Mike on Crime (8 page)

PHOENIX

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.