Accused killer said toddler in heaven, trial hears

Man charged with three murders told police about cannibalism and dismemberment

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — A man charged with killing a two-yearold girl, along with her father and a woman, told police the little one was in heaven, but he didn’t know where God had put her body.

An Amber Alert had been issued for Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette when police spoke with Derek Saretzky in September 2015. They believed he was a suspect in her disappearance and in the slaying of Terry Blanchette, whose bloodied body was found in his home in Blairmore, Alta.

Saretzky, 24, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of firstdegree murder in the deaths of Hailey, her 27-year-old father, and 69-year-old Hanne Meketech, whose body was found in her mobile home in nearby Coleman, Alta., five days earlier.

Some jurors covered their faces in horror Thursday as they heard a video confession that involved cannibalism and dismemberment in the deaths of the father and his little girl.

In the lengthy video interview with police, Saretzky initially denied that he knew the location of the little girl except that she was in heaven and that he didn’t “know where God put her body.”

Saretzky also described hearing the voice of the devil, who he said had taunted him into doing bad things for years.

Asked by RCMP Staff-Sgt. Mike McCauley if Hailey was alive or dead, Saretzky eventually answered the question.

“The devil made me turn her into ashes,” he said, sobbing.

Saretzky explained that he went to the Blanchette home, walked through an unlocked door and hit the victim with a crowbar before cutting his throat.

“I smashed him. He was laying in bed. He didn’t feel it,” Saretzky said.

He said he had planned to drink Blanchette’s blood but was unable to because “I didn’t drain enough.”

He told the officer he grabbed Hailey from her crib and took her to a campsite where he kept her in a van for two or three hours until he had the fire high enough in the firepit.

Saretzky said he choked her with a shoelace and dismembered her after she was dead.

“I ate a piece of her heart to try and make mine strong. I drank her blood. I drank most of it.”