Darkness In The Pass: Part 1
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Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.

because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event, premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. A listener's note. The following episode contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature and may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

I get asked all the time how and when I first became interested in covering crime. I took some time to really think about that and the answer actually surprised me. Long before I became a journalist, as a little girl, I watched a lot of true crime shows. My favorites were Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted.

Later on, I became a huge fan of the show American Justice, which in hindsight was a major inspiration for what I do now. Since then, I've seen pretty much every plot I watched on TV played out in real life. There are some cases that are so heinous, it's hard to believe they really happened.

But I've met the families of these victims, the people who are left to deal with the never-ending trauma. Nobody should have to have that in their head. It's supposed to be safe here. Well, that just goes to tell you this kind of thing can happen anywhere, to anyone. I'm Nancy Hixt, a crime reporter for Global News. This is Season 2 of Crime Beat.

For the next two episodes, I'll take you inside one of the most horrific crimes I've covered. It's a case I can only describe as a real-life horror show. You're listening to part one of Darkness in the Past. Whenever our newsroom gets notification of an Amber Alert, my heart sinks.

An Amber Alert interrupts radio and TV broadcasts and appears on social media and digital highway billboards. There's a very strict criteria that has to be met before police can issue an alert. And generally, it's for a missing child that could be in danger of serious harm or death. I get a knot in my stomach when I hear one of these alerts.

I've witnessed some of the worst possible outcomes, so I just hope and pray the child will be okay. That's what happened on September 14th, 2015. The alert was issued just after 2 in the afternoon. Two-year-old Haley Dunbar Blanchette was missing from her home in the small town of Blairmore, Alberta. Phone rings.

This is an Alberta emergency alert. Alberta RCMP has issued an EMBER alert. Haley was abducted by an unknown person. The suspect's vehicle fled the residence west at a high rate of speed. The manhunt was underway. Investigators asked everyone to be on the lookout for a white van with a large rear antenna and a flag attached.

They hoped the exhaustive searches would lead to the safe return of little Haley. But they were already racing against the clock. Police believed Haley was taken at about 3:30 in the morning. That's about 11 hours before the Amber Alert was issued. Before I go any further, I need to stop and tell you a little bit more about Haley's family.

In order to do that, I need to take you back before Haley was born. Haley's father, Terry Blanchett, was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. He was the youngest of the three Blanchett children. Okay, so I'm the oldest. And then Rick was born next. He's four years younger than I am. And then Terry was born last. So he's nine years younger than I was.

That's Amanda Blanchette DeStewer, Haley's aunt. She's Terry's big sister and always looked out for her brothers. Absolutely, I was the protector. I was fiercely protective of those boys to the point that, you know, like I remember a kid in Sparrow wanted to beat Terry up. And I'm like, you're not going to beat you touch one hair on his head. And, you know, I just lost it.

Amanda lives in the house they all grew up in in Elkford, BC. Elkford is a mining town in the Rockies. There are five open-pit coal mines within an hour's drive. It's kind of remote. There's just one highway in and out, and the town marks the end of the road. What it's really known for is the landscape. It's unreal.

It's pristine, natural wilderness. And the views from Amanda's house are amazing. Growing up, the three Blanchett kids loved being outside. Biking, hiking, camping, and of course, skiing. We tried to teach Terry how to ski and there was a big hill of snow that they had pushed up.

So we tried to teach him to ski and he wouldn't go and he was just not good at it. And finally, I remember just pushing him down the hill saying, just ski. And, you know, he never ever did want to ski. He learned to snowboard, though. He couldn't ski, but he could snowboard. The one thing Terry was not a huge fan of was school. Likely, in part, because he was bullied a lot as a kid. Well, when Terry was really little, Terry had, like, really bad speech impediment.

Terry didn't learn to walk till he was like three years old, but that's because I wouldn't let him walk because I was scared he was going to hurt himself. So, you know, he's kind of like things were delayed for him. And yeah, I think he just kind of was self-conscious, right? Terry was a bit of an old soul and was really close with his mom and grandmother. So when Terry was born, my grandpa had just died. He died May the 2nd and Terry was born July the 22nd in 1988.

So Terry was named actually after my grandpa, right? So this was like my grandma and my mom's new focus. You know, like there's this new baby named after my grandpa and he was really close with them. That's also likely where he picked up his love for cooking. As an adult, most of his jobs were in the kitchen of different restaurants.

I should note, Amanda tells it like it is. She's honest and she doesn't sugarcoat things, even when it comes to talking about her baby brother. She's the first one to admit he wasn't always an angel. Nothing like too, too bad, but like maybe like stealing from the store and things like that, like just kind of being bad.

Amanda isn't totally sure why. They all had the same childhood. But for some reason, Terry would act out. You know, I think something happened to Terry when he was a kid. I don't know what. I don't know who. It's just a feeling I always had as he was growing up. Because all of a sudden, you know, he was kind of like, he had gotten caught stealing from the store. He had set a fire down there.

By high school, Terry had enough. He quit and got a job. By that time, Amanda was already married with kids. Remember, she's nine years older than Terry.

It wasn't long before he left Elkford. He wanted to experience city life in both Lethbridge and Calgary. At that point, Amanda said he was doing drugs. And as his big sister, she worried about him. Absolutely. I worried all the time. Like even when Terry was born, I remember being terrified that something was going to happen to him.

You know, and that's why I didn't let him walk till he was three. Until finally my mom's like, leave him alone. You have to, he has to learn to walk. Like you can't pack him everywhere. Because I just remember having this dream that, you know, Terry's found in a garbage bag on the side of the highway. I remember this dream. I would have it over and over when Terry was born. And I was always scared something was going to happen to him when he was little. And I obviously got over that fear, but I kind of look back and I'm like, was that some kind of a premonition or, you know,

It wasn't long before Terry met a girl, Cheyenne Dunbar. And not long after that, Terry had some news to share with his family. He and Cheyenne were going to have a little girl. I mean, on one hand, it's exciting. But on the other, I'm like, they are not ready to have a baby. Like, they need to clean up their act. They need to, you know, get their ducks in a row. And, you know, he did.

Amanda said that was the turning point for her brother. And while the couple ended up breaking up, Terry stayed on his new path. So she moved back to the pass because her mom was there. And he moved back to the pass because she's pregnant with his child. Yeah, and he kind of cleaned up from there. When Amanda talks about the pass, she's talking about the Crow's Nest Pass, located in the Rocky Mountains in southwest Alberta.

Five mining communities make up the pass: the towns of Blairmore and Coleman, the villages of Bellevue and Frank, and the hamlet of Hillcrest. What the Crows Nest Pass is best known for are the gorgeous views. It's a thriving hub for people to golf, ski, hike, fish, camp, or snowmobile. Terry moved to the area to be closer to Cheyenne.

Even though they had broken up, he wanted to be there when she had their baby. And he was ready to be a father. He went and my mom helped him rent that place in the past. And, you know, they started getting baby things and he was working. And yeah, he was just he was excited to be a dad, you know. And this is the one thing and I'm sure everyone.

This is what changed it for him. He said to me one day, he's like, "Amanda," he's like, "I want to be a dad like our dad was to us." I have big shoes to fill. And he did. And I will remember that forever. On New Year's Eve 2012, his little girl was born, Haley Dunbar Blanchett. He adored her. You could see it in his eyes how much he adored her. She gave him a reason.

to be a good person. Haley was a good baby. You tell her to do something, she just does it. You know, you're like, oh, let's go wash your hands. Okay. Oh, don't eat that off the ground, that candy off the ground. Okay. She was so easy. She was such a good little girl. She didn't argue. She didn't fight. The father-daughter duo loved spending time together in nature. They were always going somewhere that had water.

She was going to be a water baby too, right? Like they go out to Lundbrick Falls or out to Allison Lake or Chinook Lake, whatever it was called, down to the river. But you know, he had a nice little area for her to play. She had her sandbox and all her toys out on the deck. Haley became Terry's whole world. And he loved her so much. Like it was just,

It was so incredible the way he turned it around, you know, like he worried about the things that she ate, right? You try to give her, I'd always buy her a Timbit for one hand and you know, he'd be giving me heck. He's like, no, you know, she has to have her vegetables and she has to eat her dinner and you know, and he fed her like he cared a lot about her nutrition, you know, like frozen blueberries were her treat. And then of course I'd sneak in there, give her Smarties.

Terry juggled being a dad with working as a cook at a local restaurant. So his dad, Bill Blanchett, Haley's grandfather, helped out a lot. Everyone calls Bill Papa. My dad spent a lot of time with Haley because Terry couldn't afford to have a babysitter. My dad's retired. So, you know, Papa went over there and looked after Haley for him.

Haley was truly her grandpa's little girl, and she had him wrapped around her little finger. One time I remember I was over there, I was visiting, my dad was looking after her, and I had bracelets on. And she took them off and she hung them over Papa's ears.

and wandered away to do whatever. Well, Papa took them off and she turned and she's like, "No, Papa." And I kind of looked at her, I'm like, "Did you just talk to your Papa like that?" She kind of gave me a look like, "Hey, mind your own business. I've got this." And that's the only time I've ever seen her getting kind of, you know, bratty. But then she was just like, "Okay," you know. But she made him put them back on his ears and then it was fine. Everything seemed to be falling into place for Terry.

So no one was prepared for what happened next. You know, it's the last thing you would have expected at this point, right? Because life was going pretty good for him, right? Like he's got his baby, he's got a job, he's got a place to live, you know. Everybody seems to be doing quite well. September 14th, 2015 started out like any other day for Amanda.

So I went to work that morning up at the mine. I don't have my cell phone at work, so I don't know what's going on. I'm up at the mine. I'm doing my job. And apparently they were trying to get a hold of me for a couple hours. Finally, Amanda's son called her boss. Amanda thought maybe something had happened to her daughter. She's diabetic. So I turned on my phone and I didn't pay attention to any messages. I'm just like, because I'm worried that something has happened to my daughter.

So I phone Gage and he's like, "Mom, Haley's missing. Haley's been abducted." I'm like, "What do you mean?" Like, I'm thinking, "Ah, there's something with Cheyenne here." Like, you know, there's a miscommunication or something happened here. She's with Cheyenne. That's what I'm thinking. Amanda left work. She had all sorts of scenarios running through her mind. When she got home, her kids were already there, along with other friends and relatives.

And one of her cousins took away her kid's electronic devices. And Gage is being a bit strange. That's my oldest son. And I said to his friend Brittany, I'm like, why is Gage being so weird? She's like, well, he read something on Facebook about a body. And I'm like, oh, that was probably, well, he didn't fully read it. I'm like, oh, that was probably just that lady that was killed in the past.

Amanda's referring to a homicide investigation that began just a few days earlier, also in the Crow's Nest Pass. An elderly woman was found dead in her mobile home in the community of Coleman on September 9th, five days before Haley disappeared. In Amanda's mind, it had to be that homicide the social media posts were referring to.

So we're waiting for my dad to come, you know, he just told me, "Papa's gonna come and tell us what's going on." Okay, okay, so we're waiting and finally my dad shows up and you know, my dad doesn't look very good. And I'm like, "Oh yeah, my dad's really worried too." And I remember standing out here in my front yard and I don't know why I said it, but I said, you know, I asked him, I'm like, "Dad, what's going on?" And I said, "What's this about a body?" But it hasn't crossed my mind at all that, you know, somebody in our family is dead.

And my dad, I remember him standing there and it seemed like forever before he asked me, he just looked at me. And I understand now why he looked at me for so long because he knew that the next words coming out of his mouth were going to change my life. And he said to me, he said, "Hailey has been abducted and Terry was murdered." And I literally feel like it jumped out of my body because they hit the ground.

I think I was screaming, I was crying. And I remember thinking my dad could fix this. I'm like, you've gotta fix this 'cause this isn't real, this isn't true. You can fix this, so just fix this, dad. And I was crying and I remember I made my dad cry. My dad's not, you know, he's not a super emotional guy. But I made my dad cry, I seen tears in my dad's eyes. And I remember standing there, my son had come over and he was crying and I'm on the ground, rolling around like a lunatic. My neighbors are coming out of their house.

And I remember my daughter sitting over here and I'm like, "Get up, Amanda. You need to go to your kids." I'm like, "This isn't about you right now. Go." And I don't know how long I was on that ground, but I finally got up and I had to go see my kids because they're kids. They were little. And you know, yes, my world changed forever. Can you imagine the strength it must have taken for Amanda to get up and force herself to be strong for her kids?

That morning, Bill Blanchett had planned to drive to Calgary to have his vehicle serviced. It was Terry's day off, so Bill texted him to see if he and Haley wanted to go for an early lunch when he drove through on his way to the city. Bill loved to go out to eat, especially in the company of his two favorite people. But Terry didn't text back. Finally, Bill tried calling.

But there was no answer. So I think he was a bit worried. But he's like, oh, you know, things happen, right? Like maybe he's charging his phone, they went to the park or, you know, whatever. So he thought, well, I'll just stop by and see if they want to go have lunch. You know, check, like the park's up the street, he can check there or whatever. Bill went to his son's house. He knocked on the door and yelled out Terry's name. But there was still no response. He sent another text. Are you up?

Still no reply. Bill tried calling again and again. No answer. It was about 11 o'clock that Monday morning when Bill Blanchette decided to go into his son's home and take a look around. Nothing could have prepared him for what he would find. Terry lived in a two-story half duplex. Slowly, Bill walked through.

There was blood on the floor of the living room and blood in the hallway. He found his son lying in a pool of blood in the bathroom. His throat had been cut. There was blood everywhere, on the sink and the door. There were drag marks leading to Terry's bedroom. It appeared that's where the initial attack had happened. Bill was frantic.

He started searching for his granddaughter. He found blood in her crib and on one of her dolls. But Haley was nowhere to be found. I wasn't really sure where she was. And of course you start worrying about, you know, like, okay, what happened in this house, you know, that they've taken the baby alive? Like, what are you worried about what they're doing to her? And you think it's something horrible. But, you know, now the heat's on, like there's an Amber Alert out.

You know, the whole country knows that this little girl is missing. So I'm kind of expecting her to be dropped off somewhere, you know, in a parking lot, in a hospital. Like, I just expect her to be found. And I'm like, I'm just waiting for it. And I wasn't super worried that anything happened to her, like, because I couldn't fathom it.

Good evening. Thank you for joining us. We do begin tonight with the Amber Alert that remains in effect across Western Canada and now into the States. Police and the public are scrambling to locate two-year-old Haley Dunbar Blanchett, who was taken from her home in the community of Blairmore early this morning. But this is also a murder investigation. Haley's father found dead in that very home. The suspects still on the run.

To say there was a huge police presence in the Crows Nest Pass would be an understatement. It was like nothing anyone living in the pass had ever seen. Helicopters, canine units, forensic vans, and massive search teams. The Ember Alert was extended beyond Alberta into BC, Saskatchewan, and into the US. Every tip needed to be followed up on.

They had to find Haley. One of Terry's neighbors told police he heard something in the middle of the night, just hours before Terry was found dead. That neighbor told investigators he woke up to the sound of someone walking outside. When he looked out, he saw a white commercial van sitting in the alley. He said he heard a child's voice and later watched the van speed away.

Police reviewed CCTV surveillance video and were able to confirm there was a white van in the area. It was the following morning, a little less than 24 hours into the Amber Alert, that Haley's Aunt Amanda started learning where the police investigation was headed. That morning, somebody had texted me and said they were raiding prestige cleaners.

And I'm like, because of Haley? Like, is she there or does that have something to do with it? And that's where I first heard the name Derek Sretzky. The white van wanted in the Amber Alert, the one with the flag on the antenna, turned out to be a familiar sight in the Crow's Nest Pass. Even though it's a small mountain community, this type of van can be found on pretty much every block. A lot of businesses use them.

One of those businesses is a local dry cleaner, Prestige Cleaners and Tailors. The company is owned and operated by the Saretsky family. After seeing the amber alert, the Saretskys checked on the status of their vans. What they realized is one had been taken out without consent and then returned. The Saretskys called police. When investigators followed up on the tip, they seized the van.

They wanted to examine it for any possible clues in the case. It was later revealed there were blood smears in that van. And there was more. When police spoke to one of the owners, Larry Saretsky, they learned his son Derek had made some strange comments about the case. Investigators decided they needed to speak with Derek Saretsky. So they tracked him down at Prestige Cleaners.

Okay, it's Consul Amanda Wilkinson, Consul Chad Corlock, Sergeant Steve Brown. Today's date is Tuesday, September 15th, 2015. Time right now is 821 hours. We're just in the rear alleyway of Prestige Cleaning. This is audio from that conversation. I warn you, the audio isn't great quality. Hi, Derek. We were just speaking with your dad. He said that you were mentioned.

Just a little bit, sorry, I'm recording this conversation, okay? Derek right now, okay? That's Derek's father, Larry Saretsky. He encouraged his son to speak to the officers. Just to let you know, Derek, that you have been identified as a suspect, okay? In Haley's disappearance and Terry's death. Okay, so anything you do say to us right now can't be used as evidence against you. You understand that?

Larry repeatedly asked his son to tell them the truth. Is there a possibility she's still alive?

Derek, this is a serious, serious investigation here. Someone's been killed, someone's been murdered, and we have a two-year-old that we have to find. That's when Derek Serecki told the officers they'd seen Haley. He said her spirit was there with them. She's in heaven? How do you know that? Because her spirit's full now. The officers were frustrated. Haley was still missing, and they needed to find her.

Derek, you gotta tell him what you did with her. It's not gonna help you know not to say it. Whatever I do now is not gonna help me. It might help Kelly. Please, just say it. Derek, what if she's alive? Finally, police told Saretsky he was under arrest. He would be transported to the nearby RCMP detachment. He called back to his father as he was taken away. I love you, Dad. You have anything in your pockets? No.

Do you have any weapons on you? No. Do you have any needles or anything sharp? No. Just watch your head. You are under arrest for the murder of Terry Blanchett. Okay. Do you understand that? Uh, no. Okay, do you understand what that means? I know what it means. Okay, what does that mean to you? I don't understand it. I get it. I'm not asking if you agree. I just want to make sure that you understand all of your rights completely, okay? I don't understand them.

Okay, so I'm gonna go through everything step by step and the first thing I want to make sure that you understand that you have been placed under arrest for the murder of Terry Blanchett. I get it. Okay, so what does that mean to you? That somebody killed Terry can get in the way. Or I don't remember doing it. Or I'm not guilty or I'm insane. I don't know, man. I'm fucked up somehow.

At 10 o'clock in the morning on September 15th, 2015, Derek Saretsky was put in a cell at the Blairmore RCMP detachment. The officer told Saretsky he would look for a book for him to read as he waited to be questioned. All of this was happening behind the scenes, unbeknownst to Terry and Haley's family members.

As far as they knew, the police were still trying to find the van and figure out what might have happened to Haley. They still held out hope she was alive. That same morning, family members were asked to go to the RCMP detachment to give statements. The family statements were taken in the parking lot of the detachment.

They thought it was strange. Officers didn't want them to go inside the police building. Instead, each was interviewed inside of a police cruiser. I remember standing there, and all of a sudden, all these police cars start leaving the police station. Lights, sirens, and they're going. And they're screaming out of there. I'm like, oh, they probably found Haley. They're going to get her right now.

Amanda and her family had no idea the reason they couldn't go inside the RCMP building was because police didn't want them crossing paths with the suspect, Derek Saretsky. They phoned me at about 7 o'clock that night. And I remember it came up, no caller ID or unknown caller, one of those, like, I don't know who it is, but I know it's going to be the police. And of course, my house is full of people.

And so I'm like, okay, it's busy in here. I'm just gonna step outside and talk to this person. And they told me, they're like, yeah, we're calling off the Amber Alert. And I'm like, perfect, you found Haley. Where is she? And they're like, we found human remains. And I'm like, kind of like, what do you mean you found human remains? But they would not tell me that it was Haley, just that they didn't know that it was Haley. So automatically my mind goes to the point where I'm like, no, it's not her.

they found a baby bear cub that was skinned. And I've convinced myself of this, right? But I remember that wall of ice coming down and I could feel it just because I remember telling him, give me a minute, give me a minute, just give me a minute, give me a minute. And then, yeah, you're just, you froze. And I convinced myself that, yes, they found a baby bear cub. This was not Haley. This was just a dead bear cub that they had found because they look very much like children when they're skinned because she's two. Nobody hurts a two-year-old.

So, you know, they asked me for another statement over the phone. So I probably spent 15, 20 minutes talking to them again. I couldn't even tell you what I said back then because I was just numb, completely numb. So, you know, I come in the house and of course everybody turns and looks at me. And it's almost like you've left your body again. And I just very, very casually said, I'm like, they've called off the AMR alert. They found human remains. And this house literally shook.

Amanda said her mind simply couldn't go there. What police were telling her was just too awful.

Too incomprehensible to accept. Haley had to be alive. So, you know, everybody leaves and, you know, I'm like, no, I'm fine. It's good. You know, and I remember standing out in the yard, just kind of looking around. My best friend Lisa says to me, she's like, but, she's like, you have to brace yourself. And I said to her, and I snapped and I was really rude. And she said, no, I fucking don't. I said, that is not Haley.

And I just remember the look in her eyes. She looked at me with such pity because yes, I'm in denial right now and I don't want to accept this.

Good evening. We welcome in viewers from across our province tonight. After two days of holding out hope for Haley, we have the worst possible outcome. What so many feared is now a reality. The two-year-old's body has been found not far from where she was taken in Blairmore early Monday morning. The Amber Alert has now been cancelled and tragedy is starting to set in across our province and our country. We do begin with Nancy Hickst in Airdrie where police confirmed this heartbreaking news a

a short time ago. Nancy. I can tell you that everyone involved in covering this case is devastated by this news tonight. It was an extremely somber atmosphere at the Airdrie RCMP detachment as the RCMP superintendent updated this case for us tonight. This is a sad day for the investigators, the citizens of Blairmoor,

and all the Canadians who hoped Haley would be found and returned unharmed. Now it is hard to think past tonight's heartbreak for sure but as far as that investigation where does it go from here? Police wouldn't take any questions from the media tonight and of course we have so many questions that we want answered. Everyone wants to know what led to this, what's the motive and just what happened in this case.

People have a very difficult time wrapping their heads around how anything bad could happen to a two-year-old girl like this. The spokesperson for the RCMP gets on the news and he's telling them how they've found Haley's remains. And I'm mad. I'm like, they didn't tell me that. They just told me they thought it could be her. And I'm mad. So I'm phoning my dad because how dare they tell them that and, you know, put this all over the news. My dad said to me, he's like, Amanda, it's Haley.

She said, it's Haley. And I'm like, oh. That night, a candlelight vigil was held for Haley in Blairmore. Haley's mother, Cheyenne Dunbar, attended the vigil with her mother. And that's where RCMP victim services told her Haley's remains had been found. The next day, Haley's mother, Cheyenne,

put on a brave face, and spoke to the media for the first time. She was smart, beautiful, the greatest child ever. She never cried. She never... She was perfect. Absolutely perfect. I'm going to miss absolutely everything. I'm going to miss her smile, the way she ran around saying mommy, everything. Cheyenne broke down. She was my baby. And I don't know why anybody would do this to her.

Terry's mom and dad, Haley's grandparents, were also in shock. We're going through hell. We're going through hell. Bill Blanchett's eyes said it all. His entire world was shattered. I'm having trouble holding it together right now. This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do my whole life. Hardest thing. You know, you're not supposed to bury your son and your granddaughter. They're supposed to bury you.

There's no words, there's no words to describe how we all feel. Terry is a really, was a really great person. He was a great father. He would do anything for his girl, you know, and the day that Terry told me and my daughter-in-law that he was having a baby was the day that Terry changed. And Terry became a responsible human being, productive, and you know, he would have done anything for that little girl.

She's a very cool little girl. She's, she had, she come from a world of a lot of love. Everybody loved her. And though they were broken up, Cheyenne echoed those feelings towards the man who she shared a child with. Terry was an awesome father. He did everything he could for that little girl.

On September 16, 2015, police announced 22-year-old Derek Cerecki was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. But it was a third charge causing an indignity to a body that made everyone wonder what horrors Haley had faced. We had been watching the news and they were talking about indignity to a body.

And I, like, I hit the ground again, you know, like, I dropped to my knees. I'm like, what did he fucking do to her? But RCMP investigators didn't reveal details of the evidence in the case. Even loved ones of the victims weren't told what police had uncovered.

We have determined that Mr. Serecki was an acquaintance of Terry Blanchett's. Now that Mr. Serecki has been charged, our first priority is to protect the integrity of the investigation to date and to ensure he receives a fair trial. Haley's mom, Cheyenne, told reporters she used to know Serecki, but added she hadn't spoken to him in three years. That was years ago. We were great friends.

Like it tears me apart knowing friends would do something like that. And I don't know why anything of that would happen. I don't know why anybody would do that to her. I don't know why. The following days were a blur for Terry and Haley's family. They had to wait to lay their loved ones to rest because the homicide investigation was still ongoing. Because they took Haley, her remains,

They needed DNA. They wanted 100% DNA on them. So she got shipped out to the States somewhere like Georgia or wherever it was to a lab. And we were waiting for her to come back before we had a memorial. Terry had already been cremated and we waited. And finally, you know, I can't remember who told us they're like, you know, it could be a while. So finally on October the 9th, I think it was, we went ahead with their memorial. We did a private one and then we did a public one.

because the funeral director, he felt that there was a need for that in the past. It was on that day the victim's family met the killer's family. When we buried Terry and Haley in the cemetery in Passburg over here, Larry Saretsky showed up, right? And I'm looking at this man and he says to me, he's like, do you know who I am? And I'm like, I, because of course I creeped his Facebook because, you know, I want to know everything about this family now.

And I'm like, he's familiar, but it's not clicking in, right? Like we're going to bury Terry and Haley. And I'm like, no, I don't. But like, I remember this man, like you could feel just the oddest feelings coming off him. Like, and I didn't know what they were at the time. And he's like, I'm Larry Staratzky. I'm Derek's father. And I hugged him because I knew immediately, I'm like, this man is hurt. Just think about that for a second. Put yourself in Amanda's position.

She sensed the pain Saretsky's father was feeling and instead of lashing out in anger, she hugged him. Could you do that? The victim's family was so compassionate and sympathetic towards the family of the man who was accused of causing so much hurt. But that's exactly the kind of people the Blanchettes are. And their compassion didn't stop there. I remember

I don't know if I read it on social media. I remember reading it somewhere that they were being harassed. People were bothering them. And I'm like, well, why are people bothering them? Like, I didn't understand it at first. And they're like, oh, because that's, you know, that's their family. I'm like, well, that's not their fault. And I remember going to my mom and being like, mom, like, we can't let this happen. This is not their fault. And me and my mom had a long discussion about it.

And my pops moose ended up writing a letter to the newspaper, to publish in the newspaper, to please leave these people alone. Like, this is not their fault. There was only one person Amanda blamed, and that was Derek Saretsky himself. Just days after he was charged, Derek Saretsky was rushed to hospital.

Global News has confirmed that Derek Saretsky attempted to kill himself yesterday morning in a provincial jail in Lethbridge. Nancy Hickst reports. Saretsky was in custody at the Lethbridge Correctional Centre when he attempted suicide. Sources say the 22-year-old tried to kill himself by hanging while left alone in the shower. I'm like, let him go. And, you know, this might sound callous, but it probably would have been the very best thing for everybody. But Saretsky survived.

He was put into a medically induced coma and remained in hospital for nearly a week. He was then returned to the provincial jail, where he was held in custody awaiting his trial. But the wheels of justice turned slowly. And for the families and the public, there were still so many unanswered questions. How could this happen? And why Terry and Haley?

Amanda, her family, and the entire community would have to wait nearly two years to get those answers. That's next time on Crime Beat. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Our audio producer is Rob Johnston.

Special thanks to photographer-editor Danny Lantella for his work on this series, and to Chris Bassett, the National Director of Content and Editorial Standards for Global News. I would love to have you tell a friend about this podcast, and you can help me share these important stories by rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

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