Sentence handed down in Alberta triple murder involving a child

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LETHBRIDGE, AB. (NEWS 1130) – A judge has handed down his decision in a heartbreaking case that saw three people lose their lives, including a young child.

Derek Saretzky has been handed three automatic life sentences for his role in the killings of a toddler, her father and an elderly woman in the Crowsnest Pass region in southwestern Alberta back in 2015. The sentence means he has no chance of parole for 75 years.

His defence lawyer previously said the parole ineligibility would be a “crushing” and “unduly long and harsh” sentence that wouldn’t motivate his client to be a good or model inmate.

Crown prosecutor Michael Fox urged the court to impose the maximum punishment, calling the victims “mere pawns of Mr. Saretzky’s thrill-seeking and unspeakable violence. You have a cold, calculated plan put in place targeting three innocent victims that were brutally killed,” Fox said at a hearing in June.

Justice William Tilleman said each murder was separate and deliberate event causing heartbreak for the Crowsnest Pass community, where the killings happened.

The victims were Terry Blanchette, his daughter Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette and 69-year-old Hanne Meketech who were all killed in September 2015.

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