Unfathomable Mother Love

"I thought she ran off. I was so afraid. I kept sending her messages on MSN back then urging her to let somebody know where you are and that you are OK."

"I think she [Penny Bourdreau] should serve what she was sentenced to. I read that her assessment to reoffend is really low and that she's not probable to commit the same crime."

"Killing Karissa was unprovoked, so who is to say it wouldn't take the right situation for her to do something again."

"If she is given parole, I don't think she should have access to children whatsoever." 

Courtney Sarty, childhood friend

 

"You can never call yourself 'mother in conjunction with Karissa's name again, and the words 'Mommy don't' from a trusted and loving Karissa are there to haunt you the rest of your natural life." 

Judge Margaret Stewart, Halifax, Nova Scotia

 

"It is their opinion [unnamed police agency] that you were issued a life sentence with no parole before 20 years served which needs to be followed." 

"[There is still a] deep sense of lost and grief, be it family members, friends or the community at large."

"The grief and opposition to your release continues to this day."

Parole Board of Canada 

"My whole world changed the day Karissa was taken away from me."

"Now, she’s only memories, pictures and a name etched on a stone."

"Am I a failure as a father? Should I have seen this coming?"

"[Karissa’s murder had] long effects on her family, friends [and] schoolmates that knew and loved her."

"Hearing the horrific tale has changed them in many ways forever. Life will never be the same for any of us."

Paul Boudreau, Karissa’s father

Karissa Paige Boudreau. Photo by Courtesy Bridgewater Police Department

 

Penny Boudreau, serving a life sentence for murdering her twelve year-old daughter Karissa, has been a model prisoner at the Nova Institution for Women, located in Truro, Nova Scotia. At the prison she works as a cleaner and is entrusted with ordering groceries for her unit in the prison. She was sentenced seventeen years ago to 20 years' incarceration after confessing to having killed her only child. Under that sentence which did not allow for parole until two decades had been served in prison, she would be eligible for release on June 13, 2028. But she has been given the opportunity to convince a parole board she represents no threat to society and should be given early release. 

 

Under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act she is eligible to apply for unescorted passes and day parole three years before completion of her life sentence. Day parole for rehabilitative purposes allows an offender to participate in community-based activities preparatory to full parole or statutory release. A backlash has resulted by the woman's decision to apply for unescorted release. The reality of her daughter's death is that her mother with sinister motivation aforethought, had placed packing twine in her vehicle with the intention of its use in disposing of an impediment to her relationship with a lover.

 

Penny Boudreau is led from court in Bridgewater, N.S., in June 2008, after her appearance in the murder of her 12-year-old daughter, Karissa Boudreau. Photo by Eric Wynne

 

Seventeen years ago, Penny Boudreau at age 33 was living with her boyfriend. Both were workers at a grocery store in the town of Bridgewater on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Living together in a small two-bedroom apartment, they were destined to share that apartment with a third person: Karissa Boudreau had arrived to live with the couple, after having been in her father's care. The girl, it would seem, was a source of friction in the apartment between the three residents. Karissa resented her mother's boyfriend living with her and her mother.

 

On Saturday, January 27, 2008, mother and daughter took a drive to be alone together, to discuss house rules and the conflict that existed between the girl and her mother. Penny Boudreau stopped briefly at a grocery store in the midst of a snowstorm, while her daughter waited in the car. When the mother returned to the parked vehicle Karissa, she claimed, was nowhere to be seen. Two hours on, the mother dialled 911 to report her grade six child missing, out in a snowstorm wearing a hoodie, vest, jeans and pink Crocs.

 

A search involving helicopters, police dogs and concerned people ensued, while for 13 fruitless days the girl remained missing. Penny Boudreau appeared on television, appealing for help to find her daughter: "Karissa, we love  you. We are all looking for you, just come home or call or something", the mother urged her absent daughter. During their search, police contacted friends of the girl, including Courtney Sarty, to alert them to the possibility that their friend might be  hiding somewhere on their property. 

 

It took two weeks, but Karissa's frozen body was discovered less than five minutes from Boudreau's apartment, on the LeHave riverbank. An undercover operation was then launched by the RCMP, initially focusing on Penny's boyfriend, briefed and alerted by reports of shouting and fighting at the apartment.  A plan was hatched to target Boudreau's boyfriend, investigators attempting to determine whether the couple was responsible for Karissa's death. 

 

The memorial site along the river bank in 2009 where Karissa’s body was found still exists today.

 

Eventually, the boyfriend was cleared of suspicious involvement, leaving police to organize a Mr. Big fake crime scenario in hopes of eliciting a confession from Boudreau. And it was a successful gambit; feeling she was speaking to someone involved in crime, and not to a police investigator, the mother re-enacted the scene that unfolded as she strangled her daughter on a deserted road. Boudreau was charged with first-degree murder, later pleading guilty to second-degree murder, to bypass a trial.

 

Now parole board members are set to hold a 18 June hearing to determine whether Boudreau represents a risk to society, reviewing her psychological risk assessments that described Boudreau in a dysfunctional relationship, fearing abandonment by her boyfriend at the time of the murder. In reflection of her model jail behaviour, she has been granted regular escorted temporary absences to leave prison for several hours under supervision to attend  church services, Bible study meetings and visiting a friend from the congregation. 

Since murdering her child, Boudreau has been estranged from her family. A pastor at a church she attends has confirmed Boudreau will receive continued support, working her way toward proving she is able to integrate back into society. She was given the opportunity to tour a community residential facility -- a halfway house -- and met with the director. 

 

A memorial for Karissa remains on the LeHave riverbank where her remains were found. Her friend Courtney Sarty visits that memorial, still struggling to understand how a woman could forsake her unconditional love for her daughter. "I have my own son and my love is deep. He could curse me and put me down to the lowest, and I'm still going to look at him and say, 'I love you'", she said. 

 

Penny Boudreau, who strangled her twelve year old daughter, in 2009. Photo by Darren Pittman /

 

"The residents of the South Shore, Halifax and communities across Canada deserve to feel safe in their own neighbourhoods."

"Like many Nova Scotians, I am appalled to learn that Penny Boudreau ... has been on day passes from prison and could soon be granted unescorted leave from prison."

Rick Perkins, former Conservative Member of Parliament for South Shore-St.Margarets