By Melanie Patten, The Canadian Press
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BRIDGEWATER, N.S. - A Nova Scotia woman pleaded guilty Friday to strangling her only child with a length of twine and dumping her body along an icy riverbank after the woman was given an ultimatum by her boyfriend.
Penny Boudreau, 34, was originally charged last June with first-degree murder in the killing of 12-year-old Karissa, who was reported missing Jan. 27, 2008 as a snowstorm swept into the region.
Boudreau pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder Friday and was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 20 years. She can apply for parole after 15 years under the so-called faint-hope clause.
An agreed statement of facts, read into the court record, confirmed that Boudreau's boyfriend, Vernon Macumber, had told Boudreau that it was either him or her daughter if their relationship was to survive.
Crown attorney Paul Scovil told the court that on Jan. 27, 2008, Boudreau and her daughter drove to a local grocery store, where the girl was left in the car while her mother placed a call to her boyfriend, telling him the girl had gone missing.
Court heard that Boudreau then drove with her daughter to a nearby road, where the girl was told to get out. They argued and Boudreau tackled the girl.
"Karissa said, 'Mommy, don't."' Scovil told the court as people in the public gallery sobbed.
Scovil said Boudreau pinned her daughter to the ground with her knees, wrapped the twine around her neck and strangled her.
She dragged the body back to the car, put the twine in an empty coffee cup and threw it away.
Boudreau then drove to the banks of the LaHave River, just outside Bridgewater.
When she pulled the girl from the car, her jeans partially came off. Boudreau thought that might suggest her daughter had been sexually assaulted, so she left them that way even though there was no such assault, court heard.
She later discarded some articles of clothing and a sandal belonging to Karissa in a garbage can at a local swimming pool.
Two days after Karissa's reported disappearance, the tearful mother appeared before TV cameras, begging Karissa to come home. At the time, she said had left the girl in her car after they had argued in the parking lot of the grocery store. When she returned, the girl was gone, she said.
On two separate occasions, Boudreau appealed to the public for help in finding the girl as search crews scoured the nearby river and wooded areas.
The 12-year-old's frozen remains were found on the riverbank by a passerby on Feb. 9.
On Friday, Boudreau, wearing a black T-shirt, stood up to address the court.
"I'm sorry," she said in a meek whisper.
Crown attorney Denise Smith said Boudreau's actions "defy any meaning we hold dear of what it means to be a mother."
In a victim impact statement, the girl's biological father, Paul Boudreau, wrote that "the centre of my happisness is shattered...with one selfish act."
Outside the courthouse, Paul Boudreau said Penny Boudreau had shed "crocodile tears" over the death of her daughter.
"That's all it's ever been," he said. "That's all it ever will be."
At the time her body was found, RCMP said investigators believed Karissa knew her killer.
Karissa, a Grade 6 student at Bridgewater Elementary School, was described as a typical kid, who loved singing along to Hilary Duff and the Spice Girls CDs while dancing in her room.
Her disappearance shook the town of Bridgewater, a town of 8,000 near Nova Scotia's South Shore, which held a memorial service for Karissa on the anniversary of her disappearance this week.
Though she was born in Ontario, Penny Boudreau did most of her growing up in Clark's Harbour, the largest community on Cape Sable Island - a spit of land at the edge of Nova Scotia's southwestern tip.
Woman gets life for killing daughter
Originally Posted by Tnova
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