Tisdale killer sent photos of bodies to children’s father
TISDALE, Sask. — A relative of a woman and three children murdered in Saskatchewan says their killer took photos of the bodies and sent them to the children’s father.
Tim Funk said Steve O’Shaughnessy was Latasha Gosling’s boyfriend and that he was controlling and jealous. Funk, who was Gosling’s cousin, said the man sent the photos to the cellphone of the children’s father.
The 27-year-old Gosling and her children, Jenika, 8, Landen, 7, and Janayah, 4, were all killed in the apparent murder-suicide.
Police say four bodies were found in a mobile home in Tisdale, a town of 3,200 northeast of Saskatoon.
After the murders on Tuesday, police say the killer took his sixmonth-old baby to a home in Prince Albert. O’Shaughnessy then allegedly killed himself early Wednesday morning and left the baby alive.
Gosling was separated from her husband, but not divorced, and had been with the new boyfriend for the past couple of years, Funk said.
He said the baby is Gosling’s youngest child and O’Shaughnessy was the father.
Gosling’s estranged husband often went to visit his children, who had been living most recently with Gosling and O’Shaughnessy in the rented mobile home in Tisdale.
O’Shaughnessy “didn’t like it at all” when the husband came around, Funk said.
On Tuesday, the husband received the gruesome photos in a text sent to his cellphone, Funk said. It was the day before the husband’s birthday.
“He sent them to him as a birthday gift.”
Funk said the husband then called the RCMP, who found the bodies early Wednesday in the mobile home.
Officers tracked a suspect to a home 130 kilometres away in Prince Albert.
According to online profiles, O’Shaughnessy was an avid hunter and dedicated oil worker.
O’Shaughnessy’s sister, Selina Siwy, said in a social media posting that people “don’t know the whole story behind the situation. We have been trying to get him help for years and we thought he was in the clear. We loved him then and we love him now.”
Funk has set up a page on the fundraising website gofundme. com to collect money for funerals and the surviving infant, who is currently being cared for by relatives. It had raised $41,000 as of Thursday afternoon. Funk struggles to describe what his family is going through.
“None of it makes any sense,” he said. He describes Gosling as a proud mother who would often drive her two daughters to dance recitals or take them to swimming lessons.
Gosling’s sister, Laura Gross, wrote on Facebook about how the children would jump on a trampoline and play on a swing set at their grandparents’ home
Landen loved to wrestle with his uncle and sit on the couch playing video games, she said. Jenika was grown up for her age and always wanted to look after cousins and change the littlest one’s diapers.
“Janayah, you were my little chipmunk,” said Gross. “Every time you talked, you sounded like one. I loved you for that.”
Raw emotions poured out as a grieving community gathered Wednesday night to remember Gosling and the children.
Mourners prayed for the family, friends, emergency responders, teachers and others, and especially for the killing spree’s lone survivor, a six-month-old baby.
“Last night, Tisdale lost its innocence,” one man said as he wiped away tears during the service at Tisdale Alliance Church. “We are trying to make sense of a senseless act.”
Tisdale might be best known as the hometown of comedian Brent Butt, who based his popular Corner Gas TV show on the community. Butt posted a message on Twitter calling the killings “very tragic and sad. Strange days.”