Derek Saretzky found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – A southern Alberta man who confessed to killing a father, a toddler and a senior has been found guilty of three courts of first-degree murder.

Derek Saretzky, who is 24, was charged in the September 2015 deaths of Terry Blanchette, Blanchette’s two-year-old daughter Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette and 69-year-old Hanne Meketech.

The jury took about three hours to reach its decision.

The killings occurred in the small close-knit region known as the Crowsnest Pass in southwestern Alberta.

The court heard videotaped confessions from Saretzky who told police he killed Meketech, a friend of his grandparents, on the spur of the moment.

Five days later, Blanchette was beaten before his throat was cut and his little girl was taken from her crib.

Saretzky told police he took the toddler to a campsite where he choked her to death, cannibalized and dismembered her before throwing her remains in a firepit.

No real motive emerged during the trial, but Saretzky told police the devil told him to do bad things.

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