the richardson family murders (an essay i wrote a while ago out of boredom)

Disclaimer: I do not intend on romanticizing or condoning the actions of the perpetrators. May the victims rest in peace.

The Richardson Family Murder was a murder case planned and committed by the family's 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine Richardson, and her 23-year-old boyfriend Jeremy Steinke. The incident happened in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada in April 2006. Jasmine Richardson was the youngest person in Canada ever convicted of multiple first-degree murder counts

The three people that lost their lives were Debrah, the mom, Mark, the father, and Jacob, the 8-year-old son. 

Jasmine Richardson grew up with her family, living a normal life. She was described as a happy and social girl; that was all until she met Jeremy at a punk show in January of 2006. I can’t find out what band was playing. 

Jeremy Steinke was… not sane. He wore a vial of his own blood around his neck and told everybody he had ever met that he was a 300-year-old werewolf (grow up). He said that he loved the taste of human blood and claimed that he had frequent cravings for it. 

Jeremy was abused as a child, and raised by an alcoholic mother. He was diagnosed with mental illnesses such as depression. However, his background is NOT an excuse for being a murderer and a pedophile.  

After Jasmine met him, her behavior changed a lot. She quickly became anti-social and started acting out a lot. 

Jasmine and Jeremy would then go on a lot more dates, a lot of them being at more shows. 

When her parents found out about her relationship with Jeremy, they instantly banned Jasmine from seeing him, as any responsible parents would. This upset Jasmine a lot. However, she continued communicating with Jeremy through email, MySpace, Nexopia, and VampireFreaks.

Jasmine's online username was runawaydevil, and she said that she was 15 online, even though she was 12. She had the quote “Welcome to my tragic end” in her bios. She also said that Jeffrey Dahmer was one of her idols. We get it, Jasmine, you’re sooo edgy and intimidating. I’m shaking in my boots. 

Furious with Jasmine’s parents for banning her from seeing him, Jeremy wrote this on a blogging platform on April 3, 2006, “Payment! My Lover’s rents are totally unfair; they say that they really care; they don’t know what is going on. They just assume…Their throats I want to slit…Finally, there shall be silence. Their blood shall be payment!”

According to police reports, it was Jasmine who first came up with the idea to kill her parents. In an email, she told Steinke she had a plan.

“It begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you,” she wrote.

Steinke was open to the idea, replying, “Well I love your plan but we need to get a little more creative with like details and stuff.”

Richardson reportedly told friends about the plans to kill her parents, but they either didn’t believe her or thought that she was joking.

The night before the murders, the duo watched Oliver Stone’s 1994 film Natural Born Killers. The film is about a couple who go on a killing spree together. One of the first people they kill is the girl’s parents. 

On April 23, 2006, Jeremy broke into Jasmine's house, wearing a black ski mask and carrying a butcher’s knife. He went into the basement, waiting for someone to find him. 

Deborah woke up hearing a noise coming from the basement and walked downstairs, wanting to investigate it. She was instantly attacked by Jeremy, who started stabbing her violently. 

Deborah’s screams woke Mark up. He ran to the basement and attacked Jeremy with a screwdriver. However, the screwdriver was no match for the killer’s knife, and Mark ended up getting murdered as well. 

Meanwhile, Jasmine was in Jacob’s bedroom, covering his ears so that he wouldn’t hear any of the noise coming from the basement. Once Jeremy entered the room, he handed the knife to Jasmine, who stabbed her little brother 5 times, before she slit his throat, ending his life. Detectives found his blood splattered all over his toys. 

In court, she stated that she originally planned on letting Jeremy live, but decided that it would be cruel to leave him as an orphan. 

The two criminals fled the scene, being escorted by 19-year-old Kasey Lancaster, who was one of Jeremy’s friends. 

Two hours after the murders, the couple was reported being seen at a restaurant, laughing about what they had done and making out. 

Later that day, one of Jacob’s friends went over to his house to play. The friend knocked on the door, but when no one answered, he looked in through the window, where he saw the bloody massacre inside. 

I feel terrible for that kid; he had to see something so horrifying at such a young age. I can’t even imagine how traumatized he must’ve been. 

The friend ran home panicking and told his mother about what had happened. She immediately called the police. 

Inspector Brent Secondiak arrived on the scene and looked into a basement window where he saw at least one person on the ground. He called other officers for backup, thinking they may be able to save someone in the house. But nobody inside was alive. 

The officers thought that Jasmine was either kidnapped, dead, or both. They sent out an amber alert and began searching for clues for where Jasmine could be. 

After searching Jasmine’s locker at school, detectives found a comic strip she had drawn about a couple burning down a house, killing the family inside. Jasmine instantly became a suspect. 

I find it interesting that the detectives figured out that it was her just because of that comic strip because the way that she murdered her family wasn’t similar to the comic strip at all. 

The police instantly began searching for the two, and they figured out where they were after somebody who knew Jeremy. 

 It was found out that A few hours after the murder, the two killers went to a party, where Jeremy told his friends that he had “gutted Jasmine’s parents like fish”. 

They were eventually located about 130 meters away from where the murder took place. They were both arrested almost immediately. Both were charged for all 3 murders. 

11 days later, Kasey was charged as being an accessory to the murder, because not only did she drive them away from the crime scene, but she also helped them destroy evidence of what they’d done. She was given 1-year house arrest. 

In court, when questioned about why Jasmine decided to kill her family, she said that “once you meet your soulmate, you’d do anything for them”. 

Jasmine was given a 10-year prison sentence. She also had to spend 4 years in a psychiatric ward, and 4 years in community rehabilitation. 

On the other hand, Jeremy was given 3 life sentences. 

While Jasmine was still in prison, she and Jeremy wrote letters to each other, and Jeremy had apparently proposed to her in one of them. 

Jasmine was released on parole in 2016 at the age of 23. She still lives close to Medicine Hut, only she has changed her name. What she changed her name to is unknown.

If Jeremy hadn’t been a disgusting creep and hit on a 12-year-old girl, then none of this would’ve happened.

So yeah, that’s everything you need to know about this murder case, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.