SERIALously - 60: 12 Year Old Girl Goes on Murder Spree

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

In today's episode, we are discussing one of the most notorious family murders in Canada. Jeremy Steinke, a 23-year-old who claimed to be a 300-year-old werewolf, and a 12-year-old girl, Jasmine Richardson, met online and started dating. From there, their sick and twisted whirlwind romance “love” story led the two of them to commit the grisly and heinous murders of 3 innocent victims. The case was originally published on my YouTube channel, 10 to Life.  Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise All Social Media Links  https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ For Business Inquiries:  [e-mail]

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new bonus episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime bestie, here to talk all things true crime with you. Now, the reason why I had to jump on here and drop this bonus episode outside of the normal release schedule is because I need to talk to you about this case. It is so wild. There is so much to talk about, so we got to get right into it. Before we do, please take a quick second, just make sure that you are following along on the podcast so that you don't miss any future episodes and bonus episodes like these that drop, and also follow along on the Serialistly Facebook page where we drop all information regarding giveaways, behind-the-scenes information,

guest episodes, Q&As, all sorts of good stuff. All right, now let's get into today's case. Jasmine Richardson was born in Medicine Hat, a very small town in the province of Alberta, Canada. She was born on March 30, 1994. Her parents, Mark and Deborah Richardson, were active members of the local church and homeschooled their children. Mark was a 42-year-old gas plant worker, and Deborah was a 48-year-old nurse. The couple had been married for over 20 years. Jasmine was the middle child, with an older sister named Jennifer and a younger brother named Jacob, and they were raised in a very conservative Christian family. Jasmine's upbringing was described as pretty sheltered and even strict. Her parents were protective and closely monitored her activities, including her online interactions. Despite her

sheltered upbringing, Jasmine was known to be bright and talented, just a young girl who had a passion for writing and for music, just a light. However, as Jasmine was approaching her teen years, she started to change a lot, and many of her actions seemed like your typical rebel teen phase, but nobody could have predicted what would come next. Jeremy Steinke was born on February 15th, 1984, in La Crente, Alberta, Canada. He was the son of a truck driver and grew up in a very religious household as well. Jeremy didn't have the easiest home life, not at all, and there were even reports of some physical altercations, but I can't verify those 100%. As he got older, Jeremy was known to be a bit of an eccentric

individual who would often wear a long black coat and black clothing, who sometimes went by the name Soul Reaper. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and was also known to have a very violent temper. He allegedly had a very long history of behavior issues, mental health issues, drug use, including some very severe drugs like LSD and meth, and was known to be involved in the local punk and goth music scene. Now, I just want to say, based on what music you like doesn't necessarily pinpoint you as a, you know, horrible individual or an at-risk individual. So I don't want anybody to go off on, you know, a tour saying that that's the case because that's definitely not. But just kind of describing the crowd that he hung out with, his interests, the things he did, what he

wore, so you can get a visual. A woman that wanted to remain anonymous claimed that she had a child with Jeremy when he was 17 years old and she was 20 years old. She said, he's never met his child. He was abusive and dating him was a big mistake. He rarely held down a job, but he always had $10 or $20 in his pocket. He'd buy gifts and spend every penny he has and try to get close to the parents. He was fun. He always wanted to do what you wanted, but he had a quick temper and he'd sit up in the middle of the night and start talking to himself. I probably only know 10% of him. He can change in a blink of an eye. Since our breakup, I've watched his girlfriends getting younger and younger. Now, Jasmine Richardson met Jeremy at one of these punk

concerts in 2006. After that initial meeting, they continued talking and eventually started a relationship and communicated mostly online for the majority of this relationship. They frequently messaged each other through a website called VampireFreaks.com, which is a social networking site for individuals who have an interest in the gothic subculture and alternative lifestyles. And this website was actually shut down back in 2020. But back then, it was alive and well. Now, at the time, Jasmine was just 12 years old, but Jeremy was 23. It was also revealed that Jasmine said that she was 15 years old on these social media pages, which doesn't make it less worse at all, but I just wanted to include that

for context. She was saying that she was 15 years old, not 12. But it's clear that for a 23-year-old to even consider a much younger, minor girl, whether that's 15 or 12, and consider them as a romantic partner, something would have to be very deeply, deeply wrong with him. Like, ultra creep level. Disgusting. Predator. Awful. But it actually gets even worse than that. According to some of Jeremy's friends, he told them that he thought he wasn't just a normal 23-year-old guy. No, no, no, no.

He thought that he was a 300-year-old werewolf. Okay, pause for reaction, guys. Pause for reaction. Is your mouth on the floor? Is your jaw dropped? Because it should be, if it's not. He also had confided in friends that he liked the taste of blood, and he also wore a small vial of blood around his neck. Not in a Megan Fox, Machine Gun Kelly kind of way, because I think they have blood on their neck, or maybe that was just Billy Bob

and Angelina from when I was a kid. I don't know. But like, he thought that he was like in this culture of like Twilight meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Probably dated myself with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference, but you get what I'm saying. So eventually Jasmine started becoming more gothic as well. And some people have said that Jasmine believed she too was a vampire at this point. When Jasmine's family found out about her 23-year-old werewolf boyfriend, they became understandably furious. Little concerned, little concerned here. So they grounded her and forbid her from seeing him. But this did not stop Jasmine from communicating with Jeremy online through several different social media sites and those websites, including vampirefreaks.com.

In the way that many young girls do, Jasmine acted like this was the end of the world and her parents' decisions were similar to imprisonment or torture and that they were just being so outrageous and cruel to her and they didn't want her to be happy. The big woe is me experience. So Jasmine hated her parents now. And apparently to Jasmine and Jeremy, this was reason enough for them to die. Jeremy also recounted the story of how everything all went down that night. Jeremy said he drove over to the Richardsons' house at night, that he was high on drugs and drunk, wearing all black and a ski mask. He had a knife with him, and he decided to break into the basement.

Deborah Richardson heard the noise and went down into the basement to investigate. She screamed as soon as she saw someone standing there with a ski mask on. Jeremy stabbed her 12 times, hitting her aorta and lungs. Blood sprayed out into the stairwell leading to the basement. It splattered all over the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, and Deborah died. At the sound of Deborah's screams, Mark Richardson, her husband, and his son Jacob ran from their bedrooms. Mark came to his wife's aid, grabbed a screwdriver, and used it to defend himself. He managed to temporarily choke Jeremy and jammed a finger in one of his eyes. During their struggle, Mark was stabbed 24 times, and there were countless slashes

inflicted upon him aside from the stab wounds. The staircase banister was shattered. In the fight for his life, Mark struggled with the intruder from one end of the basement to the other. Mark's blood was on the futon, the gas fireplace, exercise equipment, the banister, and the ceilings and the walls. Mark Richardson's dying words were asking Jeremy why. Jeremy responded to him and said, because your daughter wanted it that way. The attack was so violent, the filleting knife that Jeremy used was bent, buckled in the middle, and curved at the tip like a hook. He dropped the knife next to Mark's body and walked upstairs, leaving a trail of bloody handprints as he went through the house, just because he could. Jacob Richardson, who woke up after he heard his mother screaming,

stood in the hallway in his underwear near his bedroom, where he heard his father struggling with an intruder. Then he saw the masked intruder coming up the stairs and his sister holding a black handled kitchen knife. She stood over him as he begged, I'm scared, I'm too young to die, but she stabbed him anyways. He tried to run away from her into his bedroom, but one of them tried to strangle him, which caused pinpoint bleeding inside of his eyelids and mouth. Jasmine stabbed him three more times, in his face and his chest. Then Jeremy slashed his throat, severing his jugular vein, causing his blood to soak into

his bedding and spray throughout the room, all over his toys. She left him laying up on the side of the bed, curled up next to a toy and a lightsaber that later was rumored to be used to try to protect himself. This little boy using a toy lightsaber trying to get his sister and her boyfriend off of him. It is heartbreaking. On April 3rd, 2006, a six-year-old boy was looking through the window of the house when he spotted two bodies laying on the ground. Once the police were notified, they immediately came to the house and realized that the Richardson family home was the scene of a horrific crime. Jasmine's parents, Mark and Deborah Richardson, were found

on the first floor, and her eight-year-old brother, Jacob, was found upstairs lying on a bed. Once police realized that Jasmine was missing from the home, they initially feared that she had been abducted. However, evidence from the crime scene told a very different story, and police soon ruled out kidnapping. Shockingly, the evidence pointed to Jasmine's involvement in the murders with her 23-year-old, 300-year-old werewolf boyfriend, Jeremy. After killing Jasmine's family, the two of them fled the scene. Two hours later, Jasmine and Jeremy were laughing and kissing at a nearby restaurant. And the next day on April 24th, 2006, Jasmine and her boyfriend Jeremy were located 100 miles away

and they were finally arrested. And they were charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Despite only being 12 years old, Jasmine was charged as an adult. Now guys, this story gets even crazier. If you think, if your mouth is kind of on the floor being like, what is going on here? Just wait. In the days following their arrest, Jasmine denied any role in the murders. She and Jeremy, in fact, blamed each other for everything. So not this deep-rooted love, right? You guys are flipping on each other now. However, while in custody and awaiting trial, Jasmine admitted to what exactly did happen that horrifying night, and she even testified to some of this in court. Jasmine and Jeremy first attacked Jasmine's mother and father, stabbing them to death. Her mother had been stabbed 12 times,

and her father had been stabbed more than 24 times as he tried to fight them off with a screwdriver. They then went upstairs, where Jasmine proceeded to stab her little brother Jacob in the chest while he pleaded for his life, begging her and saying, I'm scared, I'm too young to die. and saying, I'm scared. I'm too young to die. Jeremy then apparently finished him off by slitting his throat. In an additional haunting detail, Jasmine testified in court that her little brother was gurgling. According to Jasmine, the reason for killing her brother, she stated, was that it would have been cruel to leave him alive without his parents. Now, I'm sorry. She's trying to position it as a mercy murder, saying it would have been mean of me as his sister,

his older sister, to leave him without his parents. No, no, no. It was evil and mean of you and horrible of you to take his life. And as he's begging for you not to, to allow your werewolf boyfriend to cruise in and slit his throat. It is absolutely appalling. While searching for evidence and looking for a motive for these gruesome murders, investigators came across multiple online accounts that belonged to both Jasmine and Jeremy. It would be easy to assume that Jeremy, being the older one in the relationship,

was the one who came up with the plan. But once again, the evidence told a very different story. One of the most telling excerpts from the online accounts was a message sent from Jasmine to Jeremy, and it read, I have this plan. It begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you. Though Jasmine had discussed her plans to kill her parents with friends on more than one occasion, none of them ever took her seriously. During the trial, she claimed that she never meant it, that it was just stupid teenage talk. But unfortunately for her parents and her younger brother, it became much more than just talk. Another key incriminating message posted on a Windows Live Spaces account belonging to Jeremy

provided evidence of premeditation, motive, and was written one month before the murders took place. Now, just a warning, I think Jeremy was trying to write this in a poem style, and it says, payment. My lover's rents are totally unfair. They say they really care. They don't know what is going on. They just assume. As their greed continues to consume, she is slowly going insane. She continues to think that I came into her life to help her out and to stop what they keep trying to shout. It's all total bull. Their throats I want to slit. They will regret what they have done, especially when I see to it that they are gone. They shall pay for their insolence. Finally, there shall be silence.

Their blood shall be payment. Guys. Guys. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. I mean, I get it. He dropped out of ninth grade, so I won't go too hard on him for this, like, slam poetry situation that he's doing, which I don't know if that's really what slam too hard on him for this, like, slam poetry situation that he's

doing, which I don't know if that's really what slam poetry is. I'm just, like, talking. But, like, this is crazy. It's almost as though he thinks he's, like, in some roundabout Shakespearean way writing as a testament to his love for Jasmine and how he's going to save her from her horrible parents and how they have to atone for their sins through blood payment. It is bizarre. Bananas. Completely bananas. Just hours prior to committing these murders, Jeremy and some friends watched a movie, the movie Natural Born Killers, which is a 1994 film about a young couple who commit a violent spree of killings. As they were watching this, allegedly, Jeremy told his friends that he and his girlfriend should go about their plans in a very similar manner, but without sparing his

girlfriend's younger brother. Jeremy even asked his friends, have you ever watched the movie Natural Born Killers? I think it's the best love story of all time. Something's warped in this werewolf's mind. Something is warped. At trial, when Jasmine was asked why they murdered her parents and little brother, Jasmine said, I loved him so much, I thought it would bring us closer together. And even after they were arrested, their feelings for each other didn't stop. While awaiting trial behind bars, Jeremy proposed to Jasmine through an exchange of jailhouse letters, and she accepted. Now, what's crazy to me here is that apparently their love is still going strong behind bars, so much so that they want to get married, which, hi, you are still a minor. You, Jeremy, are still a werewolf, at least

an adult at 23 years old. On what planet do you think that any marriage is going to be allowed to happen? But also, they had flipped on each other early on, blaming each other. So clearly the love wasn't that deep unless they were strategically so smart, which I can't believe this is the case, that they were trying to blame each other so that they could both get off and like they couldn't prove who did it and then they would both walk free. But I can't imagine that they are that smart and strategic again. So I don't understand here. How does this compute? The math ain't math-ing. Why are you flipping against the love of your life, then you're asking to marry each other? It is crazy town. So fast forward, and in November of 2007, Jasmine

was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which is the maximum sentence allowed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The act states that any convicts who were under the age of 14 at the time that they committed the crime can't be charged as adults, and they can only be given a maximum sentence of 10 years. Jasmine's sentence included credit for the 18 months time served, with four years of it to be spent in a psychiatric facility, followed by four and a half years under conditional supervision in the community. facility, followed by four and a half years under conditional supervision in the community. She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada to ever be convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. The now 16-year-old girl is currently in closed custody at the Alberta

Hospital in Edmonton. In order to begin her reintegration, her treatment team and her lawyers say she needs more exposure to the outside world. We have to appreciate, of course, that she's been in custody for four years, and it's a big four years given that she's now 16. And so certainly there have been a number of changes, and as the treatment team indicated, she's not in a normal situation, and so she's a very different person now than she was then. Crown Prosecutor Ramona Robbins did express some issues with the report

that was given to the court by the treatment team, specifically a part that mentioned the girl was having issues understanding the severity of the murders. We all know she'll be out in the community one day, that's inevitable, and what kind of person is she going to be, what kind of adult is she going to be. So those are the types of questions I have daily, and especially when there's an annual review. If her treatment team decides to plan any trips off of the Alberta Hospital facility, they will need to submit those plans in detail to the Solicitor General, who will then approve the plans, deny the plans,

or make amendments to them to assure that there is no risk to the community. I have every confidence in the Solicitor General's department. I work with them every day, and so I have every confidence that whatever risk is presented to the public will be very carefully managed. And no changes will occur without them making sure that the whole community is safe. I think it's going to be beneficial to her in treatment in terms of gradual reintegration. Instead of doing it in big jumps, it can be a much smoother transition this way. The girls' team says they are continuing to assess her to as that any reintegration wi

steps, starting with walk going into other buildin' going out into the Edmont herself did appear in cor circuit television and wh anything to add only said you for the opportunity. will be in six months. No that this sentence is extremely light and unjust.

Ten years, half of it shaved away in a treatment center, half of it unsupervised. What are you even talking about? This 12-year-old planned and executed a horrific murder on her parents and her younger brother. It is unreal. Jeremy's mental health was evaluated, though, before he went to trial, and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which, hi, he thought he was a werewolf, so I'm not that surprised here. It's possible that his unusual statements and behavior were a result of his mental illness, possibly, but regardless of the cause, his involvement in the Richardson family murders had devastating

consequences and continues to be a subject of discussion and debate in Canada. In December of 2008, Jeremy was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years. Now get this. Jasmine Richardson was released from prison in 2016 after serving the 10-year sentence for her involvement in the 2006 triple homicide of her parents and younger brother. She was 12 years old at the time of the crime and was tried as an adult, which sparked a national debate in Canada about the age of criminal responsibility. I mean, only 10 years, guys. That is pretty crazy, especially since this was all her idea. Now, after her release, Jasmine was placed under a number of

conditions, including a ban on contacting the victim's family, a requirement to undergo psychiatric treatment, and a ban on using social media. She was also required to live in a halfway house for a period of time before being allowed to live independently. At the time of her release, Jasmine's attorney, Catherine Bayak, felt that the system had worked in this case and that she was unlikely to re-offend. Additionally, get this, Jasmine's youth criminal records would be sealed after a five-year period of Jasmine not committing any crimes as an adult. During her final court appearance before her release, Jasmine, who was identified just as the abbreviation JR under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, appeared from an undisclosed location via closed-circuit TV. According to

CBC News, she thanked the judge but did not apologize and did not express regret for her crimes. Additionally, it was also reported that even in the past court appearances, she failed to take responsibility for her role in the killings, which is something that I will circle back to because I am not quite sure I understand that part. This seems crazy. I get that the sentence was already in place, but now shouldn't there be, I don't know, some sort of monitoring system in place where if you know that this person potentially could be a risk to the community again, that maybe you need to revisit the sentencing, maybe you need to revisit things? It doesn't sit right with me.

Justice Scott Brooker of the Court of Queens bench later remarked to Jasmine by saying, I think your parents and brother would be proud of you. Clearly, you cannot undo the past. You can only live each day with the knowledge you can control how you behave and what you do each day. However, one of the officers named Brett Sekediak, one of the first to arrive at the bloody crime scene, expressed concern that Jasmine wasn't really rehabilitated and hoped that she hadn't just tricked the criminal justice system. Mark Totten, a criminal justice professor and co-author of When Children Kill, had to say this, We've got a young woman here who, at the age of 12, was diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder and conduct disorder. These are two very serious disorders. Fast forward now, after 10 years, after a psychiatric institution and community supervision,

is it possible to change? Absolutely. In a subsequent progress report for the court, Jasmine was described as a poster child for criminal rehabilitation. But former neighbors and the community members are still torn over the sentence, with some believing it was far too light for such a barbaric triple murder. And I agree. As far as whether Jasmine is truly rehabilitated, it's been about seven years and nothing has happened yet, but I guess time will tell. It's not known publicly where Jasmine is now, but many people speculate that she is living in an undisclosed part of Canada and changed her name. Jeremy, however, remains

incarcerated in a Canadian federal facility. Now, I can't verify this information 100%, so of course, as always, do your own research, but there have been some reports that when Jasmine was initially in jail, she would often brag about the murders, to freak people out. It's also been reported that she would randomly scream in the middle of the night to wake everybody up and then laugh about it in the morning, almost as to taunt the other inmates. And again, I can't verify this is 100% true at all, it's just rumor, so always do your own research. So was she just evil and calculated,

and does she just have evil blood in her? Because on the other hand, some people think that she was possibly groomed and maybe even assaulted sexually, and that this led to her decisions, so that she really isn't to blame. Regardless, her case is considered a success in Canada for their criminal reform policies, which what do you guys think? That just seems bizarre to me. This case brought to light the debate about criminal justice for youth defendants and the safety of the community back over in Canada. Like I mentioned earlier, even though she was 12 at the time of the murders, the maximum that she could be sentenced for at the time due to the law was just 10 years. I've discussed children who kill in several of my other videos, but for the most part,

not one of those cases has been where they did not serve a significant amount of time. Certainly more than 10 years, but most have been life without the possibility of parole until several decades later. The fact that she is now released, I hope for the sake of whoever crosses paths with her, that she actually has been rehabilitated. But to me, it seems too soon. I don't know, I just think it is so weird and it really kind of is unnerving because not only the brutality of the triple murders, but the callousness when her own little brother was begging for his life and they just slit his throat and then went on the run together. I don't know, it's weird to me. Also, remember after she was

released, she thanked the judge but did not apologize or express regret for her crimes. So does rehabilitation not include self-accountability, remorse, regret, or did she just forget to mention that part there? Because I would imagine if you are the poster child for rehabilitation, you would have to have something going along the lines of like, I'm so sorry for what I did. I can't, I have extreme remorse. I can't ever undo the past, but I can only prove to live a valuable future and be an asset to the community. But there was none of that. She just thanked the judge. So how is it a success story and success rehabilitation if there's no self-awareness, accountability, remorse, regret, nothing. I also do wonder if she still has contact with Jeremy or now visits him in jail or if she

has officially ended her engagement. It's all very weird. And as for Jasmine's older sister, Jennifer, after the tragic murders of Jasmine's family in 2006, she moved away from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, and it's unclear where she is currently living or what she is doing. Jennifer has largely stayed out of the public eye since the murders and has not made any public statements about this case. And I just can't help but feel for her because her whole family just absolutely destroyed and evaporated, essentially. Her parents gone, her brother gone, and her sister gone, incarcerated, and like, how do you even mentally wrap your mind around the fact that your younger

sister is the one responsible for annihilating your entire family? It's beyond tragic. I hope you guys found today's episode informative and thought-provoking, and I'm curious to know your thoughts on it and your thoughts on the punishment. Do you think she is a risk to the community, or do you believe at 12 years old, she could have been rehabilitated in just 10 years? Let me know what you guys think. All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another bonus episode with me. Like I said at the top of this episode, make sure you're following the podcast so that you don't miss any more bonus episodes in the future. And if you would be so kind as to just quickly rate this podcast review it it takes 30 seconds max to leave a review and it really does help the algorithm and help push this podcast out to more

people so that these victim stories get heard which we know is the goal so thank you guys so much for tuning in to another bonus episode and I will be talking to you again very very soon All right. It's me annie signing off So Thank you. you