Decision to release toddler killer leaves ex-neighbour ‘disgusted’
Chrissie Mark is appalled that a Fort Erie woman convicted of second-degree murder in the death of a two-year-old girl is getting a chance to re-enter society.
Rainbow Hill, one of three women convicted in the death of Marissa Whalen close to 10 years ago, has been granted parole.
Now 37 years old, Hill was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2013 for the murder of Marissa Whalen, who was the daughter of her female partner Roseanne Whalen at the time of the girl’s death in 2011.
Roseanne Whalen was sentenced in 2014 to life in prison without parole for 15 years, and Hill’s sister, Amanda Dipota, was charged with accessory to murder.
Mark lived across the street from Hill and Whalen at the time of the child’s death, which shocked Fort Erie and the rest of the region, and her parents lived next door to them.
Amother of two children with several other kids in her family, Mark said she is devastated Hill is being given another shot at life and will no longer be incarcerated.
“I’m disgusted with our justice system,” she said in an interview.
“I do not understand how somebody who could do something like that to such a little person could even have a chance at parole, much less be out in nine years,” she said.
“She is the most horrible person I’ve ever met in my life,” she said.
Mark reflected back to an afternoon in August 2011, about the time of the murder, when she witnessed Hill and Whalen walking down the street with a stroller covered with a blanket that did not appear to be carrying anything else.
“It seemed very bizarre to me,” she said.
Later in October, when police swarmed their mostly quiet neighbourhood and she learned about the arrests and the awful turn of events that brought them there, she imme
diately thought of that day a couple of months before.
“It took me back to that day in August when I saw them pushing an empty stroller. I should’ve called somebody,” said Mark.
In a Sept. 17 decision from the Parole Board of Canada that will lead to Hill being released on Oct. 13 for six months to a halfway house in Hamilton, the horrific details of what unfolded were laid out. There were acts of violence against the toddler included hitting, slapping, smashing her face into a wall and force feeding her food.
On July 29, 2011, Marissa awoke with a full diaper and Hill kicked her in the stomach, knocking her to the floor, the parole board decision said.
Hill then took the tiny girl into the bathroom where she received a fatal injury after being dropped in the bathtub. Her lifeless body was taken to her stepfather’s apartment where Hill could be overheard on a 911 call urging him to cancel the call.
According to the parole board document obtained by The Welland Tribune, the victim was wrapped in a blanket and placed in a garbage bag.
An ambulance responded within minutes to the home and Hill told paramedics her son was choking on cereal and the emergency had passed.
She coached her children and stepfather to lie to police as to why the 911 call was made before enlisting the assistance of her sister to locate a spot for an unmarked grave in a secluded spot in the woods hours away.
Her sister contacted two friends to help, who were told they would be burying a dog.
A few days later, Dipota, the victim’s mother and Hill returned to the grave on Six Nations territory near Brantford and dug up the body as they were worried an animal might dig up the remains and the blanket she was wrapped in might implicate them. After removing the plastic bag and blanket, the victim’s mother tried to re-bury the victim, said the parole board decision signed by M.W. Sanford and A.M. Scott.
Due to rigour mortis, the toddler’s mother had to step on the body to force it back into the grave. The next day the blanket and plastic bag were burned in a bonfire.
According to a psychological risk assessment in December, Hill’s “general risk to reoffend is in the low to moderate range” and her risk for “violent recidivism is in the low range.”
The board said Hill has “high levels of motivation and accountability” and that she is considered to be “engaged” in her correctional plan.
Some of the conditions imposed include that she not consume alcohol, not consume drugs, avoid certain persons, avoid persons connected to the victim, and not enter Niagara region.
She is being instructed to follow psychological counselling. She also cannot seek or maintain employment or volunteer activity that involves being in a position of trust or authority for anyone under the age of 18 unless supervised by an adult.
According to the board, Hill has been involved extensively in her Indigenous culture and attending ceremonies and counselling with elders.
“These culturally specific interventions, along with formal programs has allowed you to obtain the necessary skills and tools to deal with your emotions. You are now able to freely reach out for help, and to understand the warning signs of your anger,” the decision said.
An online petition titled Keep Rainbow Hill in Jail has been signed close to 3,000 times.