RedHanded - Episode 304 - Jasmine Richardson & Jeremy Steinke: Natural Born Killers

Episode Date: June 29, 2023

Violently stabbed to death in their own home, the bodies of Debra and Marc Richardson showed the signs of an almighty struggle.The body of their eight-year-old son Tyler Jacob was upstairs, and their twelve-year-old daughter Jasmine was missing. It all suggested a brutal home invasion, with Jasmine’s abduction as the motive. Yet the narrative the police unwound was more confusing, disturbing – and downright cringe-worthy – than anything they could have imagined. This was the ‘love story’ of a ‘rawr’cous, side-fringed, goth girl and her three-hundred-year-old werewolf boyfriend. Follow us on social media:InstagramTwitterVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti.

I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed, where I've already made a mistake. Yep, yep. Many mistakes have been made this morning. But through the magic of editing, you don't know. So why did I tell you? Well, they know now. We are but fallible humans. Exactly. Hello. Welcome to another rendition of Red Handed Covers Something.

Red Handed Classic. From the archive. No, it's not Red Handed Classic. It's brand new Red Hand-handed i'm just going to move that out of the way because i can't see your face oh yes i'm so used to looking at your face through a through a jungle of mics that i don't even notice that i barely ever just see your face fully my face just looks like a pop filter to you anyway we're here we're doing it it's a brand new episode of Right Handed and it is mental. I don't think I've cringed quite so hard in quite some time. Yeah, it really, really dragged me back into some places that I didn't want to go. I've been there before. I just didn't want to return. No, thank you. But we are all going to go back there collectively as a group of unwilling participants because we don't care about your

consent when it comes to horrible things that we tell you but this is not the only horrible thing we have to tell you if you would like to listen to a shorthand a little mini sode a 20 minute amuse bouche of red-handed called shorthand you can do that every single week, every Tuesday over on Amazon Music. And this week we covered the Spanish Paralympic basketball team. Yeah, basically they pretended to be disabled and they weren't. And it caused all sorts of trouble. And they beat everyone. Well, yes. So it's very problematic.

And we will tell you all about it over on Amazon Music this week on shorthand. It is already out. It is already there waiting for you, along with all of the other shorthands that we've done. Don't know how many? Lots. Go check it out. But before you do that, stay here and listen to this. Because just after midday on the 26th of April 2006, an eight-year-old little boy named Gareth left his parents' house and crossed over the drive to knock on the door of his neighbor's house, the Richardsons. Gareth was friends with the

Richardson's youngest child, Tyler Jacob. The pair played together almost every day, pretending to be Jedi Knights, fighting the evils of the galaxy with their trusty lightsabers. When Gareth went over that morning though, something wasn't right. He rang the doorbell, knocked and shouted for his mate Tyler Jacob to come out and play. But unusually, nobody came. Gareth knew that the family must have been in. Their car and their brand new pickup truck were still parked in the drive. Yet, he'd been waiting a full five minutes with no reply. It was then that little Gareth made his way over to the kitchen window and pressed his face against the glass for a better look. What he saw would almost certainly stick with the eight-year-old

for the rest of his life. On the kitchen floor, half naked in her dressing gown, was Deborah Richardson, Tyler Jacobs' mum, lying in a pool of her own blood. Gareth recoiled from the window and ran off to tell his mum Sarah what he'd seen. Sarah called 911. Within minutes, three police officers were at the property and had smashed down the door with a battering ram. Deborah Richardson was dead and had been dead for almost 12 hours. She'd been stabbed violently 12 times and there were signs of a vicious struggle. But this was only the start of the nightmare that authorities would discover at the Richardsons that day. The door leading to the downstairs cellar was open and a trail of blood led down into the darkness. The cellar had clearly been the site of an almighty horror show.

There was blood everywhere and a knife lying on the floor. Sitting in the corner of the room, hunched in a ball, was Deborah's husband, Mark. Mark was drenched in blood and sweat, sitting in the darkest part of the room, hunched in a ball, was Deborah's husband, Mark. Mark was drenched in blood and sweat, sitting in the darkest part of the room, clutching a screwdriver. The officers drew their weapons and approached him, but as they got closer, Mark Richardson didn't move a muscle. Mark Richardson was dead. He'd been stabbed 20 times, and his body was already stiff with rigor mortis. This gruesome scene was bad enough, but the worst was still to come.

Thanks to the neighbours, the officers knew that there were still two members of the Richardson family unaccounted for. Mark and Deborah's kids, 12-year-old Jasmine and 8-year-old Tyler Jacob. Officers went upstairs and entered Tyler Jacob's bedroom first. Inside, they found the little boy lying on the bed, clutching his toy lightsaber. His throat had been violently slit open, and Tyler Jacob had bled to death. As the officers called for backup, another terrifying discovery dawned on them.

There was absolutely no sign of the 12-year-old Jasmine. The grim realisation that Jasmine may have been the target of the killer and that Jasmine may now be in the hands of a maniac pushed the investigation into overdrive. Just like us, the police decided they needed to get to know the Richardson family a bit better. And to do that, we're going to rewind to before Gareth found Deborah. Now, that morning, like almost every morning, Gareth's mum Sarah wasn't at all worried about letting her little boy head over to the neighbour's house. Although they'd only been in the suburb for around a year,

the Richardsons had established themselves as a loving, kind, all-Canadian family. Mark and Deborah had what the locals might describe as a unique love story. They'd actually met while in rehab, battling addiction in the early 90s. Unique is such a, like, such a, like, suburban way of being, like, uh-oh. It's like when you meet someone's boyfriend and they suck, and you're like, he's interesting. Yeah a character what a card so when they had been in rehab they both had relationships with alcohol and class a drugs and were trying to shake off the grips of addiction when they fell in love now nine times out ten, two addicts battling addiction coming together isn't exactly a recipe for success. It's against the rules. Yeah, I was gonna say,

from my understanding, not ever having been to rehab but watching TV shows about it, it's not encouraged. Yeah, it's a whole subplot in Hill House. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Don't get into a relationship when you're trying to get clean. Within the first year of sobriety, I think it's the rule, let alone in a rehab centre. Makes sense. But Mark and Deborah weren't the norm. They met in their collectively darkest moment and helped each other through, supporting each other and always helping to resist the urge to relapse. The pair had their first child, Jasmine, in 1994,

and their second, Tyler, Jacob, two years later. The first few years of family life weren't exactly easy. Mark wasn't earning a huge amount of money, and Deborah occasionally resorted to food banks to make ends meet. But nonetheless, they had a good time. Nobody went to bed hungry, and everyone felt loved. Through his job working for one of Canada's largest energy companies, Mark slowly but surely began to get a few more qualifications under his belt and he rose up the ladder. Until eventually, just before Jasmine's 10th birthday, Mark was offered a pretty serious promotion

and the opportunity to move to the city of Medicine Hat in Alberta. I want to know the story. Get in touch. Yeah, why? Where did that name come from, Alberta? I demand to know. Because it can't have been a game show like Truth or Consequences. I mean, does Medicine Hat top Truth or Consequences? No. Still up there. Truth or Consequences followed by Medicine Hat. So this move that Mark got, this promotion, not only came

with a substantial pay rise, but Mark's employers had even offered to pay for the move to Medicine Hat. Around a year before the dreadful events in the Medicine Hat house, attention had begun to grow within the Richardson family. Jasmine was ten when the family moved in. She was academic and quite conventionally girly-girly. She had a good group of friends and kept out of trouble. However, a year later, all of that had changed. No longer was Jasmine interested in kittens and horses. Now she wanted to talk about make-up and heavy metal.

She also started acting out at school and getting into trouble with her teachers. And it was at this time that Jasmine developed physically as well. Friends and family have said since that they remember Deborah commenting on how it felt. Like one minute, her daughter was a little girl, and the next, she was a tall young woman with boobs. Her rapid development clearly made Jasmine feel out of place with the other 11 and 12-year-olds in her her class and that's something we can all relate to i was definitely as a huge boobed person definitely one of the first ones to go 100 i don't think i was 10 but i was definitely

near seven yeah that's that's early because i was thinking with jasmine like 11 is very yeah is very early but i i definitely didn't go through that so I but I remember the girls that did and I can only imagine how difficult that must have been to stand out so visually obviously at a time in your life where you're desperately trying to do anything but stand out yeah I think I don't remember being particularly making me feel a particular kind of way but I went to an all girls school so that's different but they once did

there was a fire alarm when we were swimming and they made us get out in our swimming costumes in front of the sixth formers and stand in the field in your swimming costumes that's horrendous in the winter in front of the sixth formers that's abuseous in the winter in front of the sick farmers fuck it up that's abuse is what that is

I'm Jake Warren and in our first season of Finding I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life you can listen to

Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus in season two I found myself caught up in a new journey

to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me. And it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues

around mental health. This is season two of Finding. And this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry.

But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Jasmine really did stand out. If you look at pictures of her from around the time that she's 11, she looks about 16. Honestly, I did not look like that even when I was 16. I sure as fuck didn't

look like that when I was 11. Like, I know it's so hacky to even say, but all of those Instagram posts of people being like, kids when we were kids, kids these days. Jasmine was a kid back then, who was a kid these days. Like, fucking hell, she really, really, really could easily have passed for 16, maybe even 17. And the standy-outness that Jasmine was going through meant that she was on the hunt for a new friendship group. And, as many of us have in our time, she fell in with the local goths. Jasmine had been introduced to them by a school friend called Kayleigh, another older-looking girl like herself. Kayleigh liked to run away a lot.

Through Kaylee, Jasmine began hanging out at the mall with a flock or coven of goths. What is the collective term for a group of goths? Like a raven, probably. That's what they want. Yeah. A dork. I will lend them my nickname. A smudge of goths, is what I think. And this smudge of goths were a mixture of genders and ages. Jasmine was pretty easily able to slip into this group and become part of the furniture.

And it was at this point that Jasmine began to change her vibe on social media as well. Gone were the pictures of a gawky preteen at her friend's sickly pink birthday party. All of those pictures were replaced with heavy makeup, sexual poses, and even a fake gun. I mean, the picture of her with a fake gun, seriously, she looks 18 in that picture. And I get it because I think if you took all that makeup away,

you took the gun away, you take all of the edgy staring away and you put her back in like a little girl's like 11 year old outfit. She looks wrong. It looks awkward. It looks like a mismatch. But put her in these poses. Suddenly now she's getting attention. She's getting like looks. I mean, I feel uncomfortable saying that an 11-year-old is attractive,

but you know what I'm saying. She looks 16 and she looks like an attractive young. I hate myself. I hate what I'm saying. But that's what's happening here. And Jasmine even changed her MySpace bio, listing herself as a 16-year-old single dog owner. She's not 16.

She's 12. Can 16-year-olds have dogs on their own but again are there laws against this again like would you would you even classify a 16 year old as single it's like it's it's it's like completely adult language isn't it it's like 16 year old lie single irrelevant when you're a child dog owner again you cannot be that it's all very very adult language so jasmine's list of interests went from things like hannah said kittens and ribbons and all the stuff that 11 year old girls are into raindrops on roses exactly to hatchets serial killers criminal psychology blood moonlight the human anatomy and quote kinky shit she's 12 but desperately trying to portray herself

as you know i would say as like a edgy first year uni first year like i'm just so misunderstood this is bringing back so much of my like my space shame that i can't like it's making me feel did you partake bad on on the inside. Yes. And I'm hesitant to say that because I don't want anyone to find it. Oh please please tell us what was on it. So I never had Myspace full disclosure. Oh so you're you're completely in the clear. I'm clean. I never had I never had and to this like now I think about I was talking about it with my parents this weekend when I went home. I'm so glad that this was the case. But I actually didn't have Facebook.

I didn't have any social media apart from MSN Messenger, which like doesn't even really count as like texting. I didn't have any form of social media until I got Facebook at uni. And I'm so glad because now I just don't know what sort of fucking mental shit I would have put on there. But please tell us. Well, I have a deactivate well I have a twitter that's still live that I don't use that I started at university and I was a bit worried about that but I found it and it's only me bitching about the night pass oh snap so that I have a twitter that I linked to an old email address it's linked to my university email address

and so now whenever i try get back into it they're like we've sent you a verification code to that email and i'm like i don't have fucking access to my university email address anymore so there is no way for me to get back into it or to shut it down and it's just there and the only thing on it is me rage tweeting at national rail at great northern specifically and also at my old MP. You fucking prick. The trains never run on time. Oh, God.

So tragic. Yeah, my MySpace was much more tragic than that. I can't remember the last time I looked at it, but it's basically... From what I can remember it's like I like watching foreign films sometimes

music is my boyfriend and like I took it so seriously and you could like order your friends in the like you had like a top ten friends oh that is a recipe for disaster

yeah no I remember that and that was that was a hot topic yes and I think just a lot of pictures that I took of myself from the like sure sure upward angle sure with my skin's hair um nice aggressive side fringes. Yep. Um, green eyeliner. Oh God. Yeah. So much green eyeliner. Yep. Yeah.

I think it's just that it's, uh, it makes me feel sad. Yeah. I mean, I also am having a flashback to another piece of social media that we definitely did use. Is it Bebo? It wasn't Bebo. It was the rife with pedophiles Habbo hotel. I never Habboed. It was so filledife with pedophiles Habbo Hotel. I never Habboed.

It was so filled with pedos. Just wall to wall fucking nonces in that place. Like literally, how old are you? And then it's just like, why? What's happening? And it was just so, it was such an awful, awful place. And I don't know if it still exists. So we look it up.

I feel like kids these days don't give a fuck about shit like that. Habbo Hotel. There it is. Oh oh my god I'm having flashbacks oh it still exists it still exists no thank you get off my screen so yeah chat roulette I did quite a lot of chat roulette no actually do you know what I think I played chat roulette once at a friend's house and we were just like and I think nothing happened so we were like whatever um they definitely have a hotel which is like lucky that nothing happened and I also but this is like very much younger like maybe eight to ten neopets loved neopets never neopetted I wasn't allowed games sure which means I'm shocking at Mario Kart and it's very embarrassing when anyone makes me try and do it um no no games

not allowed apart from in carter i mean honestly i'm gonna say it again i'm so glad i wasn't allowed to be publishing things on the internet at such a young age because i like was listening to this person talk about it and they're like we should even change the way we phrase things that people put on the internet don't say post because that sounds like you can just take it down later you should say publish you are publishing this thing forever because i was the kind of person that was making little fucking journals filled with all sorts of weird weird nonsense that would only come back to haunt me now for sure and i would get us all cancelled yeah no i'm very very glad that my facebook is dead and gone so anyway let's carry on

with what was going on with Jasmine. Like we said, you know, she's really transcending that kind of 12-year-old preteen, moving very, very rapidly, I would say, to a 17-year-old list of interests. Because she also noted on her social media that her heroes were Batman, Jeffrey Dahmer, Criss Angel, Marilyn Manson, and Danny Filth of Cradle of Filth fame. Yeah. I know who Danny Filth is. Yeah, just in case anyone didn't.

There you go. If you don't, you're probably a lot younger than us. Yep. So, according to the other Goths, Jasmine never shared her real age, apart from lying about it in her bio and saying she was 16. And so, of course, the other Goths, Jasmine never shared her real age, apart from lying about it in her bio and saying she was 16. And so, of course, the other Goths would say, she never told us her real age.

We didn't know she was 12. Sure. And she was quickly hanging out with people a lot older than herself. Specifically, she developed a relationship with two men in their 20s who called themselves, and this is going to make you want to fucking throw that at me please don't i didn't make this up trench coat and raven did you watch raven when you were a kid i did watch raven i did i really enjoyed raven yeah i know me too it was like a kid's game show but in a forest hosted by a large man in a cloak do you know what i totally confused what you were talking

about but i did also watch that are you talking about that so raven which i also enjoyed so yes like this is all so like just tiptoeing into like massive massive massive issues here because yes jasmine looks older than she is she looks looks like a 16 year old. She's able to, to some extent, I think, project that persona of seeming like a 16 year old, but she is a 12 year old and she's now hanging out with men in their 20s. And it was about this time that 16 quote unquote year old single dog owner jasmine entered her first relationship thankfully not with trench coat or raven but with a 16 year old goth boy called devon soon jasmine's parents got wind of their relationship and in a well-meaning and i think very very like open not open-minded isn't the right word but in a very like they're genuinely trying to be as open

about this and it's like okay about this considering their 12 year old is in a relationship with a 16 year old deborah decided she wanted to meet 16 year old devon so the three of them went for lunch and deborah grilled her daughter's new boyfriend with questions about who he was and what his intentions were with jasmine all of this very understandable especially given the four year age difference at such a crucial point 12 to 16 is a big fucking yeah i'm fucking team deborah man yeah no i mean yeah i wouldn't be having lunch i'll be locking you in your fucking room 12 years old jesus christ however despite how we might feel about deborah's actions being absolutely fucking fair enough at this point this lunch firmly set into jasmine's mind that any future

relationships would need to be kept a total secret from her mom and dad which is like exactly what you don't want to happen yeah but it's what they do yes i mean literally the one thing i can imagine if i ever have a child, I want that child to feel is that whatever you're doing, whatever you're worried about, whatever you're going through, you can come and talk to me. Don't keep secrets from me. But like at the same time, you want to lock them in their room

because they're dating 16-year-olds. Yes. So like most young relationships, Jasmine and Devin's romance didn't last long anyway. A month or so after they got together, Devin got jealous of Jasmine's friendship with Raven, saying that the pair were having too many deep conversations and hugs for his liking,

and he dumped her. And then, on the 28th of December 2005, if she's 12 in 2005, she's younger than we are. Mm-hmm. Fuck. Right. So, 28th of December 2005, Jasmine signed up for a new social media site called Nexopia.com, which was popular, apparently.

I've never heard of it. Amongst angsty teens in Alberta, Canada. But I'm none of those things. And I was an angsty teen in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. And it doesn't have the same ring. Shall we look it up? So Nexopia is a Canadian social networking website that was created in 2003 by this 18-year-old called Timo Elwood

and it describes itself as a lifestyle and community forum. Why do 14-year-olds need a lifestyle forum? What is your lifestyle? I'm confused. But yeah, apparently there's something here because it's like something called the dark history of Nexopia, but I don't feel like we have time to get into this. Maybe we'll look at this another time.

Let's move on. This is what Jasmine's bio said on Nexopia.com. I am the almighty Jax, spelt J-A-X-Z. Bow down. This next line is straight out of Hannah Maguire's J-A-X-Z. Bow down. This next line is straight out of Hannah Maguire's 14-year-old brain. Playbook. Yeah.

I think very deep thoughts. I'm quite emotional and my mood is ever-changing. Although I can be very good at hiding my feelings, but that's never been true of me. I don't trust easily. I either have lots of energy or very little. I like to make attempts at poetry at anime. I make wookie noises and often scare small children. I'm afraid of llamas. I'm told that I'm mentally R-worded. Often I'm loud and bounce a lot. When I'm hyper,

I like to dress up and want an Edward Scissorhands outfit. Other people live in my head with me. I like random questions. I like to pretend I'm a gangster sometimes. Don't worry, I'm not. Yeah, sometimes I watch Teen Titans because I'm that cool. I play guitar and I suck. I feel so unwell. But it's going to get much worse. The cringiest is yet to come.

At around the time she created her next opiate profile, Jasmine began attending all-ages punk concerts at the local community centre. And it was here that she met a new man. And when we say man, we mean adult man. 23-year-old... Yeah, 23-year-old... Yeah, 23-year-old Jeremy, and I promise you, this is how his surname is pronounced,

even though it is not written like this. His name is Jeremy Stank. And he was one of the oldest guys who hung around with the medicine hat, Gothsy. Because he's 23. Stank, predictably, was immature who hung around with the medicine hat goth scene. Because he's twenty fucking three. Stank, predictably, was immature and known to have younger girlfriends,

including a seventeen-year-old who he'd allegedly already got pregnant. The twenty-three-year-old had struggled at school and dropped out with no qualifications. He lived in a trailer park with his mum, who was an alcoholic and a drug addict. Stank had always struggled to maintain friendships with people his own age. His intellect and maturity were both significantly lower than his peers.

This had led some people to suggest that Stank may have been born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD. Lower than an average intelligence and maintaining friendships with people significantly younger are both common in FASD however his mother has never admitted to drinking during her pregnancy so a formal diagnosis has never been made that being said she has since told reporters that she took large amounts of Demerol and Codeine both both of which are opioids, while pregnant with her son. I'm guessing that's not going to help massively with that situation. And she said that she took them because she had been prescribed them for an ovarian tumour. Stank's father had left when he was young, and he'd been raised by a series of his mother's abusive boyfriends. So yes, a recipe very much not for a happy family

or success here for Jeremy Stank. Years later, his mother May would admit that her third husband pushed a young Jeremy Stank into a chest freezer so hard that he had cracked his head. Again, just piling on top. Just more and more bad news for this kid, who by the time we meet him is not a kid, but he had very, very obviously a very troubled childhood.

And another one of these stepfathers brutally beat Stank when he tried to defend his mother during a domestic fight. As a young teen, Stank had started drinking large amounts of alcohol, smoking weed and taking hard drugs. Age 15, he drank so much he passed out outside in the freezing cold Canadian winter and nearly died of hypothermia. I watched a YouTube video years ago about this woman who moved to Canada. I think she was Australian. And same thing, got hammered, fell asleep in the snow and she had to have her hands cut off. I mean, I'm surprised you survived. Yeah. But survive he did and aged about 20 is when Stank began taking large amounts of cocaine on a regular basis. By the time Jeremy Stank and Jasmine Richardson had crossed paths at a punk

rock concert, Stank was known as hyper, probably all that cocaine. But he had a reputation for being a good-natured older goth who spent what little money he had on making sure everyone had a good time, which sounds to me like giving underage children cocaine. Yes, it sounds very much like grooming slash desperate attempts to have a connection and friends with kids who if he didn't spend money on them would probably also realize that they didn't want to be friends with and you certainly can't have relationships with people your own age at the age of 23 stank drove an uninsured pontiac firebird shoot me in the head and like to brag about his collection of ninja swords and he also

told people he was a 300 year old werewolf he makes me think of the crossbow man steven griffiths um i can't remember that guy exactly the same okay got it got it had like a pet lizard oh yeah yeah yeah sure sure sure yeah and this is the thing. It's just like, it's those people who, yeah, can't fit in with their own older subset of peers. So therefore they have to drop it down to people who are just young enough and impressionable enough to think that you are cool when you say things like you're a 300-year-old werewolf.

God! Yeah. Truly, truly just horrific. One of the first times that Stank met Jasmine, he took her and a few other younger girls out in his Firebird to do doughnuts in an abandoned car park. Again, look, the 12-year-olds slash 16-year-olds that you're hanging out with don't have a car.

I've got a car. I can take you to go do this thing that you would do if you were 16 and had a car, not if you were 23 and had a car not if you were 23 and had a car and then a few weeks later jasmine was out at the mall with kaylee who'd introduced her to the goth scene in the first place and they bumped into stank stank and kaylee were quite close and the three of them spent the day hanging out at the mall then at the next concert they hung out again and soon the 12 year old jasmine Jasmine Richardson and the 23-year-old

Jeremy Stank began to develop what their peers saw as a quote-unquote friendship. The pair got closer and Stank began to tell Jasmine all about his life. He told her that he was engaged to a girl called Danielle, but their relationship was in a bad place. He told

her all about his troubled childhood, his difficulties at school and his abusive parents. Jasmine, who told her all about his troubled childhood, his difficulties at school, and his abusive parents. Jasmine, who also thought she had a troubled childhood, difficulties at school, and abusive parents, began to feel that her and Jeremy Snagg really understood each other. And just to be clear,

there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the Richardsons were abusive to Jasmine in any way, shape, or form. It's exactly as Hannah said, she thought. Just like a lot of people seem to think about it. Yeah, most of us do, yeah. In early February 2006, Sank sent Jasmine a message letting her know that he and this mystery Danielle character

who probably never existed in the first place were over. Again, though, sounding like, oh, oh i was engaged i have a fiance but it's just not working out again it's just like it's so deep you're so like brooding you're so adult you had a fiance it's like he's such a twat and two weeks later on valentine's day no less stank said jasmine another message asking her to be his girlfriend. And just like that, the two of them were quote-unquote dating. I don't know if you can call it that.

Ugh. So because of Mark and Deborah's dislike of 16-year-old Devin, Jasmine and Stank's communication was kept strictly online and in secret. Jasmine was not about to spill the beans to her mum and dad. Jeremy, being an angsty goth who liked to hang out with teenagers,

was also on Nexopia, the lifestyle blog. He called himself a soul eater, and his only one like listed on the site was, quote, fellow lichen brethren. It's like of the wolf. Oh, shut up. Yeah. For fuck's sake.

Yeah, it's bad. Really, really bad stuff. Yeah. Because he's a 300-year-old werewolf. Yes, of course. How could we forget? Yes. Now, in classic style of exactly this kind of guy,

exactly this kind of guy, exactly this kind of guy. He only has one like listed, but he has a very long list of dislikes. These consisted of my heart being broken again, home wreckers, hypocrites, lies, the sun. I agree with you there. Untrustworthy people. The newspaper or the celestial object? The celestial object and its rays of aging. Unreliable people, backstabbers, cheaters, spider webs, not spiders, they're cool, but spelled K-E-W-L.

It's so 2000s, I want to die. Planes, posers, prostitutes, the N word which he actually wrote out,, pigs, cops and the godforsaken accordion. Out of all of the musical instruments for you to take issue with, the accordion is quite an odd one. Well, that's he's an edgelord. So a few weeks after Jasmine and Jeremy began their mostly online romance, things started to go wrong for Jasmine at home. Jasmine had begun sneaking out at night to spend time with her friends until the early hours of the morning and of course to see Jeremy. Which is like absolutely terrifying,

like if I had a 12 year old the thing I would be scared of the most is that they're not in their room asleep and they're on their phone. Jasmine is fully sneaking out of the house like an actual 16 year old to go hang out with people until the next day. Now, Jasmine had been caught and scolded by her parents a few times. But things were about to get a whole lot worse. One Friday night, Mark and Deborah left for a night at a hotel together. Eyebrow wiggle. They are parents with two kids and probably don't get very much alone time.

And they left 12-year-old Jasmine to look after her younger brother, Tyler Jacob. However, shortly after her parents had left, Jasmine put her little brother to bed and then she snuck out to hang out at a nearby 7-Eleven. Now Tyler Jacob then woke up to find that he was very much alone in the house. He completely freaked out he's only eight years old and he called his mum and his parents rushed home. This was a massive turning point for Jasmine's relationship with her mum and dad. Things had gone from this is just a phase she'll probably grow out of to we need to pull our daughter back into shape. Understandably Jasmine was grounded indefinitely and her parents

began monitoring her time online. Give me a shitty nappy any day of the week. This is the stuff that fucking terrifies me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the Richardsons, having read through Jasmine's online profiles about serial killers and kinky shit, Jasmine's parents decided that the best thing to do was box up the family computer so that Jasmine could no longer spend any time online

talking to the likes of Trenchcoat and Raven. On top of that, they asked Jasmine to attend some counselling sessions with them to try and get to the bottom of her feelings. I honestly think the Richardsons are doing everything they possibly can. Oh, they're doing the most, yeah. Like, literally short of my advice of just locking her in her room, they're doing everything that any responsible person would advise you to do. Take away the computer, ground her, love her, and take doing everything that any responsible person would advise you to do. Take away the computer, ground her, love her and take her to a counsellor. Jasmine agreed straight away and quite quickly things after counselling became a little bit easier. Jasmine started being less provocative at home and getting into less trouble at school and as a result of that the grounding softened. Although Jasmine

was still banned from the family computer, she was allowed to hang out with friends after school. In reality, Jasmine thinks she's about five steps ahead of the game. She was just pacifying her parents. Nothing had actually changed. It's so hard because like, I feel like that is the obvious thing that she's doing. But then if your child shows progress, you can't just be like, well, you get no reward for that. Because I don't believe you. Because I don't believe you. It's like, what do you do? You have to positively reinforce.

Yeah. Welcome to Hannah and Saruti's childless parenting podcast. Just don't do it. But yeah, like you just feel like they're doing the right thing again. And she's just lying to them. Because she's fucking sneaky. Because kids are sneaky. Yeah, fucking.

I only had Mabel like fucking three weeks. She's already pretending she can't go downstairs so I'll feed her. I'm wise to you. Every evening before she came home, Jasmine would head off to the mall to hang out with her goth mates or head over to the local library to chat to Jeremy Stank online. Unfortunately for the Richardsons, they fell hook, line and sinker

for this change of attitude. And in fact, after a relentless barrage of pleading, the Richardsons even conceded that Jasmine could go to a punk rock show at the community centre. The only condition was that they had to go with her. I would rather not go ever again. I'd rather not go, I know. I'd be like, you know what, don't worry about it. What's for dinner? I don't even like punk music anymore. What are you talking about? You've ruined everything. But that's not the attitude that Jasmine took, desperate to see her friends and naturally Jeremy Stank. Jasmine agreed to going to this gig with her mum and dad. On the night of March the 16th, 2006, they all headed off to watch a band called One Shot Left, all together as a family.

God, honestly, the Richardsons, you are doing literally everything. The fact that they're even willing to go to this probably terrible concert with their child just so they don't have to say, you can't go and deprive her of that experience. I wouldn't even let my mom come swimming with me no karen stay in the car so embarrassing she was like i won't i won't talk to you and i was like mom we have the same face everybody's well no yeah i remember i remember my parents taking me to you know drop me off at uni and like

setting up your dorm and my dad was just like fussing about stuff and i was like just leave just go there's like other people there's other people in the common room like i just want to go talk to them just leave and they were so like i never and they told me since they were like we thought when we drove away that day we would literally never see you again i was like you're so dramatic. I can't remember one of the first, I can't remember which show it was, but one of our first like big live shows. We were listening to a set in front of your parents. Oh, yeah.

Just like the only like brown people in the room. Like, you know, in their 50s, brown people in the room. And they were like, are you Saruti's parents? And they love taking selfies with listeners. So if you ever see my parents at shows and you want to take a selfie with them, they will love to do it. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in US.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle,

the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. You don't believe in ghosts?

I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness.

And inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. So anyway, they go to this probably fucking god-awful, god-forsaken punk rock concert. Featuring a 25-minute accordion solo. Absolutely. Much to Jeremy Stank's horror.

And at this event, Jasmine's parents kept a watchful eye on her from a distance. Again, see, they're being cool. They're not, like, standing right next to her. They're just like, we're gonna go.

You can hang out with your friends, but we're gonna fucking watch you all night. And they seemed content that their daughter really was just hanging out with a bunch of edgy teenagers. She seemed happy messing about with a bunch of goth kids her own age.

However, in a break in the set, Jasmine snuck out of a side door and found 23-year-old man Jeremy Stank. And again, I have to say to the Richardsons, they're obviously going along with this because they knew that Jasmine had been through troubles like fitting in and stuff. So for them to just see that their daughter has friends and a group of people that

she's socializing with must have made them feel so happy and like that's obviously why they're trying not to completely lock her in her room like we said she runs off to go find jeremy and according to witnesses stank picked jasmine up and spun her around in his arms before the pair slipped off into an alleyway. Jasmine was only out of her parents' sight for a few minutes before her dad, Mark, came marching around the corner. When he saw 23-year-old Jeremy Stank locked in a passionate kiss with his 12-year-old daughter, Mark shouted and Jeremy bolted. The younger man easily sprinted off into the night, leaving Jasmine alone with her stunned parents. Jasmine was marched to the car and driven straight home. Now her mp3 player was taken away. So was her makeup and her straightness. Good modern

parenting. They're like, no more of this. And there was no more public library either. It was straight home from school for Jasmine. Now she really was grounded. Or at least so they thought. For some reason, which we're sure Mark and Deborah deeply regretted in their dying moments, after a lot of pleading, they allowed Jasmine access to the family computer once again. Provided she delete all of her older friends on Nexopia and VampireFreak.com, which she did, all except one. And just like that, in less than 24 hours after the pair of them had been caught in that alleyway, Jasmine and Stank were talking again. And the messages got progressively more worrying. On the 18th of March 2006,

Jasmine, who is 12, messaged Jeremy, who is 23. Sex, sex, sex, oh, and love. Jeremy replied, Sex, sex, sex, oh, and love? What's that supposed to mean? Sad face, but with a bracket because it's the 2000s.

Jasmine replied, that i miss you an overwhelmingly large amount and love you and that also i want to bang in capital letters you a ha ha ha ha love oh no she's 12 years old i hate this this was the first time in their quote-unquote relationship that sex had ever been mentioned. And from the messages I just begrudgingly read out to you, it appeared that Jeremy wasn't particularly enthused by the sex chat from his 12-year-old girlfriend. However, as we will go on to see, this sexless Jeremy stank didn't last for long. It just gets a lot worse, actually.

Yeah. And, like, I don don't know some people might be wondering like why the fuck did Debra and Mark give Jasmine the computer back but like the thing is she's still at school and there is only so much you can do in controlling and restricting your children from having internet access before they fall behind everybody else in their class yeah like if you are like here is a tool that gives your child access to literally everything they need to do to smash it at school but also they can talk to fucking 23 year old 300 year old werewolves on there and talk about banging them how do you police that it's so difficult so yeah like hannah said the messaging gets worse and two days later jasmine messaged jeremy again saying the following rar i hate them i know i had to say it i'd forgotten about that being a thing yeah rar i hate them so i have this

plan it begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you so we're set i'm gonna try and call you but i really don't know if I'll be able to. They're treating me like shit. No they're not. I hate them so much but I hope this won't bring us far apart. I hope to talk to you soon and love you with all my heart. To this very fucking irritating message Jeremy replied well I love your plan but we need to get a little more creative with like details and stuff. I wish they wouldn't treat you the way they do. Grr, it angers me to hear that. I dislike them very much. Don't worry, I love you too my sexy beast. I hope to hear from you soon. Take care my love. You have the key to my heart. And soon enough, you shall have my heart.

If I die anyway, because I'll give it to you now. I'll die, then you won't be able to hear me say how much I love you. Love, XOXOXO. I didn't even understand that last bit. It was so confusing and badly written. But then Stank posted this next bit I'm going to read to you that is apparently a poem on his nexopia page i don't think i can take it you have to take it

my girlfriend's family are totally unfair they say that they really care. They don't know what is going on. They just assume, as their greed continues to consume. She continues to thank that I came into her life to help her out, and to stop what they keep trying to shout. It's all total bullshit. Their throats I want to slit. They will regret the shit they have done, especially when I see to it that they are gone. They shall pay for their injustice.

Finally, there shall be silence. Their blood shall be payment. Obviously, iambic pentameter is not something that was covered at the school he went to. He did barely went to school. Oh my God. I think they do iambic pentameter in like year four. Anyway. Oh, I'm actually like almost crying.

That was so horrible. It was horrendous. Truly horrendous. But there you go. We all listened to it. There we go. Now we don't have to do it again. No, we don't.

This wasn't the first time that the pair had spoken about murder. Killing, cutting and blood were pretty normal conversations on the goth scene. But the idea that it might be aimed at someone in particular was a little bit more unusual. The pair carried on chatting for the next few weeks, out of sight of Jasmine's parents. Then, in early April, Jasmine hatched a plan to see Jeremy Stank in the flesh again. She'd been caught a few times trying to sneak out, but this time was different. She crept down in the early hours of the morning and crawled out of the basement window. As she left, Jasmine hid a pair of pyjamas outside her house

and snuck away to the nearest bus stop. Waiting at that bus stop was Jeremy Stank. And we don't really know much about the rest of that night, but we do know two things. Firstly, Jasmine's escape proved that somebody could get in and out of the basement window of the Richardson home undetected. Secondly, Jeremy Stank took the 12-year-old Jasmine back to his mother's trailer park home,

and they had what Jasmine felt at the time was consensual sex, but obviously she is 12 she cannot consent that is not sex that is rape. When Jasmine arrived back at her house she put her pyjamas on over the clothes that she'd worn out and snuck back in through the window. Her mum heard her come in and came down to catch her in the act but because she was wearing her pyjamas Jasmine was able to convince her mum that she'd only just woken up and was coming down to the basement to get some air. Sure, sure, sure, sure, Jasmine. Honestly. Over the next few weeks, the fantasies of killing Jasmine's family continued.

And at some stage, the line between fantasy and reality started to blur. At first, Jeremy was messaging his friends with emoji-filled scrolls of text bragging about he and Jasmine and how they'd made a plan to kill Jasmine's family, and the best bit was that it was all her idea. But then the mood shifted somewhat. In mid-July, Stank got stoned with a friend and told him that Jasmine would probably break up with him if he didn't go through with the plan. He even asked his mate if he'd help him do the deed because he was too scared to do it on his own, to which, quite rightly, he was told promptly to go and fuck himself. We don't know whether or not Jeremy's friends

thought that he was being serious. They seem to be the type of people that talk about slitting throats and being 300-year-old werewolves, etc. I imagine it is quite difficult to pick out what's true and what's not. But I do appreciate that when he actually put a plan together and started to point fingers at a particular person, his friend was like, fuck off. Yeah.

So yeah, we're not sure what the friends thought, and we're really even less sure about whether Jeremy himself believed that he would really go through with it. But the concept of multiple murders was very much on the agenda. On Friday, the 21st of April 2006, just a month after he had caught Jeremy Stank kissing his 12-year-old daughter in an alleyway, Mark and his wife Deborah decided to take their two kids out for a spin on their motorbikes. They had a big trip to Ontario planned. Ontario,

Ontario, Ontario. Ontario planned for the summer and they wanted to get Jasmine and Tyler Jacob used to being on the back of the bikes. The ride was nice and it was the first time in a long time that they'd hung out together as a family. The next day, Mark got up early to see the arrival of his new pickup truck straight from the dealership, much to the interest of the neighbours. Jasmine was in the house, still very much grounded, but seeming happier by the day. A few miles away, in his mum's trailer, Jeremy was also waking up. He'd had a big night out and woken up feeling groggy with his mate Mick.

They messed about together with Jeremy's guitar for a few hours before Mick headed off and Jeremy went into town in his mum's pickup. He dropped off Kaylee, Jasmine's school friend at Raven's Place, before picking up a 12-pack of beers and some weed. Stank smoked two full bowls with his dealer before heading home to the trailer again. Mick was back there with his girlfriend Hayley and the trio drank the beers that Stank had picked up before raiding the fridge for more booze. So it's safe to say by this point Jeremy Stank is very much on one. He smoked a hell of a lot of weed and already is getting quite inebriated. Jeremy then drove away again, this time apparently to visit his mate Jordan.

He told Jordan while he was there about his plan to kill Jasmine's parents. Now, again, Jordan wasn't sure if Stank was serious, but he was a little freaked out all the same. Jeremy hung out there for a while, drinking some vampire-themed wine. Just red wine. Yeah, yeah. Before heading back to his trailer once more. Back at Jasmine's house, she was chatting with a friend online. This friend asked Jasmine if she wanted to go swimming the next day,

to which Jasmine replied, I can't. This friend pushed for more information, but Jasmine never replied. By this point, Jeremy was now back at his trailer with Mick, Hayley and a few others who turned up while he was gone. Jeremy put on the film Natural Born Killers, which if you haven't seen it, is about two lovers with troubled childhoods who go on a massive killing spree. Stank watched the Tarantino written classic for the umpteenth time, soaking in his favourite film. And as it reached its climax, as the young boy and product

of violence Mickey was released by the killers, Jeremy blurted out that when they did it, it would be different. Jasmine was going to kill her little brother. When the film finished, Jeremy headed out again, this time to a different drug dealer called Cam. Cam was watching a movie with his girlfriend jenny and the three of them took a line of cocaine each in the kitchen jenny then offered jeremy some ecstasy which he took before buying two grams of cocaine and heading off yet again he's really mixing it all up in there in a terrifying soup of doom yeah. His jaw is having a bad time. So it was now the early hours of the morning on the 23rd of April 2006.

And Jeremy Stank, who had spent the entire day drinking, smoking weed and doing hard drugs, drove to the local gas station. He went in to buy a pack of gum to take the smell of smoke off his breath. Yeah, I'm sure that'll do it. Before getting back in the car,

snorting the two grams of cocaine and setting off to Jasmine's house. When Jeremy arrived he parked up and crept across the lawn with a knife in his pocket. He found his way to Jasmine's window and threw a pine cone to get her attention. Twelve-year-old Jasmine looked out and silently motioned towards the basement window, which she'd already left open for his arrival. Jeremy then crept over to the window, put on a black ski mask, tried his best to quietly enter the Richardson house. But unfortunately for Jeremy Stank, the litres of alcohol along with the weed, cocaine and the ecstasy all caught up with him and his quiet entrance didn't quite go as planned. The 23-year-old fully adult man stumbled through the window,

making an incredible racket that immediately woke up Jasmine's mum, Deborah. Deborah, who assumed that this noise was her daughter, yet again trying to sneak out through the basement window, got out of bed in her nightie and rushed downstairs. She stormed into the basement, expecting to see her 12-year-old daughter climbing out of the window. But what she found was the 23-year-old Jeremy Stank climbing in, wearing a black ski mask and holding a knife.

It's literally the worst nightmare. It's like when you're scared, slightly feeling a little bit freaked out in the house. And sometimes I stay at ACT Faces flat by myself if he's gone out and it'll just be me and Baby Blue. And Baby Blue doesn't bark, which is what makes me feel a little bit more on edge because I'm used to big blue who barks at fucking everything so when I'm in the house with big blue I know there's nobody in the house because blue would be going fucking mental and what will happen sometimes is I'll go have a

shower and I'll be like what if somebody came in while I was in the shower and because sometimes they see people I haven't got my keys don't lock the door and I'll be like but I have to have a shower but I don't want you to be knocking on the door while I'm in the shower and I'll come out and Blue won't he'll have moved but he won't have barked like and he'll do this thing where he'll sit in the spare room and stare at the door of the ensuite that's in there that we never use and i'll be like stop it blue and i'm like what if somebody came in and is hiding in that en suite and you're just not barking but you're staring at it because you're telling me in your own silent bob way that he's

fucking in there and i honestly i was like right i'm just gonna go look and i opened it and i was like okay there's no one here for you but in one, there'll be a towel hanging up in a weird way. And you'll be like, oh, my God, there's somebody in here with a black ski mask on and a knife that's going to stab me. I'm in the invisible man. Exactly. And this this is what you do not expect. Deborah goes down there expecting to see her daughter. And then she sees everybody's fucking worst nightmare. I hate this bit so much.

Of course, Deborah screamed and without hesitation, Jeremy lunged at her and stabbed her 12 times. Deborah stumbled back into the kitchen before collapsing on the floor. Moments later, Mark, who'd obviously heard the commotion all the way upstairs, threw himself at Jeremy with a screwdriver. The pair had an explosive fight in the basement. Mark stabbed Jeremy repeatedly with his screwdriver, even gouging the younger man's eyes with his thumbs. Jeremy was so off his tits he didn't really notice. Ugh.

Cocaine's out of a drug. Stank relentlessly stabbed Mark Richardson back over 20 times. Some of those blows went so deep that the knife struck bone and bent. Mark, despite putting up a valiant fight, couldn't hold out any longer, and like his wife, he collapsed on the floor. Mark Richardson's final words were simply, Why? To which Stank replied,

Because you kept us apart and your daughter wants you dead, before flinging his own bloodied knife on the floor. Jeremy then headed upstairs to find Jasmine, who had already made her way into her little brother's room. Jeremy then watched on as his 12-year-old girlfriend attempted to smother her 8-year-old brother with a pillow. The young boy was laying on his back and trying to defend himself with his toy lightsaber. Jasmine eventually gave up with the smothering and reached for a knife. And without hesitation, she slit the eight-year-old boy's throat. Jasmine then watched as her little brother made gurgling noises and pleaded for his life before walking out of the door heading downstairs and walking out into the night what the actual fuck i know like nothing should shock us after having

done the show for six years i was just thinking that but like do i need to retire because this is like honestly it's just the most like because I think with Jasmine, you see a child, because she is a child, she's 12 years old when she does this. Deborah and Mark do everything right, I think, insofar as like parenting her. And you never see like outward signs of like really, really troubling behavior from Jasmine. You see her being ostracized, her feeling like an outcast. That's all fucking part and parcel. But to suddenly escalate to the point that she is willing to kill her parents or have them killed and then kill her own brother, it's like it very much does come out of nowhere and I think that's what's so shocking.

After they got out of the house, Stank freaked out and ran away. He said he was going home to pack and that he would come back for Jasmine later. So he left Jasmine alone outside. She got in a taxi to the nearby 7-Eleven and then took a long walk to Jeremy's trailer park home. When she arrived, Jeremy had indeed packed and they decided to go out for some food before heading to a party. At that party, Jeremy told everyone about what had happened at the Richardson house, but naturally nobody believed him.

There's something really wrong with him. Yeah. Then he phoned a 19-year-old friend called Cassie Lancaster, who fancied him, and asked her over to come and clean his truck. And then the next day after the party, Jeremy asked Cassie to drive him and Jasmine around in that truck all day. So it didn't really seem like either of them had too much of a plan. Why are they getting Cassie involved?

It's just so confusing and it's like why are you going to a party and telling everybody what just happened? Like nothing about this second half makes any sense. Like post-murder, their behaviour. Do we just put it down to them being in complete shock or at least Stank being in complete shock? I just, I have no words. After this completely aimless driving, the trio pulled

into a gas station, and that's when Cassie saw the newspaper reports of a murder in Medicine Hat. And then she started to put two and two together, and asked the question why there was blood in the truck. No shade on Cassie. She's not got anything to do with anything, but that'd probably be my first question. Ugh. So with the enormous online paper trail, by the time reports of the murders

were hitting the press, the police already knew all about Jeremy Stank and his relationship with 12-year-old Jasmine. And remember, the police, they find Deborah and Mark and Tyler Jacob all murdered in the house.

They think Jasmine is just missing. But then they find out everything about her relationship with Jeremy and they read all of Jasmine and Jeremy's online messages. So they knew now that he was the man they needed to find. And because Jeremy and Jasmine had both been communicating with friends via call and text all day after the murders, it hadn't exactly been hard to track down. And so, in the afternoon of the 21st of April 2006, Jeremy, Jasmine and Cassie were pulled over in Jeremy's mum's truck and arrested. Now,

unfortunately, for our understanding of the case, but in a gold star moment for the Canadian justice system, what happened from here is basically somewhat still a mystery all these years later. And this is because of the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act, which meant that from the moment 12-year-old Jasmine Richardson was arrested, her name could no longer be used in the Canadian press and information about the case became very limited. Here's some stuff we do know. Cassie took a plea bargain and her original charge of

accessory to murder was dropped and replaced with obstruction of justice. Poor Cassie. I know, man. She's literally just, I know we're never supposed to say this phrase. Wrong place, wrong time. I mean, yeah. Like, ugh. Like, what else can you say?? Context is important and that phrase, there is no better time to use that phrase than here.

So for her obstruction of justice charge, Cassie served one year house arrest and she did regular drug and alcohol tests. We also know that when Jasmine's school locker was searched, investigators found a hand-drawn comic that she had made depicting the murder of her whole family. And then Jasmine and Jeremy running off into the sunset to live happily ever after.

Jasmine was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. She is almost certainly the youngest Canadian in history to be charged with multiple murders. Stank was also charged with three counts of first-degree murder and sent Jasmine a letter asking for her hand in marriage

while they both awaited their trials. Fuck off. Jasmine replied to this letter saying yes, she would marry him. However, by the time she was found guilty on all charges a year later, all contact between her and Stank had ended completely. A year later, in November 2008, 18 months after they'd killed Jasmine's whole family, Jeremy Stank was sentenced to three life sentences to serve concurrently.

He'll be up for parole in 10 years' time, 2033. Because Jasmine was under 14, the maximum sentence she could receive was 10 years, which she was given, she was given the full 10-year sentence, minus the 18 months that she'd already been in custody for. Jasmine served the first four years of her sentence in full-time custody at a psychiatric hospital, before moving on to supervised community release, where she stayed at the hospital, but was slowly reintroduced back into society. Her extended family maintained contact with

Jasmine for the entirety of her time inside which like what like look i'm not saying i think that's a great thing that they did but like could i do that fuck no i think i mean obviously there's something very wrong with jeremy stank there's something very wrong with jasmine richardson too very very wrong but it's like scary wrong in that look i'm all for rehabilitation but i do i believe everyone could be rehabilitated fuck no do i believe that everyone should have the opportunity for rehabilitation yes can it be done no and i would be fucking scared of her i mean i suppose the extended family are making the argument that she's not very well

yeah um and i mean good for that yeah good on them good on them for doing that and also we know that if somebody is in prison that having connections to the outside world absolutely categorically makes a huge huge difference in re-offending like if they have something to hold on to they have a reason to stay connected to the outside world they're much less likely to do that especially a family but see what she did to her family? Fuck. So yeah they stayed in touch with her for the entirety of that time that she was in prison and in 2012 it was reported that she was doing well and was showing genuine remorse for her actions. Because of this she was allowed to attend Mount Royal University in Calgary under a new identity and And again, look, I'm not saying don't give her those opportunities. But she also lied a hell of a lot

and managed to convince her own mum of things that weren't true. I'm scared of her. By 2016, Jasmine had completed her sentence and her university degree with no signs of re-offending. So, you know, good. During her final sentence review,

Justice Scott Brooker said to jasmine you have a desire to atone for what you did what you can do is honor their memory you have been doing exactly that and i think your parents and brother would be proud of you which oh like is that for you to say that makes me feel really look again yes let's help her there's no point wasting another life life just throwing her in prison for the rest of it and not rehabilitating her i believe that's what prisons are there for but like she killed her eight-year-old brother and robbed him of having any opportunity of having any sort of life like i don't know that makes me uncomfortable that the judge like i don't think

you should bring them into this but that's just how i feel anyway jasmine now lives as a free woman in canada under a new identity and i'm glad to say with no visible criminal record because yes rehabilitation try it if it works awesome but prisons are also there for like justice and retribution i do believe and i'm like is 10 years enough i don't know if she doesn't do anything ever again fine but I don't know yeah I mean it's the it's the fact that she was 12 I think yeah it's tricky and it's such an anomalous case I think it probably was handled in the best way possible and you don't typically see cases like this where children that young are committing crimes yeah and I also don't think I have enough of a yeah a handle on who was really instigating everything because like sure she's saying all of

those things but she's fucking 12 like you're 23 and if she hadn't killed her brother i would agree with you oh yeah yeah it's that that i'm like and i think she did it because she's like i can't overpower my dad and my mum. I might be tall for a 12 year old, but I'm still a 12 year old girl. And that's why she needed Stank, a 23 year old man to take down her father, most importantly. And she was like, but I can kill my eight year old brother. And so I don't give her a pass on that. I think she is, in my mind, I think she probably was the instigator

because she was the one that felt trapped. Yeah. But there you go. That's it. It's fucking miserable. Hideous. Absolutely hideous case. Oh, God.

So, yeah, that is the story of the Richardson family murders. Oh, bummer. Oh. All around. And, yeah. I'm very bummed. Yes. Bummed all around.

But, yeah, if you are feeling bummed and you want to feel less bummed or maybe bummed in a different way go listen to our shorthand on the spanish paralympic team which was out this tuesday and you can listen to that and all other shorthands we have done over on amazon music and we'll see you next time for some other things unless i have retired because that might have done me in. Well, quite. Goodbye. Bye. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. Thank you. regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry.

The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk Cafe, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry.

Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is The Rise and Fall of Diddy. Listen to The Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery+.