Mike on Crime

by Mike McIntyre

  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.