Calgary Mom Stacey Bourdeaux Charged In 2004 Baby Death & Attemped Child Murder 2010

[Whisper]

CALGARY - Police say a mother killed her toddler and, some six years later, tried to choke the life out her five-year-old son.

But investigators didn't discover anything criminal about the 2004 death of Sean Ronald Fewer, Stacey Joy Bourdeaux's 10-month-old son, until her seriously injured five-year old showed up at a hospital earlier this year.

Bourdeaux, 33, is now charged with second degree murder in Sean's death while facing charges of attempted murder, choking with intent and failing to provide the necessaries of life in this year's incident.

Homicide Staff Sgt. Rick Tuza said while there were concerns "there might have been something more" in the 2004 death, a medical examiner's findings didn't confirm anything criminal, with the death said to be of natural causes.
"You have the information you have at the time," he said. "Six years later, the red flags started to go up."
On May 27, 2010, Bourdeaux's other son arrived at Alberta Children's Hospital struggling to breathe and stand up, symptoms consistent with some sort of trauma, prompting staff to call police.
That led police to revisit the Dec. 27, 2004, death where baby Sean was found in his crib, not breathing, at a southwest home.
Cops said he was smothered.
In July, Bourdeaux was determined fit to stand trial for charges relating to this year's attack.
Police said the boy's injury, though tragic, revealed a murder which likely would have gone undiscovered or brought to justice.
"There would have been nothing to draw police attention to investigate had the child not gone to the hospital," Tuza said.
Police said the child is lucky to be alive, but would not comment on his condition and whether he is expected to ever fully recover.
Bourdeaux, who has been co-operative with detectives, appeared in provincial court on the murder charge Friday.
[...]
Judge Judith Shrier is expected to rule on whether she will be granted bail on those charges, but she will remain detained on the new allegation regardless.
The boys' father, 48-year old Edward Fewer, died in May after accidentally being electrocuted by a power line while trying to dislodge a model rocket in Strathmore.

People living near the home where Bourdeaux lived until recently said they were shocked her son was taken to hospital earlier this year and even more so to learn police claim she played a role in the killing of another child.
Mohammad Rahman said several months ago he drove the mother to a home of the kids' late father to pick up a mattress for her children.
"She was crying and said her husband died in an accident-- I was so sad and wanted to help her," he said.
"Now I am going to pray for the kids -- I am a parent, kids should be safe with parents."
Shane Weatherill with the Calgary Rocketry Association said he met the boys' father a few times, shortly before his death this year.

"It's absolutely unbelievable," he said of what's happened to the man's children.
"It sounds like something out of a bad movie."
Recent alleged or proven killings of children by their parents in southern Alberta:
* April 28, 2006: Summer Hope, 16 months, dies after ingesting methadone from her father's cup. Father Jonathan Hope and mother Lisa Guerin are convicted in 2010 of failing to provide the necessaries of life.

* May 28, 2008: Joshua Lall stabs to death his daughters Kristen, 5, and Rochelle, 3, along with his wife Alison, 35, and tenant Amber Bowerman, 30, in his Dalhousie home before taking his own life.

* Aug. 3, 2009: Bryson Dorey Fox, 8 weeks old, is bludgeoned to death. His father, Jamie Allen Dorey, is convicted of manslaughter.

* Oct. 4, 2009: Police discover the bodies of three newborns stuffed into airtight containers in a Taradale home along with their mother, Harsimrat Kahlon, who died from childbirth complications. Autopsies on the babies' deaths are inconclusive.

* Nov. 9, 2009: Jaden Tshimange, 2, is found in the bathtub of a Dover home, killed by blunt-force trauma.

* Jan. 17, 2010: The body of Brittney McInnes, 17, is found stuffed inside a bed frame in a Canyon Meadows home. Her stepfather of 13 years, Bradley Wade Rietze, is charged with second-degree murder.

* July 20, 2010: Mercedes Pepper, 19 mos., dies from blows to the head in a Medicine Hat day home. Erin Jackman, 24, is charged with manslaughter and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

* Aug. 9, 2010: Twenty-six-day-old Daniel Herchak dies from blunt-force trauma. His mother, Shelby Anna Herchak, 18, is charged with second-degree murder.

* Aug. 27, 2010: Stacey Anna Bourdeaux, 33, is charged with second-degree murder in the Dec. 27, 2004, death of her 10-month-old son Sean Ronald Fewer, who was found lifeless in his crib on 35 Ave. S.W. http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/27/15161686.html
http://i36.tinypic.com/21dkgb4.jpg
Calgary police have laid a second-degree murder charge against Stacey Joy Bourdeaux, left, in the death of her son in 2004. The case was reopened after Bourdeaux's other son was taken to the hospital suffering injuries consistent with trauma. The boys' father Edward Fewer, right, died in an accident last May. She is also facing charges in the most recent case of abuse.

[62julietandvoid]

Fucking ugly bitch

[Valasca]

Why weren't her knees sewn together after the first death?

[Whisper]

Why weren't her knees sewn together after the first death?
They didnt know until recently she murdered the 1st one
She wouldve walked if she hadnt tried to kill the 5 yr old

[Tundratot]

Now I have to wonder if she was trying to kill her second child because she was deranged after the loss of her husband. Or if she may have somehow engineered his death too?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A mother charged with second-degree murder for killing her 10-month-old son in 2004 and the attempted murder of her five-yearold son last year will plead guilty to undisclosed charges next week, her new lawyer said Tuesday.
[...]

The mental status of Bourdeaux, 34, has been a potential issue in the case and Beyak said it still could be a factor in sentencing. Although she has been found fit to stand trial, that only means she understands the charges and can instruct counsel.

A psychiatrist also previously found the mother was not suffering from a disturbance of the mind, related to possible postpartum depression, at the time of the homicide of 10-month-old Sean Ronald Fewer in 2004. Sean died in hospital after emergency responders found him not breathing in his crib. He was first thought to have died of natural causes, but when Bourdeaux's other son required a hospital visit last May, police decided to revisit the investigation.

Sean's body was never exhumed as part of the investigation.

Police said the charge was laid because additional information came to light.

The mother is accused of trying to kill her other son last year. She is also charged with choking with intent and failing to provide the necessities of life. Those charges were laid after her son was taken to Alberta Children's Hospital while experiencing difficulty breathing and was unable to stand. The name of the second son has not been released to protect the child's identity.

The children's father died earlier last year after he was electrocuted by an overhead power line.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Calgary+plead+guilty+death/5093820/story.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Calgary woman admitted that she smothered her infant son and severely injured her other boy in a series of journal entries she wrote to her dead husband.

Stacy Bourdeaux pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday as well as attempted murder and failing to provide the necessities of life.

"Dear Ted, now that you are gone I can confess about Sean," wrote Bourdeaux in passages that were read in court. "The night that he left us, it wasn't actually while he was sleeping.

"I did what I didn't want to do. The crying wouldn't stop, so I ended up putting a pillow over his face and made sure that it was stopping his breathing. I know it's something that I shouldn't have done, but I did."

Ten-month-old Sean Ronald Fewer was found not breathing in his crib in December 2004. At the time, his death did not raise any suspicion with the medical examiner, who ruled it was a case of sudden infant death syndrome.

But in May 2010, police were called to Alberta Children's Hospital where a five-year-old boy was brought in having trouble breathing.

Police ended up charging Bourdeaux, 34, with attempted murder and choking with intent a few months later. They began looking into her background and that's when they discovered Sean's death.

Court heard that the attack on the five year old happened on May 23, 2010. Bourdeaux dragged the boy upstairs after he had thrown a tantrum. Over a two hour period she attempted to choke him to death.

She waited several days before taking him to hospital. He survived, but has severe brain damage, no longer speaks and has limited motor skills.

Bourdeaux detailed her feelings about the attack in a journal to her husband, Ted Fewer, who died accidentally last year. He was electrocuted while trying to retrieve something caught in a power line.

"I was trying to send him to you. And if I lose him now I am going to feel really bad, cause it would be my fault. I can say he's very tough and a fighter," Bourdeau wrote.

"I do feel bad about doing what I did. I'm just not sure why. It was the same with Sean too. To this day I still feel the guilt of losing Sean too."

An earlier psychiatric assessment found Bourdeaux wasn't suffering from a disturbance of the mind, related to possible postpartum depression, at the time of the homicide.
[...]

She didn't speak but dabbed away tears with a tissue while the journal entries were read into the record before Justice Terry Semenuk.
[...]
http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/canada/article/933941--dear-ted-now-that-you-are-gone-i-can-confess


In one entry written in the "Dear Ted" journal, a book of writings to her deceased husband, Bourdeaux writes about the night she tried to strangle her 5 year-old son to death.

"The other night I tried to send (him) to you. I fought with him for 2-3 hours. He truly is a fighter."

To this day the boy has severe brain damage and is unable to speak. He remains in foster care as does his sister.

Bourdeaux will undergo a psychiatric risk assessment prior to being sentence on November 16.http://www.660news.com/news/local/article/261010--calgary-mother-pleads-guilty-to-manslaughter-in-son-s-death

[Tundratot]

What a bitch! She should be charged with two murders. Double life.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

This is part of a larger piece but gave a poignant insight into this case:
Kids say the darnedest things, and sometimes, they utter the unspeakable when they are at their wits' end.

That's likely how a five-yearold Calgary boy felt in May of last year when, just weeks after his father's accidental death, he told his mother after a scolding that he wished it was her, not his father, who had died.

Anyone who has spent time around children understands that such shocking declarations are common, a temporal burst of atavistic anger. It's our job as adults to rein in our outrage, to teach them that such talk has no place in civilized behaviour.

That little boy, the third of Stacey Joy Bourdeaux's children, certainly did not expect what came next: a two-hour fight for his life, fending off his deranged mother's attempts to smother him. He may have won that battle, but he lost the war: the child today suffers from permanent brain damage, unable to speak, control his own movements and is vulnerable to frequent seizures.

On Wednesday, the 34-year-old mother pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of her five-year-old child, along with manslaughter in the 2004 death of 10-monthold Sean Ronald Fewer, the son whose death was thought to be from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
[...]

This little boy, after fighting back his mother, spends the night in his room, lying in a mess of his own vomit and excrement; when morning comes, he is shaking so violently he cannot feed himself and when he tries to stand, he collapses.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Disinterest+court+cases+double+edged+sword/5209981/story.html

[Tundratot]

That is just so dismaying and ultimately so unnecessary. Everyone hurts after a death in the family and to deny children the right to express their own grief, expecting them to give the adult all the care and comfort while sublimating their own needs, is just outright selfish. I don't believe that the murdering bitch's own grief is really any excuse here, because she did it before when she didn't have the death of her husband to blame. Her surviving son, however, he didn't deserve that.

[Jerri Blank]

Defence wants less time for mom who smothered son

CALGARY — The defence says an abusive childhood reduces the moral culpability of a woman who confessed in her diary to killing her infant son.

Stacey Joy Bourdeaux, 34, pleaded guilty last summer to manslaughter in the death of 10-month-old Sean Ronald Fewer in 2004 and to the attempted murder of her five-year-old six years later. She also admitted to failing to provide the necessities of life.

Bourdeaux admitted in her diary to both attacks in messages to her husband Ted Fewer, who had died a few years earlier in an electrical accident.

"Dear Ted. Now that you are gone I can confess about Sean," Bourdeaux wrote. "The night that he left us, it wasn't actually while he was sleeping.

"I did what I didn't want to do. The crying wouldn't stop, so I ended up putting a pillow over his face and made sure that it was stopping his breathing. I know it's something that I shouldn't have done, but I did."

Defence lawyer Katherin Beyak says Bourdeaux deserves a sentence in the eight- to 10-year range and not the 18 years that the Crown is demanding. While the Crown has pointed to the journal entries as aggravating factors, Beyak told court Monday that the entries did show signs of remorse.

"When she said she knew it was something she shouldn't have done I would view that as an expression of remorse," said Beyak.

"She's retrospectively looking back at what she did."

Beyak said Bourdeaux was both physically and sexually abused as a child and received virtually no counselling. That in turn hurt her ability to cope with stressful situations -- all "provocative" factors in the death of the infant who was ill and constantly crying.

"The court has circumstances before it that mitigate the gravity of the offence."

Justice Terry Semenuk said Beyak had not provided him any previous cases for sentencing in which there was a long time period between the death of one child and a serious injury to another.

"It may be a significant factor in terms of raising the sentence in this case," he warned.

"Had it (the death) come to light at the time of the offence, there's no question this accused would have been dealing with child and welfare services," Semenuk added.

"Without speculation ... the circumstances of the attempted murder may not have happened."

Sean was found not breathing in his crib in December 2004. At the time, his death did not raise any suspicion with the medical examiner, who ruled it was a case of sudden infant death syndrome.

In May 2010, police were called to Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary where a five-year-old boy was brought in with breathing trouble.

A few months later, police charged Bourdeaux with attempted murder and choking with intent. They looked into her background and that's when they discovered Sean's death.

The attack on her five-year-old came after her husband was already gone. The Crown concedes that Bourdeaux was going through a serious depression.

"I was trying to send him to you," she wrote. "And if I lose him now, I am going to feel really bad, 'cause it would be my fault. I can say he's very tough and a fighter."

Court heard Bourdeaux dragged the boy upstairs after he had thrown a tantrum. Over a two-hour period, she attempted to choke him to death.

She waited several days before taking him to hospital. He survived, but has severe brain damage, no longer speaks and has limited motor skills.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20120326/sentencing-mother-son-smothering-120326/

[CbabyRKO]

That bitch should be thanking GOD her ass got an 18 year sentence, coz bitch would be serving 20 to life for the first murder and at least 10 to 15 for the attempted murder. Selfish bitch. Bitch bitch bitch! Fucking ugly ass bitch should be dead and tortured and more dead. Evil isnt an accurate enough description for this wonky eyed bitch.

[sugarfree irony]

A Calgary mother who confessed to killing her infant son in diary entries to her dead husband was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday.

Justice Terry Semenuk sentenced Stacey Joy Bourdeaux to four years for manslaughter, eight years for the attempted murder of a second child and one year for failing to provide the necessities of life. The 34-year-old was given credit of three years and five months for time already served, meaning she has another nine years and seven months left on her sentence.

Bourdeaux stood quietly during the brief sentencing and showed little emotion.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/22/calgary-mother-who-confessed-in-her-diary-to-killing-her-baby-sentenced-to-13-years-in-jail/

[Krystal]

Not nearly long enough, maybe add a zero after 1-3 and we could call it good.

[HeatherHabilatory]

13 years?! For killing one child and almost killing another?! God dammit Canada!

[Tundratot]

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

[SkummyRummy]

Wow...what a fuckn bitch. The one and only(n greatest!) thing left behind from your deceased husband and you try to suffocate it? I fuckn hate people >:( Poor baby has to live his life with complications now cuz his mother is a fuckn asshole n fucked in her head. I hope he finds someone who loves him n will take care of him well