation as a runt, who started fights he couldn't finish and would come running to adults for protection.
21:56 Speaker 03 By high school, Jeremy was prescribed medications for depression and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. He started smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol soon after that. His mother told the press she didn't mind about his daily cannabis use because it calmed him down and made him less hyperactive. She acknowledged that Jeremy was still deeply unhappy. He engaged in self-harm and told her he wanted to be dead. And at one point, he attempted suicide, although she depicted it as more of a cry for help than a serious attempt.
22:39 Speaker 03 In online summaries about this case, which are plentiful, the idea that Jeremy Steinkie was developmentally disabled is often cited as a foundational fact of the case. But it's unfortunately another example of speculation that has become case law. An example can be taken from a lengthy summary of the case, often posted annually across various subreddits. The write-up states, "It is also widely known that Jeremy has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which causes a person to have a lower mental age." Another widely circulated anecdote associated with this case
23:23 Speaker 03 is that Jeremy Steinkie was placed in a "special program for developmentally disabled youth" at his school. This comes directly from the case's Wikipedia page, which cites the book Runaway Devil as the source. But according to the book itself, Jeremy was actually in a program for students with learning difficulties. Examples of learning difficulties include ADHD and dyslexia. It's a very different thing to being developmentally disabled. Authors Robert Remington and Sherry Zikofus bring up the possibility that Jeremy Steinkie may have had fetal alcohol syndrome disorder.
24:07 Speaker 03 They point out several factors in his background that are consistent with the disorder, like his hyperactivity, the fact that his peers rejected him, and how he was apparently more comfortable making friends with people younger than him. The book does state that Jeremy was never actually diagnosed with the condition, and his mother also insisted she never drank while pregnant, and her own heavy drinking issues did not start until years after he was born.
24:39 Speaker 03 But this narrative has been so well circulated that it's been stretched to people online stating as fact that Jeremy had a low IQ and that doctors had assessed his mental age at around 14 years old. So to make sure we're all on the same page before we continue, the only established facts are that Jeremy Steinke was immature, had learning difficulties and took medication for ADHD.
25:10 Speaker 03 In any event, Jeremy dropped out of school completely in grade 10. His mother had just been diagnosed with a terminal lung disease and he claimed he needed to help her out. According to Runaway Devil, Jeremy worked a couple of jobs, including service at Tim Hortons and various jobs in construction. But he was completely unmotivated and none of his jobs lasted for long. The Calgary Herald interviewed another woman who came forward under the cover of anonymity, claiming she had a relationship with Jeremy when she was 17 years old and he was 20 and she gave birth to his baby.
25:54 Speaker 03 To date, Jeremy had never met his child and dating him was a big mistake, she said. She noticed he started dating younger and younger girls after that. She said she can probably guess exactly how the 12-year-old girl who was charged with him was feeling. Quote, "She's probably regretting ever meeting him." Jeremy's mother, Jacqueline May, was aware of this account but disputed it. She claimed she asked the woman for a paternity test at the time, but it never happened.
26:32 Speaker 03 The Calgary Herald also reported that 2005, the year before the Richardson family murders, was an eventful year for both Jeremy and his mother. Jaclyn May was charged with stabbing her occasional boyfriend and injuring him. She was sentenced to 12 months probation with conditional discharge, which she breached repeatedly. But Jeremy's life was about to take a turn. That summer, he started getting into the Goth subculture and finally found the acceptance he was looking for. He'd reportedly dabbled in it a little when he was a young teenager, according to one of his friends,
27:15 Speaker 03 but he was already bullied enough, so he didn't want to give them any other reason to target him. Jeremy backed off. But when he rediscovered the concept of being Goth in his early twenties, things were different. He was quickly embraced by the Goth who hung out at the mall. He was older than most of them. They looked up to him and he loved every minute of it. He got into heavy metal music. He tried to write emo poems and lyrics, like this one. "I live inside an ice empire where my heart is cold and sheltered. I wish I could find a queen who I can trust to melt it,
27:58 Speaker 03 who can light my way through the darkness of day and save this kingdom from falling."
28:07 Speaker 03 When Jeremy Steinke met the girl he presumably decided was his queen at the mall at the end of 2005, he was an unemployed dropkick and hazardous user of many different substances. He still didn't have much going on with his life, but he was all in on being Goth. He wore black hoodies and ripped jeans, black eyeliner, spiked dog collars with chains and skulls, and he started throwing around references to killing and murder. After news of his arrest, the media started digging into his social media profiles, seeing that he wrote he was a 300-year-old werewolf who loved the taste of blood.
28:52 Speaker 03 Two of Jeremy's friends told the Calgary Herald that he had mentioned being a werewolf to them. One twenty-two-year-old mentioned a time when Jeremy pointed out the full moon and warned him, quote, "We'll tear you limb from limb." The friend said he didn't take Jeremy seriously, but he did spot a small vial of blood around Jeremy's neck once. Another friend said that Jeremy told him he liked the taste of blood, but he'd never actually witnessed Jeremy drinking any. He did see him deliberately cut his hand with a knife once and licked the wound. Jeremy Stinkies' claims to be a goth werewolf who liked the taste of blood
29:37 Speaker 03 seemed to be less about belonging to a meaningful subculture and more about creating a persona he thought was cool for shock value. Jeremy was not living the goth lifestyle. He was a twenty-three-year-old man cosplaying a cartoon version of it that he probably got from TV as part of some juvenile fantasy role-play. The reality was that he was deeply misguided, unstable, lost in life, and looking for an identity. Even his much younger mall goth friends described him as sweet, nice, a bit weird, and always eager to help. Highly suggestible.
30:19 Speaker 03 But because many media outlets honed in on the most sensational details, the werewolf and the vial of blood, the case took on a life of its own. Jeremy's mother, Jacqueline May, told the Calgary Herald she had no idea about the werewolf thing and didn't believe it. She said she'd never seen her son drink a glass of blood. She also said that she'd never met Jeremy's co-accused, his twelve-year-old girlfriend, but she had heard her voice on the phone. She didn't comment on the age gap. Jeremy's mother added that she was barely at home at the trailer in the month before the Richardson family was murdered.
31:02 Speaker 03 She said she was binge-drinking heavily with her latest boyfriend. And now that the hurtful rumours were swirling around town after Jeremy's arrest, she was scared to go out in public.
31:17 Speaker 03 After all this news broke, the local community was very much divided. The Medicine Hat Mall Goth gang and other wannabe Goth types professed their unwavering support for the pair and defended them fervently in online discussions. Much of the support went to Jeremy Steinke, for the same reasons notorious killers like Paul Bernardo had their fair share of groupies. These mostly female supporters are drawn to the infamy and danger of a charismatic criminal, often believing the killer is just misunderstood and can be fixed by them. According to the book Runaway Devil, Jeremy Steinke’s supporters put up posters of
32:02 Speaker 03 support at Medicine Hat High School. They showed up at punk rock shows with his football jersey number painted on their faces. They wrote messages and comments of support on online forums. One young female friend wrote that she missed Jeremy so much, quote, “Nothing will ever be the same without you: the shows, moshing, drinking, Slipknot, the mall, pot, talking, the list goes on, baby.” Sadly, the riveting list of things that wouldn’t be the same without Jeremy Steinke didn’t go on. As for the real Goths, who considered it a lifestyle not just a surface-level aesthetic,
32:47 Speaker 03 they were outraged that there was so much negative press associating the shocking triple homicide and these two perpetrators with a community that is supposed to be passive and accepting, quote, “No real Wiccan would ever kill another, least of all their fucking parents. You’ll get yours, as will your pedophile boyfriend.”
33:19 Speaker 03 Outside of the Goth culture wars, the shock in medicine hat had deepened as the press reported details about Mark and Debra Richardson and son Jacob leading up to their funeral. Mark Richardson's father, Arthur, told the Edmonton Journal that his son was a very easygoing guy, who had a lot of friends and was very loved. Mark met Debra at the gym. Arthur said they were both athletic and really in love. At the time of the murders, Mark and Debra had been married for 15 years. About 250 people gathered for the funeral to grieve the loss of three lives that, by every account,
34:04 Speaker 03 had been filled with love and purpose. A family representative told reporters that the extended family had requested excerpts from the funeral eulogy be shared publicly. In the eulogy, family friend Diane Bob spoke gently and with deep affection, remembering Mark, Debra and little Jacob as wonderful people who would be missed by everyone who knew them. She remembered Debra as someone who met life's challenges with grace and optimism, a mother who was deeply devoted to her family and stood proudly by her husband Mark's side. Mark was described as a devoted father and steady provider
34:49 Speaker 03 who always made time for his family, taking them swimming and camping often. The eulogy depicted Mark as a quiet and humble man who preferred to let his wife take the spotlight. And then, there was Jacob, who was remembered as a beautiful young soul, a joyful, energetic eight-year-old with a heart of gold, known for his big hugs and polite nature. Always active, Jacob was a boys' boy and loved Star Wars and hockey. He was often known to cheer on both teams playing. That's how much he liked the game. The deeply moving eulogy ended with a goodbye to all three.
35:36 Speaker 03 By the time Jade Richardson and Jeremy Steinke were found hiding under the canopy of a truck in Saskatchewan, the police had already gathered enough evidence to charge them both with three counts of first degree murder. But hearing it directly from them by way of a confession or a statement would be even better. Jade was taken to an interrogation room. As a 12-year-old, she fell under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which meant she had additional protections and the two Medicine Hat police officers had to be extra careful when speaking to her. They had to clearly explain her rights, including her right to speak to a lawyer or an adult,
36:20 Speaker 03 and they had to repeatedly ask her if she understood. The Medicine Hat investigators did that part okay, but they didn't follow through. Jade repeatedly requested a lawyer and to speak to an adult, either her school guidance counselor or her goth friend Raven from the mall, which was going to be difficult because she didn't know his real name. The investigators promised Jade they were going to make arrangements, but they stalled each time, continuing to try and keep her talking. They asked her how she got into such heavy music. She replied, quote, "Two years ago, when I moved here, I was all, I need to fit in
37:04 Speaker 03 because I didn't have any friends and everybody called me weird all the time. I didn't want to be in the box and wanted to be my own person." Jade told the investigators that she'd been so unhappy at home all the time. Although her parents didn't physically beat her, she hated living there and she'd been thinking solidly about death for two months. She said she had a lot of problems in her family, but she didn't want them to die. To get Jade to talk more, the investigators told her that if she was found guilty at trial, she would receive an adult sentence of life in prison. But that wasn't true.
37:48 Speaker 03 While the Crown can apply for a young offender to be tried or sentenced as an adult, they have to be over the age of 14. Jade asked about that lawyer, but once again, no action was taken. The police would later claim that they were actually going to this time, but as they walked Jade towards the telephone room, she told them she'd changed her mind and just wanted to give her statement right now. So, they did exactly what the 12-year-old asked. It should be noted that during this interrogation, the lead investigator was inappropriate, calling Jade "honey", commenting on how pretty she was, stroking her hair and holding her
38:32 Speaker 03 hands to coax more information out of her. Jade gradually shared her version of events. She said she'd been partying with Jeremy at the drug dealer's place that night, and at around 4am, he drove her home so she could grab a few things. Jeremy waited in the car. Jade claimed that when she walked in the door, her entire family was already dead. Here's how she described her reaction to police: "I just got a terrible, terrible stomach ache. I got kind of upset and numb. I turned away right away. I had to get out of there.
39:14 Speaker 03 I knew I was going to be charged or something." Jade told the investigators that she knew Jeremy was responsible, but she didn't hate him for it, he did it out of love.
39:28 Speaker 03 Police did not believe her. Not only did her story not make logical sense, but they told her they knew about her comment that Jacob had gurgled and pleaded for his life. How would she have known that if she wasn't right there when it happened? Pressed to tell the truth, Jade changed her story. Now, she said she and Jeremy entered the house together while her family was asleep and still alive. Her parents woke up and confronted Jeremy downstairs, and she tried to comfort little Jacob upstairs. And at first, she claimed Jeremy came up and stabbed Jacob to death.
40:12 Speaker 03 But then she changed her story. Jade told the police she tried to strangle Jacob herself, so he wouldn't suffer. But Jeremy came up and pressured her to stab him. She admitted that she stabbed Jacob in the chest once, but he was moving around. She said she couldn't do it, so Jeremy stabbed the little boy himself, out of love for her.
40:40 Speaker 03 The Medicine Hat investigators were likely pleased with their efforts so far, and they kept pressing. The lead investigator produced a notepad and a Sharpie marker with a soft tip, and encouraged Jade to write an apology to her dead family members. She grabbed the marker and wrote in part, quote: Dear my lovely parental units, I'm writing in response to the events of Sunday morning. A terrible thing happened, something I feel was all my fault. You must know I love you all dearly and are in my prayers. I pray you can forgive me and Jeremy,
41:20 Speaker 03 because he was under the influence of mind-altering substance and did it out of love for me. I am sorry my sarcasm was taken to heart. I never meant to harm you. I pray you can be at peace somehow.
41:37 Speaker 03 Both Jade's statement and her written apology would be deemed inadmissible as evidence because they were taken in violation of her charter rights. The judge would determine that these two medicine hat investigators engaged in "utterly deplorable tactics" to force a confession from a 12-year-old girl, including the use of subtle threats and manipulation. And the tactics weren't over just yet. Jade was told that she could keep the notebook and marker, and if she wanted to exchange letters with Jeremy, the police would deliver them personally.
42:18 Speaker 03 So Jade wrote a note telling Jeremy to stay strong and that she loved him with all her heart. Quote, "Try to hope there is only so much bonds of flesh can do to the soul. Kisses."
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44:25 Speaker 03 The investigators used what Jade had just told them to persuade Jeremy Steinke to talk. It didn't take much for the 23-year-old to crack. While Jade had been all but emotionless throughout her interview, Jeremy was a near basket case, according to the book Runaway Devil. He reportedly banged his head on the table and sobbed as he said he only wanted to run away with Jade, but she kept escalating things to the point where they got out of control. He admitted that he killed Jade's parents in the basement. Then he went upstairs where Jade was and quote, "I watched her cut her own brother's throat.
45:10 Speaker 03 She knew it had to be done. I didn't touch him."
45:17 Speaker 03 All the evidence so far was pointing to Jeremy Steinke being the one who killed Mark and Deborah Richardson. But it wasn't clear who killed eight-year-old Jacob. There were plenty of opportunities to gather more evidence. At the end of the interview, the lead investigator handed Jeremy the note that Jade had written to him the previous day, along with his own notebook and Sharpie so he could write back. Jeremy wrote in part, quote, "I'm so very sorry. I broke. I confessed. I'm sorry. I love you. I truly do. I wish we could just go back in time and run. Run far away and never look back."
46:03 Speaker 03 This was reportedly the first time the police in Canada facilitated an exchange of notes between two accused murderers in prison as an investigation tactic. The fact that Jeremy was in an adult facility and Jade detained at a facility for youth made it even more notable.
46:28 Speaker 03 In the meantime, the police had also been continuing to interview everyone who knew Jeremy Steinke and Jade Richardson: their friends, their acquaintances, their neighbours, the Medicine Hat More Goth gang, anyone. The police knew that Jade had spoken often to school friends about hating her parents and wishing they were dead. But one of her close friends heard something even worse. She would later testify that about a week or two before the murders, she overheard Jade having an angry conversation with Jeremy over the phone, ranting about how she hated her parents, she couldn't stand it anymore and they had to die.
47:13 Speaker 03 The friend was shocked when Jade asked Jeremy to help her kill them. They were all just 12 years old at the time. Another piece of the puzzle came from Grant, a 23-year-old man who had been Jeremy's close friend since the age of 11. He told the police that once Jeremy turned Goth and started wearing makeup and listening to heavy metal music, they hung out a whole lot less. About a week before the Richardson family murders, Grant said the two caught up and were chatting as they shared a cannabis joint.
47:53 Speaker 03 Out of nowhere, Jeremy asked Grant how far he would go for love. The reason he was asking was because his girlfriend was threatening to break up with him if he did not kill her family. Grant said Jeremy asked for his help. He would later testify that he thought Jeremy was just in a bad mood, blowing off steam. He told Jeremy to "go fuck himself" and gave him a copy of Natural Born Killers to watch, knowing it was already both of their favourite movie. Grant insisted he wasn't trying to give Jeremy ideas. It was more a reverse psychology kind of thing.
48:37 Speaker 03 He hoped the movie's terrible outcome for the lovestruck, murderous young couple would deter Jeremy from whatever it was he was thinking about.
48:48 Speaker 03 It appears it did the opposite. Casey, the nineteen-year-old who drove them to Saskatchewan, was also one of the teenagers at Jeremy's trailer the Saturday night before the murders, watching Natural Born Killers. She corroborated their stories that Jeremy grew increasingly excited at some of the most violent scenes, particularly on the second re-watch. After one scene where the young murderous couple kill her father by holding his head in a fish tank until he drowns, Jeremy commented to everyone in the trailer that Jade didn't have a fish tank at her place.
49:30 Speaker 03 The movie's female lead character also had a younger brother, and after they fled the house and left that little boy unharmed, Jeremy commented, "That's where it's going to be different. Jade is going to kill her brother."
49:48 Speaker 03 This comment was heard by multiple people, but they just dismissed it as another one of Jeremy's weird comments. But one of those teenagers, an unnamed fourteen-year-old girl, was really disturbed. She asked Jeremy to stop talking about killing his girlfriend's family, and claimed he told her, "If you can talk Jade out of it, I won't do it."
50:17 Speaker 03 A few hours later, between 1 and 2 in the morning, when most of the others had gone home, this teenager also heard Jeremy talking on the phone in his room. She heard him say, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
50:34 Speaker 03 He left the trailer shortly after he hung up.
50:41 Speaker 03 19-year-old Casey saw Jade and Jeremy at that house party. She told the police about Jeremy asking her to clean the inside of his pickup truck. Casey would later testify that the reason she invited Jade and Jeremy to drive to Saskatchewan was because they looked bored at the house party. It was only when she was at the gas station the following morning and saw the front page of the newspaper with photos of Jade and her house with a headline that a couple and a child had been murdered, that she realised something happened with Jade's family.
51:20 Speaker 03 Shocked, Casey said she showed the newspaper to Jade and Jeremy, and Jade giggled. Jeremy said the photo didn't look anything like her. Casey claimed that she started to think the pair might have had something to do with the murders when Jade became paranoid and started speaking about alibis and lying to the police. But shortly after that, they were all in handcuffs. Both Casey and Heather were charged in relation to accessory to murder for cleaning Jeremy's truck. They would later plead guilty to obstruction of justice.
52:05 Speaker 03 Back to those letters Jade and Jeremy had been writing to each other from prison. It was now nearly a week since they started writing. Jade wrote to Jeremy that she's never met anyone who affected her so much as him. She also wrote, quote, "My lawyer tells me we're legends. Ha, close to immortality, it would seem."
52:29 Speaker 03 Of course, the police knew about these letters. They were the ones delivering them between the pair, taking photocopies of each one. Jeremy wrote in reply that he loved Jade more than life itself. He said he'd added her to his visitors list. He seemed to believe she would be released soon and would come and visit him straight away. He wrote that life wasn't worth living without her. He blew her kisses and said he loves her, he needs her, he wishes he could hold her right now. Then he ends the letter, quote, "Exo, your lover, Jeremy. P.S. You said you want to get engaged? Then here's a cue: will you marry me?
53:15 Speaker 03 If so, then it is a verbal agreement."
53:20 Speaker 03 Jade's response, quote, "Dear Jeremy, ha, ha, ha. I never thought I'd find myself hysterically laughing in a holding cell in these kind of circumstances, or ever really. But still, haha, you make me so happy. Yes, yes, I will, I would love to. Of course, I'll come visit you, have to find where you're being held. Haha, god, I'm so happy, I must be happily insane then."
53:52 Speaker 03 Jade also mentions getting a psychiatric assessment and is concerned that anything she says could be used against her. She mentions the newspaper headlines, that they've, quote, "been in the papers every day, apparently." She expresses her love and longing for Jeremy, mentioning feeling that she's going crazy and wishing she could hold him. She feels isolated and states that Jeremy is the only thing keeping her strong. Jeremy wrote that he was happy she accepted his proposal and that she made him feel better. He told the 12-year-old he has a gift for her, a corset.
54:34 Speaker 03 He said he wished he could see her wear it, and quote, "The world may be against us, but remember that nothing beats love." Police never delivered Jeremy's response note. They had something else in mind.
54:56 Speaker 03 Jade Richardson and Jeremy Steinke had spent about a week exchanging love letters from prison. They didn't say anything directly incriminating in their letters, although they didn't seem to realise the circumstantial implications. There was one other opportunity to try and elicit more information from Jeremy, specifically about little Jacob Richardson. The police decided to introduce an undercover officer posing as a fellow prisoner. Their conversation began in the back of a police van. In the transcript, Jeremy begins by sizing the officer up, asking him what he was in for. Then Jeremy asks him:
55:41 Speaker 03 You hear about that triple homicide? The officer says yes, and Jeremy replies: Yeah, you're looking at him. The officer tells him he's famous, and Jeremy chuckles, quote: Yeah, so I've heard. Me and my old lady have become legends. Before long, they started trading stories about being criminals, the undercover officer trying to portray himself as someone Jeremy can trust. Jeremy just wants to impress. He says: Cops don't know shit half the time. They think they do, but they don't. Clearly feeling comfortable, Jeremy talks about booze, about drugs, about getting screwed
56:26 Speaker 03 by the criminal justice system. He says, quote: I don't know, I might get off on one of those charges or two of those charges, because one, she killed her brother. I didn't touch him. And her dad attacked me with a screwdriver, so that's, that's technically self-defence.
56:46 Speaker 03 The undercover officer listens and nods. He has to act interested, but not too interested. So he just mirrors Jeremy's frustration and continues letting him talk. Jeremy says he prefers knives over guns, and tries to impress the officers with stories of his Japanese sword collection, before conceding that they were all at the pawn shop now. He discusses his love of his fiance. He portrays their bond as deep and spiritual, even supernatural. He claims he gave Jade a bottle of his own blood as a symbol of their connection. Jeremy pines about how much he misses her,
57:30 Speaker 03 how being apart is like torture, and that writing letters isn't enough. He tells the undercover officer that he and Jade were planning a Gothic-style wedding in an old castle in Germany once they're out of prison, and he seems to have no doubt that they will be soon. Jeremy insists that everything he did, he did it for love. And before meeting Jade, he never imagined killing anyone, but quote, "You love somebody enough, you'll do anything for him, no matter what the consequences." Jeremy asks the undercover officer if he'd ever watched the movie Natural Born Killers. The officer nods, and Jeremy adds, quote,
58:15 Speaker 03 "I think that's the best love story of all time, and basically, I guess me and my girlfriend just started our own love legacy." More on that later.
58:28 Speaker 03 Jeremy tells the undercover officer about Jade's conflict with her parents, or the version of it that she'd given him. He says they'd taken everything from Jade, leaving only her clothes and Jade herself, locked up in her room like she was a caged animal, quote. Like, what the hell, man? That's not how you treat your kid. Jeremy lamented telling people about the plan to kill Jade's family in advance. He says that's where he went wrong, in telling people, asking for help, and thinking he could trust them. And about Jade, quote,
59:07 Speaker 03 "She's done wrong too, because she's been asking people and telling people that she wanted her parents dead for the longest time. So when it came around to it, they knew exactly who it was."
59:20 Speaker 03 Jeremy mentions the phone call with Jade in the early morning hours of that Sunday morning. He doesn't mention exactly what she said to him, but he says he was already drunk and high. He tried to talk her out of it, but she got upset with him. He adds, quote, "And I didn't like that. I was like, kay, well, I'm a man of my word, so do it."
59:46 Speaker 03 Jeremy told the officer he went to his friend's place and drank more alcohol and did more drugs, to the point where, quote, "Oh, man, was I ever wrecked." He also mentions he has some mental problems, end quote, "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." And then he described exactly what he did, as the undercover officer listened intently. These are the exact words that Jeremy said during the course of the conversation, edited slightly for clarity and brevity, quote, "See, that's the best part about it. They were sleeping.
1:00:26 Speaker 03 I, I snuck in through the basement window. I snuck in, so they didn't even know I was in the house. I don't remember a lot of it. I just, I remember standing there in Jade's basement, expecting her dad to come downstairs. Instead, it was her mum. She got up and went to the bathroom and heard me creaking on the stairs, and she came down to check that out. She first screamed, and instantly I freaked out. I stabbed her, and then her husband came barreling downstairs and came." Came at me with a screwdriver. He's a big guy. I remember him tackling me to the ground and then, when he came at me with that screwdriver, I was scared shitless. I thought I was going down.
1:01:10 Speaker 03 You notice how my eyes kinda bloody right there? He, he grabbed my face and shoved his thumbs in my eye and then he attempted to stab me with the screwdriver. Just missed my muscle right here and went into my hoodie. I screamed cause I thought he got me eh? He tried to get me in the heart, but I grabbed the screwdriver and I stopped him. And I just stabbed and like, I was surprised I came out on top. I thought, I thought I was a dead man. I think the fact that I had so much alcohol in my system, my blood was so thin is the reason why I blacked out. He keeled over. The next thing, he's lying down on the ground and I'm standing above him.
1:01:54 Speaker 03 And he's asking me why and I said, "'Cause you treat your daughter like shit. She wanted it this way." And that was it. And then I went upstairs and I watched my girlfriend cut her brother's throat. It didn't bother her at all either. She didn't cry or anything. In fact, the next day when we were on the road, she was laughing about it. She's got a few screws loose too. She's a Wiccan eh? She practices all that witchcraft.
1:02:24 Speaker 03 This version of events was consistent with what Jeremy had told police investigators. Both times, he insisted he never touched Jacob. He continues to tell the undercover officer what happened next. She asked me to wait fifteen, twenty minutes for her. I said, "Okay." And then I went outside for some fresh air and then I just freaked out and took off running. She had to take a cab to my place. I left her in the dust and I don't know why. I knew she'd come by. Well, I figure, things probably would have turned out a bit better if I would have stuck instead of taking off.
1:03:07 Speaker 03 Cause I freaked out. I think if I would have stuck around and waited for her, we probably could have contemplated some better way to get out of here.
1:03:17 Speaker 03 According to the transcripts, Jeremy tells the undercover officer that the whole thing was a blur, like a haze, and there was no trace of remorse or regret in his words. It was almost as if he believed that this was something he had to do, a twisted demonstration of love. Jeremy continues to chat about the circumstances of his arrest and the aftermath. He complains about the media coverage and how he made the mistake of trusting friends who turned on him and Jade. He specifically mentions Jordan, his 17-year-old former roommate, who spoke with a reporter and said he'd seen Jeremy drinking blood.
1:04:02 Speaker 03 The undercover officer asks if it was bullshit, and Jeremy confirms it was true. Yeah, I was drinking blood. Jeremy also complains that Jade's extended family blamed him entirely for the murders, accusing him of conspiring and carrying them out alone. He says that Jade simply laughed at their accusations. He tells the undercover officer that he and Jade have a “pretty fucked up relationship”, how “when they have sex, the 12-year-old will claw his back until it bleeds, and she’ll bite his neck and start drinking his blood”. He says he misses it.
1:04:46 Speaker 03 Jeremy also expresses anger about media reports about their age gap. He claims the media has reported he was 25 when he’s only 23, and that Jade was just 12 years old when she’s actually 13, almost 14, which he said was legal age. This proves that Jeremy was lying when he insisted to others that he believed Jade was 15 or 16 years old, but none of what he said was actually true. Even if he sincerely believed Jade was 13, the legal age at the time was 14, and Jade
1:05:27 Speaker 03 was not even close to turning 13 at the time of the murders, she was literally 12 and a half years of age.
1:05:37 Speaker 03 The undercover operation was over and it had been a success. But Jeremy Steinke had inadvertently confirmed he'd knowingly had sex with a girl he claimed was 13 years old. So why wasn't he also charged with sexual interference of a minor, the Canadian equivalent of statutory rape? The fact is that the Crown Prosecution makes the decision about what charges to lay on individuals in consultation with police. And Jeremy Steinke had already been charged with three counts of first degree murder, which come with an automatic sentence of life in prison.
1:06:18 Speaker 03 Other charges would have complicated the trial and blown out the cost. A decision was made to focus on the murder charges. The case already shocked the country, but at trial, it wasn't just about what happened. It was the question of who was truly responsible and why. As Jade Richardson and Jeremy Steinke's final testimonies are weighed against the forensic evidence, the picture of what exactly happened inside that house starts to take shape. That's next in part three, available now.
1:07:00 Speaker 03 There's also the aftermath, where they are today, and finally, how it all compares to the film Natural Born Killers. Thanks for listening. This series has been pieced together from court documents, the news archives, and daily trial reporting, as well as the book Runaway Devil by Sherry Zikofus and Robert Remington. For the full list of resources and anything else you want to know about the podcast, visit canadiantruecrime.ca and follow us on the Canadian True Crime Facebook and Instagram pages to see photos and clippings from this series. If you found this episode compelling, please tell a friend, post on social media, or leave
1:07:44 Speaker 03 a review wherever you listen. Podcasts. Thanks again. Canadian True Crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. This month, we have donated to the Calgary Homicide Support Society, who provide ongoing group support, assistance and education to families and those close to victims of homicide in Calgary and across Alberta. Learn more at CalgaryHSS.ca. Audio editing was by Crosby Audio and Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer. Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge and Carol Weinberg is our script consultant. Research was by Hayley Gray. Writing, additional
1:08:27 Speaker 03 research, narration and sound design was by me and the theme songs were composed by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian True Crime episode. See you then.
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