{"id":110893,"date":"2017-08-09T04:14:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T08:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=110893"},"modified":"2017-08-09T04:14:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T08:14:02","slug":"sentencing-for-alberta-man-convicted-of-killing-father-daughter-and-senior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/09\/sentencing-for-alberta-man-convicted-of-killing-father-daughter-and-senior\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentencing for Alberta man convicted of killing father, daughter and senior"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A conviction of first-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. \u2014 An Alberta man who butchered a father, his two-year-old daughter and a woman is expected to learn his fate today.<\/p>\n

Derek Saretzky was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in June for the deaths of Terry Blanchette, his daughter Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette and 69-year-old Hanne Meketech in September, 2015.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old was also convicted of causing indignity to a human body.<\/p>\n

A conviction of first-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.<\/p>\n

But Justice William Tilleman has been asked by the prosecution to make the periods of parole ineligibility consecutive, which in this case would be 75 years.<\/p>\n

If Tilleman agrees Saretzky would be 97 before he would be allowed to apply for parole.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Michael Fox urged the court to impose the maximum punishment, calling the victims \u201cmere pawns of Mr. Saretzky’s thrill-seeking and unspeakable violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a cold, calculated plan put in place targeting three innocent victims that were brutally killed,\u201d Fox said at a hearing in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts callousness defies comparison to any other case that I’ve been able to find.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there are few mitigating factors other than Saretzky’s youth and the fact he had no previous criminal record.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many parts of this trial, Mr. Saretzky has had a smile on his face,\u201d Fox said. \u201cHis conduct betrays any suggestion that he harbours any true remorse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard videotaped confessions from Saretzky who told police he killed Meketech _ a friend of his grandparents _ on the spur of the moment and because he didn’t think anybody cared about her.<\/p>\n

Five days later, Blanchette was beaten before his throat was cut in the home where he lived with Hailey.<\/p>\n

The little girl was taken from her crib to a campsite, which was partially owned by his family, where she was strangled, dismembered and cannibalized. Her body was burned in a firepit.<\/p>\n

Blanchette’s body was found by his father and authorities launched a massive search for Hailey but it was called off after Saretzky confessed to police.<\/p>\n

Six months later he confessed to the murder of Meketech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. \u2014 An Alberta man who butchered a father, his two-year-old daughter and a woman is expected to learn …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":27770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[20858,20859,260],"class_list":["post-110893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","tag-alberta-man","tag-derek-saretzky","tag-murder","mauthors-bill-graveland","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}