It is one of the most troubling cases I’ve ever covered. I can still close my eyes and see the basement where Phoenix Sinclair spent her final days. I got a tour of the property—courtesy of the new homeowner—only days after RCMP had wrapped up an extensive forensic examination. Few details about Phoenix’s case had been released publicly at the time. All we knew is that she was presumed dead and that bad things were allegedly done to her in that basement.
I can still see the evidence markers that were stuck to the floor and the numerous holes in the walls. They are images I can never rid myself of, made all the more difficult by the revelations which would eventually emerge. Years later, I found myself sitting across a table with Phoenix’s two killers in separate jailhouse interviews. It was hard to feel anything but pure rage, knowing what they had done to that poor little girl.
It was hard to fathom how anyone could be so evil.
TUESDAY MARCH 14, 2006
She hadn’t been seen for nine months. Yet nobody—not her family, not her community, not the social services agency that was supposed to be looking out for her welfare—had apparently noticed that a five-year-old Manitoba girl had seemingly vanished into thin air. Or, if they had, they remained silent. And now it was too late. Phoenix Sinclair was dead. A search for her remains was expected to begin soon. Phoenix’s mother, Samantha Kematch, was in custody. So was Kematch’s boyfriend, Carl McKay.
“I don’t have a clue why it took so long to discover this. Why didn’t family members report this earlier or start asking questions earlier?” Fisher River resident Lloyd Cochrane wondered aloud as members of the media began arriving in his community, located about 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Police and justice officials were being tight-lipped.
McKay, 43, was charged with second-degree murder. Kematch, 24, was charged with assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessities of life. Court documents indicated a broom handle was used as a weapon against Phoenix.
McKay and Kematch had moved out of their Fisher River home in November 2005. Police had spent more than 48 hours combing through it for evidence last week. “They told us we had to get out of here, and they would let us know when we could return,” said Calvin Murdock, who moved into the home with his fiancée several months ago. There were numerous holes in the wall of the home when they took possession but Murdock said he never thought much of it. Police cut a hole in Murdock’s kitchen wall, and also covered his basement floor with a bluish chemical, which still remained. Police also seized several items of clothing that McKay and Kematch had left behind. Evidence markers remained stuck to the basement floor.
According to information in her file, Phoenix was born in Winnipeg in April 2000. She was apprehended by Winnipeg CFS at birth and remained in care until September 2000, when she was reunited with her father, Steve Sinclair, and her mother, Kematch. In April 2001, Kematch had another baby girl, Echo, who died three months later as a result of pneumonia. While there was no record of Phoenix being apprehended again at this time, Kim Edwards—a friend of Sinclair’s—took in Phoenix. Edwards said she cared for Phoenix on and off from that point until the child was three, when she went back to live with Sinclair.
In February 2003, Phoenix was treated at a Winnipeg hospital for an infection, at which point Winnipeg CFS reopened a file on the child and in June she was again apprehended from her parents’ care. Phoenix returned to Edwards’ home, but was removed by CFS within a couple of months after the child’s parents signed an Authority Determination Plan. The ADP was a document that indicated the parents’ wish that Phoenix’s file should be transferred from Winnipeg CFS to a new, native-run agency. Phoenix—who was living with Sinclair—continued to visit occasionally with Edwards.
Edwards was now expressing shock upon learning the little girl she loved was presumed dead, her remains yet to be found. “How can it be that she’s been gone this long and no one has known?’’ she asked. “This is just unbelievable.”
WEDNESDAY MARCH 15, 2006
She was locked in an animal cage. Repeatedly shot with a BB gun. Deprived of food and water. Then, when her frail body finally couldn’t take any more, Phoenix Sinclair was wrapped in plastic and buried near the Fisher River garbage dump. The horrific allegations were beginning to emerge. And they were unlike anything justice officials had seen in years. And the entire case—the abuse, the torture, the killing and the cover-up—might have remained a secret if not for two brave young boys. Phoenix’s 12-year-old and 15-year-old stepbrothers had come forward to police only days earlier, documenting what had gone on inside the house of horrors. RCMP then spoke to Kematch and McKay and were told that Phoenix was alive and well, in the custody of Child and Family Services. CFS quickly set the record straight, confirming she was not. Remarkably, Kematch then tried to pass off another little girl as Phoenix in a hastily-arranged meeting at a Winnipeg shopping mall. The ruse was over. The deadly secret had finally been exposed.
It didn’t take long for what was quickly becoming one of Manitoba’s most notorious criminal cases to be upgraded to a deliberate, cold-blooded act at. First-degree murder charges were now being laid against both McKay and Kematch, speaking to the fact justice officials believed this was a planned, pre-meditated killing. The decision was made despite not having the victim’s body. The search was expected to be painstaking operation. The ground would have to be thawed, and police had to be careful not to disturb the remains or any potential evidence. The location where Phoenix was believed to be buried was in dense bush located about half a kilometre off a snow-packed logging road near the Fisher River garbage dump. Police had set up a wide perimeter to protect the scene. It would be early April when the tragic discovery was finally made.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 5, 2008
It was the first time the public was getting to hear the full story of what happened to Phoenix Sinclair. Naturally, the opening day of the high-profile trial came with a warning from Crown attorney Rick Saull: The facts that were about to be presented in court were both “depressing and enraging. Saull urged jurors not to let emotions cloud their judgment when deciding the fate of Samantha Kematch and Karl McKay. Both had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Saull described how Phoenix was repeatedly confined and abused over a lengthy period of time while living with her mother and stepfather inside a home on the Fisher River reserve. “After the final blows were administered, she was left to die on a cold basement floor by both of them,” Saull said in his opening statement, which included showing the 10-woman, two-man jury a picture of Phoenix. He said the couple made “feeble attempts” to revive Phoenix but never took her to a medical centre just a few kilometres away. Instead, they wrapped her tiny body in plastic, grabbed a shovel from a neighbour’s home and then dug a hole near the local garbage dump and buried her “in the cold ground” in a remote, wooded area. The couple then carried on with their lives, even applying for welfare payments that listed Phoenix as a dependent, said Saull. They also scrubbed down the basement floor where Phoenix died and repainted it in an attempt to conceal evidence, he said.
Phoenix’s death would remain secret until March 2006, when McKay’s two young sons from another relationship told their mother what they’d seen and heard while spending time in the Fisher Branch home. She ultimately went to police.
Kematch and McKay differ from each other about what happened to Phoenix and why, said Saull. The pair were being represented by separate defence lawyers but sat in the same witness box, with some distance between them. “We say each of the accused were equally involved in the forcible confinement and abuse of Phoenix Sinclair,” he said.
Samantha Kematch refused to let a Child and Family Services worker see her daughter during a home visit in March 2005—and the agency responded by quickly closing the little girl’s file with no additional follow-up. It was just three months later that five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair was killed in the basement of her Fisher River home. An agreed statement of facts submitted by Crown and defence lawyers outlined CFS’s ongoing involvement with Phoenix and her family in the time preceding her tragic death. The document confirmed CFS received a tip on March 5 that prompted them to visit the family’s home four days later. They were met at the door by Kematch but denied entry.
“The worker spoke with Ms. Kematch but did not speak to Phoenix or access the residence as Samantha Kematch reported she had someone visiting,” Crown attorney Rick Saull told jurors. The case worker did catch a glimpse of Kematch’s other child, an infant named Rayne, “and decided there were no protection concerns despite not seeing Phoenix or the apartment,” said Saull. No further details were provided to jurors about the tip that led CFS to the home.
Phoenix had a long history with the child welfare system prior to 2005, including two earlier occasions where her file was closed. The following history was provided to jurors:
APRIL 23, 2000: Phoenix is born to Kematch and the father, Stephen Sinclair. The couple “indicated they were not ready financially or emotionally” to care for their new baby and consented to a CFS placement. However, the couple changed their minds days later and asked for full custody. CFS obtained a three-month temporary order of guardianship and allowed the parents to have supervised visits.
SEPTEMBER 2000: Phoenix was returned to her family and found to be in good health. Kematch split from Sinclair months later and allowed him to have full custody of Phoenix.
MARCH 2002: CFS closed their file for the first time.
FEBRUARY, 2003: CFS reopened the file after Phoenix was taken to hospital with Styrofoam stuck in her nose.
JUNE 2003: Phoenix was apprehended by CFS because of concerns about her father’s drug and alcohol abuse. Kematch then told the agency she wanted to try raising her daughter again.
AUGUST 2003: Phoenix was placed by CFS in the care of a Winnipeg couple who were friends of the father. Kematch agreed with the arrangement.
MAY 2004: Kematch told CFS she was once again caring for her daughter. CFS checked on Phoenix and found her to be in good health.
JULY 2004: CFS closed their file for a second time.
DECEMBER 2004: CFS learned Kematch had given birth to a baby girl and that the father was Karl McKay. No contact was made with the couple and the file remained closed. It wouldn’t be reopened until the March 2005 tip that led them to visit Kematch but leave without seeing Phoenix.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2008
It was unimaginable cruelty. Phoenix Sinclair had been deprived of food and forced to eat her own vomit in the days before she finally succumbed to a prolonged period of abuse and neglect that included being repeatedly shot with a pellet gun and choked unconscious.
“Some horrible things have happened to that little girl,” a visibly distraught Cpl. Tara Clelland-Hall told the girl’s mother, Samantha Kematch, near the end of a four-hour videotaped interview following her March 2006 arrest. “It absolutely breaks my heart the things that little girl went through in her short little life.”
McKay’s now 18-year-old son, who helped expose the killing to police, took the witness stand and pointed the finger of blame directly at McKay and Kematch, accusing them of countless violent and degrading acts and describing how Phoenix morphed from a “chubby” and happy child into a skinny child covered in cuts and bruises who would spend nearly every minute alone in her room without any food. He wiped away tears as he told court how he tried offering a helping hand to his stepsister, who had been kept a virtual prisoner in her own home. He described trying to feed a starving Phoenix some bread and water only to be caught and threatened by Kematch. “Samantha said what the fuck are you giving my daughter food for?” he said. “I’d feel sorry for her. She would say ‘I’m hungry’.”
He said McKay repeatedly played a “game” with Phoenix that he called “chicken” which involved picking her up by the throat, wrapping both hands around her neck and “choking her out.” “Then he’d throw her to the ground,” said the teen, noting visible finger marks would be left on her neck. “She’d make this weird scream. It was like someone had cut off her arm, like she was screaming to death.”
McKay also liked to shoot Phoenix with a pellet gun, telling the girl to “run” and then shooting her repeatedly in the back and making her cry out in agony. “He’d shoot her for the fun of it,” Phoenix’s stepbrother said, noting the abuse would leave pellet marks all over her back. The teen said Kematch would often hit Phoenix with a metal bar and stool, especially when she’d urinate or defecate in her pants after Kematch refused to let her go to the washroom. Sometimes McKay and Kematch would throw Phoenix around, either to the ground or into furniture, he said. They also shaved the girl’s head bald, court was told.
Kematch’s lawyer, Roberta Campbell, suggested to the teen in cross-examination that it was McKay who was “most violent” with Phoenix. She also accused McKay of calling Phoenix degrading names like “fucking little baby” and “whore” while beating her.
“They were doing the same thing, equally,” the teen replied.
“Isn’t it true that sometimes he would hit Phoenix so much that she wouldn’t even cry anymore?” asked Campbell.
“Yes,” he answered.
McKay’s lawyer, Mike Cook, suggested some of Phoenix’s injuries could have been suffered during friendly “wrestling matches” that his client was having with the little girl. McKay’s son said he believed the physical abuse was intentional, not accidental.
Earlier in the day, the 10-woman, two man jury watched Kematch’s video statement in which she blamed McKay for Phoenix’s death and said he refused to let her go to police to disclose what happened.
“I feel ashamed. I feel stupid. She didn’t deserve anything like that. I think about it every day,” she said. “I didn’t want to see my kid like that. It hurt to see her like that. He wouldn’t let me help her. He’d get mad at me.” However, Kematch admitted to beating Phoenix at times for no clear reason. “I’d hit her because I’d get mad at her. I knew that wasn’t right,” she said.
Jurors heard how Phoenix spent her last hours naked, with an injury to her buttocks, lying on a cold basement floor. Kematch says McKay pushed her daughter violently to the ground, causing the child to bang her head on the concrete the day before her death. “I know it wasn’t planned,” Kematch said. “We didn’t do it purposely. It was just something that got out of hand. An accident. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I never wanted this to happen.”
She said McKay asked her to bring him a garbage bag to wrap the child in when they discovered the next day she wasn’t breathing. She said McKay put Phoenix in the trunk of a car and buried her in a hole in a wooded area near the dump at Fisher River reserve.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2008
Her cries for help would keep him awake at night, an injured little girl pleading for food and water in an unheated basement filled with garbage and cobwebs. But it was the sound of silence that triggered a young boy to make a horrible discovery in his own home. The youngest stepbrother of Phoenix Sinclair told a Winnipeg jury how he found the five-year-old girl’s body moments after she got what would be her final beating at the hands of her mother and stepfather. The boy, now 15, fought back tears as he described Phoenix’s final moments alive in June 2005.
“I went downstairs and there was no answer from her. I just touched her back and it was all cold. Her eyes were open. I put my hand on her mouth... she wasn’t even breathing,” he said. His father, Karl McKay, and stepmother, Samantha Kematch, had been “taking turns” beating Phoenix, he said, and then left the Fisher River First Nation home to visit a relative. “They were passing her back and forth, punching her,” said the boy.
After finding Phoenix’s body, he called his grandfather looking for help. McKay and Kematch returned to the home, picked Phoenix up and placed her in a bathtub filled with warm water. “They weren’t even crying or anything,” the boy said. “I’d look at their faces. I saw no tears, nothing. They didn’t even care what they were doing.” The couple finished washing her body, then wrapped her up in a tarp, took it outside and placed it in the trunk of their vehicle, he said. “They said ‘watch your baby sister, we’re going to go to the dump and bury her.’”
That was the last time he saw Phoenix. He said McKay and Kematch told him not say a word about it. “They told me that if anybody asks, just say Phoenix went to Winnipeg to live with her dad,” he said.
McKay’s son told jurors how he watched helplessly as the couple repeatedly abused Phoenix “just for the hell of it.” He said she was often forced to sleep in the “dark, cold” basement without any food or water. “It was dirty down there, you could see spider webs and garbage everywhere,” he said. He awoke sometimes at night to the sound of Phoenix “sobbing through the vents.” He would often go down to give her water and even tried to bring her a heater one night, only to be caught by his father and threatened. “She was just curled up in a little ball,” he said. “The only time Samantha and [McKay] would go downstairs was to hit her.”
He told jurors about beatings, including when McKay broke a metal broomstick over Phoenix’s back and then used the broken end to cut her knuckles. “There was blood all over. It got infected,” he said. McKay would also stomp on her and choke her to the point of unconsciousness, he said. “Her eyes would go back, her body would go limp and he’d just let her drop,” he said. “He’d hit her so much that she wouldn’t even cry anymore. She’d just take it.”
MONDAY NOVEMBER 17, 2008
Karl McKay finally broke down under extensive police interrogation and agreed to lead officers to the body of five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair in a decision he said proves he “has a heart.” Jurors listened to a nine-hour audiotaped interview that began inside the Headingley jail and ended with McKay taking RCMP investigators to Phoenix’s burial site. They heard how McKay initially refused to give any details beyond a vague map he drew for police despite repeated pleas for information.
“We’re prepared to spend millions and millions of dollars to dig for Phoenix. We know she’s out there, with no proper burial,” Sgt. Norman Charett told McKay in the interview. “Phoenix didn’t just walk away and start a life on her own. To have this girl sitting out there like she’s trash... She’s spent enough time out there.”
Police continued to hammer away at McKay, telling him they wouldn’t quit until the little girl’s body was found. They also warned McKay that extensive media coverage would continue, noting the Winnipeg Free Press had identified McKay’s 12-year-old son as a key witness against him. “There’s going to be no closure for your boys,” Charett said. “We’ll continue to dig and dig and dig and dig. Trust me, there are unlimited funds.”
Police then played on McKay’s emotions, telling him he was not a “monster” and unlike notorious Canadian murderers such as convicted serial killer Robert Pickton of BC. “That guy doesn’t care about anybody. But you have a chance here,” Charett told McKay. “We need to put a rest to this once and for all, so that everyone can have some peace about this,”
At that point, McKay began to cry and blurted out: “OK, I’ll do the right thing... I’ll show you the exact spot.” “I have a heart,” he added. “I’m not just doing this to score brownie points.” McKay then described his love for his other children, his fears about having them raised through the social welfare system and even told police about how he once saved the life of a choking baby by dislodging an item from his throat.
“It’s sad when children die,” said McKay, who asked officers if his first-degree murder charge might be reduced. “Maybe it will come down to second-degree or even criminal negligence,” he said. Police said the directions to Phoenix’s remains “puts a good light on you” but didn’t make any promises.
McKay also spoke of being called “baby killer” by other inmates at the remand centre and his disgust at being housed in a cell with another man charged with killing a child. He also blamed his own abusive, alcoholic father for not setting him straight in life. “If it wasn’t for alcohol, I’d have been an upstanding citizen. I wouldn’t be sitting here,” he said. McKay told police he loved his kids and knew first-hand what it was like to be the victim of the welfare system. “Yeah, I’ve had a hard life. I’ve been abused as a kid. I know what it’s like to get a licking, stuff like that,” McKay said.
McKay said he was one of 26 children his father had and called himself the “black sheep of the family” who lived in many foster homes.
“You get beat up lots?” asked Charett.
“Yeah, every day,” said McKay.
Charett said he believed there was truth to a person being a “product of their environment.”
“I’m not angry at the world,” said McKay.
“The important thing is not to get caught in that vicious cycle where you’re doing things that were done to you,” replied Charett.
McKay had become emotional when he led police to Phoenix’s final resting spot. “I’m sorry, you shouldn’t be out here. Phoenix shouldn’t be out here,” McKay told RCMP officers who had driven him from Headingley jail to the makeshift gravesite at the Fisher River First Nation. A 17-minute video of McKay leading police to the burial location was shown to jurors. McKay and four officers went to the remote, wooded location by snowmobile, then trudged through deep snow before coming to an opening. Police used powerful lights to brighten the scene.
“It wasn’t very far off the trail. I think it was just this spot here,” McKay said before using his gloves to draw the spot in the crunchy snow. McKay insisted he was “99 per cent sure” they had the right spot, then recalled how he and Kematch used a spade to dig a hole for the little girl’s body. “It was about eight inches in the ground,” McKay said. “She’ll be face up. I wrapped her in plastic with a yellow rain jacket. Her head will be here, her legs here.”
Police asked if there would be anything else found in the grave.
“Just the dirt that she’ll be covered with,” McKay said.
He said Kematch insisted they pour pepper into the grave before covering it up to throw off police dogs that might sniff out the location. He said she got the idea from watching the television show Crime Scene Investigation. “It’s a very sad thing that I’ve done, burying her out here,” McKay told RCMP. “But at the spur of the moment, you’re scared.” McKay said he had borrowed the spade from a relative to dig a trench in his yard “and then this thing came up.”
“I feel a lot better now that I’ve shown you this spot,” McKay told police.
FRIDAY DECEMBER 5, 2008
She never stood a chance. Crown attorney Rick Saull told jurors Phoenix’s fate was sealed by two heartless accused who worked together to kill her and then went to stunning lengths to cover up their crime. “Death here for this little girl was inevitable, given the course of conduct by these two accused,” he said in his closing argument.
Saull said it was irrelevant how the abuse specifically broke down between Kematch and McKay. “Don’t fall into that trap. Whether one went 10 or 20 punches more, or one used a weapon and one didn’t, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You just have to hold a small child in your arms once in your lifetime to know what a fragile life that is.” Saull reminded jurors of the “absolutely mind-boggling” testimony they heard and said the verdict should be clear. “This is not normal parenting in any country in this world. That was an illegal domination of a child,” he said. He singled out Kematch for continuing to collect social welfare cheques in Phoenix’s name and trying to mislead investigators by passing off another young child as Phoenix.
Saull said it’s obvious Phoenix was being confined in the home, which was an essential element to proving first-degree murder. There was evidence of exterior locks on doors and a makeshift wooden pen that was constructed for her in the basement. “This little girl wasn’t going anywhere unless these two people let her,” he said. “They are both guilty of first-degree murder. And that is justice for all of us.”
Samantha Kematch admitted being a horrible mother. But she denied being a murderer. Her lawyers, Sarah Inness and Roberta Campbell, told jurors the Crown had failed to prove the case and urged them to convict her on the lesser charge of manslaughter. “She was an abusive, horrible mother. She could have prevented her daughter’s death and she didn’t,” said Inness. “There are many things that she should have done and should not have done. She treated her daughter terribly. But she did not kill her. [Karl] McKay killed Phoenix.”
She called McKay a “violent man who ruled the home with an iron fist” and clearly “despised” Phoenix because she wasn’t his biological child. She noted McKay’s violent history of abusing other women and children in his life. “There was an obvious power imbalance in the relationship,” said Inness. She said it was McKay’s idea to bury Phoenix’s body after he delivered the final, fatal beating. “The fact she hid the truth and helped McKay cover it up doesn’t mean she intended to kill her. She did nothing to encourage or assist McKay,” said Inness.
Karl McKay says he took marching orders from his common-law wife and was mostly in the background as Phoenix’s life was being taken away.
“That woman is a cold-hearted woman,” defence lawyer Mike Cook said during his closing argument, pointing a finger directly towards the prisoner’s box where Samantha Kematch sat. “She is most definitely the type who could kill, and would kill, her own child. A callous woman who cares nothing about her child.”
Cook, along with fellow defence lawyer John Corona, said it was ridiculous for Kematch to suggest McKay had some kind of control over her. “This is not some wallflower type of woman who has been intimidated and dominated by Mr. McKay. Ms. Kematch was the dominant force in that house,” said Cook, who believes Kematch began to turn on Phoenix after giving birth to another baby in 2004. “She rejected that child to the point it became easy to abuse her,” said Cook.
He told jurors to remember how upfront McKay was with police following his arrest, even leading them to Phoenix’s burial site. “Mr. McKay is a truthful man. You can accept and believe everything he said,” said Cook. He also suggested the Crown had failed to prove confinement: the key element of the murder charge. “Phoenix was not forcibly confined. Mistreated, abused ... absolutely,” said Cook.
FRIDAY DECEMBER 12, 2008
It had taken four long days of deliberations, a sure sign they were wrestling with the difficult task before them. But in the end, a Winnipeg jury came back with the only verdict that made sense to those who’d followed the case closely, Guilty.
Samantha Kematch, now faced with the opportunity to finally explain her actions, was defiant to the end. “I know the truth. I was there. I loved Phoenix and she loved me. Everyone can say what they wanna say, call me what they wanna call me. I never did this and I know this,” an emotionless Kematch said, shortly after being convicted of first-degree murder and given an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. She told everyone in the packed courtroom they will likely “never know the truth” and took aim at her former lover, Karl McKay, by suggesting he acted alone and took her down with him. And she said “saying sorry won’t change anything.” So she didn’t.
Kematch learned her fate first, staring blankly ahead as she pursed her lips. McKay was seen to take a series of deep breaths and close his eyes. He then clasped his hands together and held them to his mouth while bowing his head after hearing his verdict. McKay later told court he was “ashamed” at his role in Phoenix’s killing and he shed several tears during the hearing. “I’m truly sorry from my heart. This should not have happened. This girl was full of life and happy when she entered my life,” McKay wrote in a letter read aloud by his lawyer, Mike Cook. “I’ve let everyone down. I am shameful. Phoenix, I know you can hear me. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
Kim Edwards, Phoenix’s former foster mother, had the courtroom in tears while reading her victim impact statement. She described Phoenix’s eyes, which she called “big brown mesmerizing saucers” and said the little girl would have been in Grade 2 today if not for the actions of her mother and stepfather. “I can see her now, all inquisitive and curious and showing other kids how to rock out and have fun,” said Edwards. “It is beyond words to describe how I feel about that precious child. In all honesty I believe she was a gift sent to me from the heavens. Phoenix’s heart belongs to me, and mine to hers.”
Edwards said she feels rage toward Kematch and McKay and will never forgive them. “I’ve come to terms with what these people did to Phoenix. But I will never understand,” she said.
Steve Sinclair, Phoenix’s biological father, wrote that his daughter “never knew what pain was” until he gave her up. He said “the complete opposite was done to her” while in the care of Kematch and her common-law husband. “I always loved Phoenix. She was never a burden to me of any kind,” he wrote. “She keeps my life going, and I’ll always keep the memories of her going. I hope this never happens to another child again.”
Many people close to Phoenix were in court as the verdict was read, including Edwards and Loretta Stevenson, mother of McKay’s two teenage sons.
“I’m sad for Phoenix, but happy they’re getting what they deserve,” McKay’s sister, Hilda, said shortly after hearing the verdict. “Justice is never going to be done for this little girl. Too much happened to her. It shouldn’t have happened to her, we all know that. It shouldn’t happen to any little child.”
Tara Clelland-Hall, an RCMP officer who interviewed Kematch, was also in tears after the verdict. Top investigators in the case also attended court.
“This case reminds each of us what our fellow human beings are capable of,” Crown attorney Rick Saull said outside court.
It was a rare sight—nearly every member of a jury returning to court to see justice meted out to the people they’d just convicted. All 10 women who served on the Phoenix Sinclair case sat through the sentencing of Karl McKay and Samantha Kematch. Only the two men on the panel weren’t present.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” defence lawyer John Corona, who represented McKay, said outside court. He believed Phoenix’s tragic story stuck an emotional chord with the jurors, who were stone-faced when they delivered their guilty verdicts. Most of the women were in tears and passing around a box of Kleenex as they listened to victim impact statements being read aloud in court. “I don’t think they’re ever going to forget this case,” said Corona.
All members of the jury would now be offered counselling as a result of their five-week ordeal.
SUNDAY DECEMBER 14, 2008
“I failed her,” Samantha Kematch said, her eyes cast downward and showing a hint of tears. Across the table sat a Winnipeg Free Press reporter. “She never deserved any of this to happen to her. She deserved better.”
It was the first public show of remorse from Kematch, who displayed no tangible emotion during her month-long trial, and made no apologies in her brief and bitter final remarks before being sentenced. Kematch wanted the public to know she’s not some heartless automaton. “You guys can sit there and say I have no feelings. Well, everyone shows their emotions in different ways. Not everyone cries. I’m one to hold their tears,” Kematch said. “I’m not the type to freak out. I control my crying. But I hurt inside.”
Saying sorry isn’t the only reason Kematch was speaking out. She wanted to explain her courtroom comments, in which she told the judge that people will likely “never know the truth” and accused her former lover, McKay, of wrongly taking her down with him. “I didn’t kill my daughter, I didn’t do these things to her like everyone says I did,” Kematch said. “What did I do to her? I loved her.”
Admitting she’s “not the best parent in the world or anything,” Kematch insisted she was powerless to stop an abusive McKay from slowly taking Phoenix’s life. And she painted herself as a victim as well, claiming McKay would often take out his anger on her. “I tried to stop it. That’s where I failed. I failed her, I failed myself. But I tried to stop [McKay] from doing things to her. I would even take a beating so she wouldn’t take it,” she says. “I get so frustrated. He’s only trying to make himself look good. I loved Phoenix and I cared for Phoenix. He’s just sitting there, denying that he did anything.” She admitted to having thoughts about attacking McKay in the witness box they shared during the trial. Those thoughts intensified after the guilty verdict and led to a sheriff’s officer having to sit between them. “I was really angry, I was shaking,” she said.
Under questioning, Kematch admitted she passed up many opportunities when she was alone with Phoenix and could have fled the home, call police, contact a friend or family member or take the injured girl to a hospital. “If I could go back and change all of this from happening, I’d do it in a second. A lot of people don’t understand how these kinds of relationships work. The relationship was abuse, controlling, possessive. When you’re in an abusive relationship it’s not like you can just get up and leave. It’s not easy to walk away,” she said. Kematch admitted she was strict with Phoenix at times, but claimed McKay did all the physical damage.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence against Kematch was the fact she tried to hide Phoenix’s death by pretending another little girl was her daughter during a meeting with child welfare officials. “I didn’t want to go and pass off someone else’s kid to hide the fact she was gone. It was [McKay’s] idea to start doing shit like that,” Kematch said. “I wanted to tell them about this but he said no.” She said McKay was also behind her registering for child benefits in Phoenix’s name, even after the girl had been killed.
Kematch says Phoenix would still be alive today if McKay, a longtime friend of her mother, hadn’t entered their lives. He began asking her out after they met in December 2003.
“I didn’t really want to go out with him. I was single and I wanted to enjoy it for a while. Plus he was so much older than me [20 years],” Kematch said. She eventually agreed. “[Before McKay], Phoenix and I were good. We laughed, had fun, we’d play. We’d say we loved each other, hug each other. That was life for me and Phoenix before he came into the picture,” she said.
Being convicted of her daughter’s killing was just the latest in a long line of tragedies for Kematch. When she was a child, her alcoholic father died after falling down a flight of stairs. Her oldest brother committed suicide in Swan River when she was 12. She and her two other brothers bounced around in foster care because their mother was unfit to care for them. She only finished her Grade 9 and had a spotty employment history. She had battled problems with drugs and alcohol for years.
Kematch said the reality of her conviction hadn’t hit her yet. She wouldn’t be eligible for parole until 2031, when she would be 50 years old. “I don’t really feel like it’s happened yet. I guess I’m feeling mixed emotions about it. I feel better in a way that this case is done so that [Phoenix] can rest,” Kematch said.
THURSDAY DECEMBER 18, 2008
Karl McKay knew his words would likely ring hollow—but that wasn’t stopping the convicted killer from speaking out about his role in the death of Phoenix Sinclair. “I know I’m the most hated person in this province and probably the whole country,” McKay told the Winnipeg Free Press in an interview at the Winnipeg Remand Centre. “[Phoenix] didn’t deserve this. It was a tragedy. I’m so very sorry. I can’t turn back the clock. I just wish it never happened.” McKay said he wanted to set the record straight about his feelings toward Phoenix and allegations made against him by his former lover and co-accused, Samantha Kematch. “That’s bullshit,” said McKay. “Samantha hated Phoenix. I know this because I was around. She’s just trying to clear her name.”
McKay, a long-distance trucker by trade, claimed Phoenix was always terrified when he’d hit the road and leave her alone with Kematch. McKay said his biggest mistake was staying in a relationship with Kematch, who he claimed was responsible for Phoenix’s death. “I should have listened to my heart and not her,” he said. “I can’t imagine a mother would be that evil.”
McKay denied Kematch’s claims that he was physically abusive towards her, noting there were no records of police reports. McKay admitted he had abused other women in previous relationships but said he was a different person back then, largely because of excessive alcohol use. “People change, people can change overnight. I was a drinker back then, I had many binge blackouts. But that was then, this is now,” he said.
McKay declined to talk about the testimony of his sons or why they’d say things he claimed were untrue. He said it was Kematch’s idea to pass off a young relative as Phoenix once child-welfare officials began investigating the case. He said Kematch was “white as a ghost” when she realized the truth was about to emerge and was desperate not to have her other two children by McKay taken from her.
McKay said he was happy a provincial inquest would now be held into Phoenix’s case. “People, in general, should love their children. This is a wake-up call to love your child,” said McKay. “I just don’t want this to happen to another child. It’s just not right.”
Phoenix Sinclair’s legacy would be a massive overhaul of Manitoba’s child-welfare system. A public inquiry was held into the tragic case, exposing how the little girl fell through a massive series of manmade cracks. I personally didn’t cover the inquiry. To be honest, I couldn’t stomach it. I’d covered the initial investigation, the trial and then conducted the jailhouse interviews with the two murderers. It was just too much.
But I did follow the inquiry closely, and was glad to see Commissioner Ted Hughes pull no punches when he released a 900-page report in January 2014. Hughes made 62 recommendations, warning that future tragedies would occur if changes weren’t made. He specifically cited the failures of front-line social workers to protect Phoenix.
“I believe that the Child and Family Services workers who testified at this inquiry wanted to do their best for the children and families they served,” Hughes wrote. “I believe that they wanted to protect children. However, their actions and resulting failures so often did not reflect those good intentions.”
One of the biggest recommendations was for the provincial government to abolish the office of the Children’s Advocate and replace it with a more powerful independent office with the ability to keep close check on the child-welfare system. Hughes said front-line workers and supervisors knew from the moment Phoenix was born that she required close monitoring given the conditions she was being raised in. Yet he noted CFS got tips or information at least 13 times that Phoenix was in danger or neglected. And despite having more than 25 CFS workers involved with the family, none had any clue she was missing.
“Deficiencies in the delivery of services to Phoenix did not result from a lack of understanding of policies, procedures and provincial standards, or from confusion about which standards applied. Rather, they resulted from a lack of compliance with existing policies and best practice,” Hughes wrote. “Even when the agency asked the right questions and did an appropriate assessment, it failed to follow through on providing the services that it had identified as necessary.”
The provincial government issued an apology for Phoenix’s death hours after the report was released. It was the first time they acknowledged wrongdoing. “We know now how a little girl became invisible, and we have already implemented changes to prevent other children from disappearing like she did,” Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said.
Hughes said the system was on the right track but had “more distance to cover.” “To truly honour Phoenix, we need to provide all of Manitoba’s children with a good start to life and offer to the most vulnerable an escape from the cycle of poverty and vulnerability that trapped Phoenix and her family,” wrote Hughes.