Man convicted of killing Indigenous woman in northern Alberta gets prison release

Nicole Gladue-Weesemat wailed after learning the man who stabbed her mother in northern Alberta a decade ago, then moved her dead body to Manitoba, is out of prison.

She says she has been overwhelmed with emotions since Corrections officials told her that 74-year-old Grant Sneesby was freed earlier this month after being granted statutory release.

"I haven't cried like this since [police] told us they found her," she said Friday from her home in Edson, Alta., west of Edmonton.

She said she misses her mother, Gloria Gladue, and has a hard time forgetting Sneesby's trial.

"I'm shaking because it's never easy talking about."

Gladue, a member of Bigstone Cree Nation, was last seen in Wabasca, Alta., in October 2015. The remains of the 44-year-old were found in rural Manitoba almost three years later.

Sneesby was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years after being convicted of manslaughter and causing indignity to a body. He was credited seven years for time in pretrial custody.

A December decision from the Parole Board of Canada says Sneesby's statutory release date was pending and that he was planning to live in a seniors home after his release. A spokesperson said it couldn't confirm the release due to privacy.

The law requires federal offenders who have served two-thirds of their sentence to be freed under statutory release.

The parole document says Sneesby told his trial he was drinking with Gladue when they got into an argument and he stabbed her in the chest three times with her knife.

Sneesby's lawyers argued Gladue was the initial aggressor.

The trial heard Sneesby wrapped Gladue's body in plastic, taped both ends and placed her in his trailer. He also destroyed her cellphone, burned her clothing and disposed of the knife.

He moved the trailer twice over the next two years before taking her body to a wooded area in Manitoba.

He told investigators that he last saw Gladue when she left his home to go to a wedding. Officers learned that no one saw her at the event.

In 2018, Sneesby admitted to undercover police officers that he killed Gladue and took them to the place he had left her body.

Nicole Gladue-Weesemat said it was difficult to sit through Sneesby's trial and now, with his release, she's worried again.

But she said it's important to talk about what happened to heal and remember her mother and other missing and murdered Indigenous women.

"We're trying our best to cope and honour her at the same time," she said.

"It's important to keep my mom's story going."