PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — A Saskatchewan man who killed his parents and his son and left his daughter for dead has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
Court heard Wednesday that Nathaniel Carrier had a suicide pact with a woman he had met online and through text messages told her he did not want his children to suffer "with the loss of him" and wanted to take them along in the afterlife.
Carrier pleaded guilty in January to the first-degree murder of his seven-year-old son, Bentlee, and the attempted murder of his daughter, Kendrah, who was five, in March 2020.
He also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, Denis Carrier and Sandra Henry, both 56.
A statement of facts read in Prince Albert Court of Queen's Bench said Carrier had met a woman online the previous week and they agreed they would kill themselves by driving head-on into a loaded logging truck.
But before driving to La Ronge, Sask., to meet the woman, Carrier was staying at his parents' house and looking after his children for the weekend as per a custody agreement with their mother.
The statement said Carrier disabled a security camera on the Saturday afternoon and killed his mother in her room. It said he then killed his father in the garage.
Court heard both had their throats slashed and there were signs Carrier had beaten his father with a metal bat.
Carrier went into the children's bedroom next and slit their throats, court was told.
He then sent the woman one more text saying he had done "the needful thing."
It would be almost an entire day before the victims were found when Henry's co-worker and friend came to check on her.
The elder Carrier, Henry and Bentlee were all found dead and lying in their blood. Kendrah, despite having her throat cut, was conscious in her bed with her blue eyes wide open.
Suffering from shock and unable to talk, she was rushed to a local hospital before being transferred to Edmonton’s Stollery Children's Hospital, where she would remain for almost two months for several surgeries.
Police found Carrier in La Ronge, where he had gone to carry out the suicide pact. He was transferred to a psychiatric unit and on the way turned over two knives to paramedics.
Dozens of family members were in court for Carrier's sentencing. Five victim impact statements were read, including that of the children's mother, Heather Lynn Sumners, who spent over an hour recalling the deaths and the emotional turmoil she was in as she rushed to Edmonton to see her daughter.
“I will hate you forever,” she said, staring straight at Carrier.
Sumners said her daughter has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffers nightmares. Kendrah is afraid of the dark and scared of men she doesn’t know, she said.
“You took a piece of me and smashed it into a zillion pieces,” Sumners told Carrier.
Troy Ermine, Sumners's spouse and father to her other child, Alex, said Kendrah will forever be reminded of what happened to her when she looks in the mirror. He said she asked him on one occasion if he would be her new daddy and help protect her from bad people.
A pre-sentence report said Carrier had been having suicidal thoughts for 10 years and they had became worse with the onset of the pandemic. He was also diagnosed as having schizophrenia. It said he never received or asked for help.
One of Carrier’s jobs at the time was as a custodian at a hospital and he said that had an impact on his mental health. He also said he was hearing voices, including his dead grandmother's, who told him to kill his family.
Defence lawyer Angus McLean advised the court that his client told him not to minimize in any way what had happened.
“There can be no excuses for what he’s done,” he said.
Carrier stood in the prisoner’s box and said he understood that nothing he could say would change what happened.
“But I just wanted everybody to know that I regret my decisions. I did the opposite thing of what I should have done and I’m going to spend the rest of my life thinking about that.”
Carrier won’t be eligible for parole until 2045, about the time Kendrah turns 30.
He is also forbidden from having contact with Sumners, Kendrah and his two brothers. (paNOW)
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2022.
Nigel Maxwell, paNOW, The Canadian Press
