LEE BONNEAU
The boy who killed six-yearold Lee Bonneau asked his friends not to tell on him.
REGINA — While a frantic search was going on for missing six-year-old Lee Allan Bonneau, another boy went to his buddies with a chilling story about witnessing a murder.
The 10-year-old seemed scared, but excited, an inquest into Bonneau’s death heard Thursday. The boy, who can only be identified as L.T., told friends a “big guy” had hit a little boy three times with a stick, pushed him down an embankment, then hit him with a rock.
Then his story changed — and L.T. admitted he had killed Bonneau.
“Don’t tell on me,” he told his friends. He was afraid of going to jail, he said.
When L.T. talked to RCMP the next day, he again blamed “a big person” for the crime and even provided a name. He told police he’d watched the man and asked what he was doing.
“I’m just killing a little boy,” L.T. said, purportedly quoting the man.
RCMP Cpl. Donna Zawislak, the primary investigator, is convinced there was no “big guy” — just two troubled boys.
“I believe L.T. was responsible for the death of Lee Bonneau,” she testified.
Less than three months after Social Services placed him in its care, the six-yearold was found critically injured after going with his foster mom to a bingo on the Kahkewistahaw First Nation on Aug. 21, 2013. Foster mother Mary Ramstead saw him step outside to pet a dog around 8 p.m. and initiated a search minutes later when he didn’t return, she said.
He was found by searchers some two and a half hours later in a secluded area about a kilometre from the hall.
Bonneau died minutes after midnight, despite repeated resuscitation efforts.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Shaun Ladham said Bonneau died from “blunt force trauma,” mostly to the left side of his head. He had multiple skull fractures — one on top of another, the doctor said. Such fracturing of the skull “does not happen easily,” he said.
While L.T. was too young to be charged, Zawislak said she approached the homicide investigation as she had some 40 to 50 others before in her 14-year career — but this was a first, given the killer’s age.
Dressed in baggy, adultsized white coveralls because his clothes had been seized as evidence, L.T. lay asleep, resting his head on his mom, when Zawislak went into the interview room to tell them Bonneau was dead.
Deemed a child at risk and in need of protection, he was placed in the care of Yorkton Tribal Council Child and Family Services.
In a “forensic child interview” the next day, L.T. couldn’t sit still for more than a minute at a time, making it tough to get his story, Zawislak said. He insisted he had witnessed a murder, not committed it, and blamed a nosebleed for the blood on his shoes and clothes. He did admit playing with Bonneau, whom he described as “crazy in the head.”
The inquest heard that at that point in time, L.T. was awaiting a psychological assessment because he’d been hearing voices.
He was also previously known to RCMP for incidents ranging from spraypaint mischief to a break-in that culminated in the killing of a pregnant dog and her pups, which had been removed from the adult dog’s body, Zawislak said.
The man L.T. blamed for Bonneau’s killing was investigated and ruled out.
Traces of Bonneau’s blood and DNA were found on L.T.’s clothes and shoes. A stick, broken in three pieces, was found by Bonneau’s feet and also had the boy’s blood on it, as did a rock.
Social Services did its own internal child death review. Quality assurance manager Arlene Bisskey said good decisions were made about Bonneau’s care, but policies for case work weren’t always met, so three recommendations were made and acted on to fix those issues.
“The service delivery was not perfect,” she said, adding the internal review found the problem was more an issue of paperwork.