Murder of Serena McKay

The video of the murder was circulated in both a short and long version on Facebook, on which the video remained for at least three days before its removal.[8][12]

The short version of the video was removed after Sagkeeng Grand Chief Derrick Henderson made a request to Facebook, while the long version was removed from the site after CBC News reported it to Facebook and the RCMP. According to CBC, the longer version sat on the site for four hours on April 26 before its removal.[3]

Moreover, despite being removed from the site itself, the video can still be shared on the site through Facebook Messenger, according to RCMP. Though posting videos of attacks online is not illegal in itself, people who film attacks and do not come to the aid of the victim can be charged with being an accessory. As such, because the video is being shared via personal messages, police are doubtful of Facebook's ability to control or stop the spread of such material.[3]

McKay's beaten body was found on April 23 near a home in Sagkeeng, two hours after she was reported missing.[3][2] Sagkeeng resident Alma Kakikepinace was among the first to discover McKay's body.[13] Two teenagers (aged 16 and 17, respectively, at the time) were subsequently arrested.[4][5][14]

The online video was brought to the attention of McKay's high-school principal, Claude Guimond, by her classmates on April 24, the day after McKay's body was found. Upon seeing the face of the victim, Guimond believed it to be McKay and forwarded the evidence to Powerview RCMP.[2] Also that day, the younger suspect (16) spoke to a school counsellor about the beating and later turned herself into the RCMP.[15]

One of the suspects was also accused of writing instant messages (IM) about the death. The Winnipeg Free Press reported that it received an IM exchange from “a resident of the reserve” in which one of the alleged suspects writes at first, “We fought, I broke her nose then that happened, she left after, she was OK. She was up and walking.” A few hours later, the suspect wrote, “She was found dead bro… Promise me say when we fought it wasn’t that bad. Her nose was just bleeding lots… I’m fuckin scared. Promise me, you won’t tell em I fought her deadly. Please bro… Say after we closed the door, she left.”[10]

On the week of 1 May 2017, the RCMP ruled the death to be a homicide, charging the two girls with second-degree murder.[12] While it is known that the two girls went to school with McKay, the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act prohibits releasing names of accused or convicted youth-criminals, and the suspects' names cannot be revealed publicly.[8][12]

A pathologist testified during their trial that McKay likely died of hypothermia, unable to seek protection from the cold because of her injuries and the amount of alcohol in her system.[11] The two girls were charged with, and pleaded guilty to, second-degree murder, and were ordered to undergo a psychological assessment.[3][4][5][16] Following their guilty pleas, prosecutors had also tried to seek adult sentences for the teenage girls, arguing that a youth sentence (maximum of 3 years) would be too lenient.[17][18][19]

In January 2018, the younger of the two suspects, 17 years old at this time, was subject to sentencing hearings at Winnipeg youth court, where she pleaded guilty to manslaughter. According to her defence lawyer, she was a "panicked young person" and thus should be sentenced as a youth.[20]

The older of the two, 17 years old at the time of arrest, was remanded to the Manitoba Youth Center (MYC)—a youth prison which has both remand, post remand, and convict units—and subsequently pleaded guilty to the charge.[21][22] On 26 May 2017, the 17-year-old suspect had her first trial at a Manitoba Provincial Court in Winnipeg, where both the defense lawyers and prosecutors requested a psychological test. Crown prosecutor Jennifer Comack said there were 24 victim impact statements from family and friends, in addition to those from people who did not know McKay.[16] Provincial court Judge Rocky Pollack sentenced her in June 2018 to 40 months (3 years & 4 months) in prison followed by another 23.5 months (1 year & 11 months) of conditional supervision—the maximum youth sentence in Canada for taking a life.[11][23] One condition of her sentence was that the two girls are not allowed to communicate with one another while the sentence is being served.[24] The girl has since claimed that she is very sorry for what she has done.[25]

In November 2020, the older suspect, now 20 years old, was moved to Women's Correctional Centre, an adult facility in Headingley. Also that year, she was denied a request for an early release so that she could return to her First Nation community and take steps to enrol at the University of Manitoba. Judge Pollack rejected the request in a written decision on August 26, saying that the woman "still does not appreciate the significance of her consequences." Some reasons include: forging the signature of a MYC staff member in order to get a letter released in the mail; tattooing herself; her involvement with a group that refused to comply with lockup orders; and getting disciplined for not taking medication.[11]

In a handwritten document by the woman, called "My Life Story", she wrote about the night of the murder:[11]

A couple drinks turned into a full weekend of binge drinking. Waking up a Monday, and finding out you were involved in a murder was so shocking. I couldn't remember much of that weekend but watching a video a friend showed me was brutal. I sat back and denied it all because I'm not a violent person.