'She should still be here,' Kneebone's mother says as P.E.I. pair sentenced to 3 years
Donald Roy Holmes, Samantha Jemima Parlee-Buell sentenced on 2 charges
A man and woman from southeastern P.E.I. have been sentenced to three years in jail for actions they took after the death of 27-year-old Summer Kneebone more than a year ago.
About 20 of Kneebone's family members and their supporters were at the Georgetown courthouse Thursday as Donald Roy Holmes and Samantha Jemima Parlee-Buell received their sentences.
Holmes and Parlee-Buell are both from Pembroke, just north of Murray Harbour. They were arrested in New Glasgow, N.S., more than a month after Kneebone was last seen alive in Charlottetown on Aug. 7, 2023.
At the time, police said the two had been arrested under Section 182(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada on charges of interfering with a dead body or human remains.
Holmes and Parlee-Buell pleaded guilty to those counts in October, in addition to one charge each of misleading police.
Before Thursday's sentencing, court heard that they initially lied to police about how much they knew about Kneebone's whereabouts after she was reported missing.
The pair eventually admitted to investigators that Kneebone had died while she was with them, and that they had concealed her body in a rural area northeast of Cardigan.
'She should still be here'
On Thursday, Judge Nancy Orr accepted a joint sentencing recommendation from the Crown and defence lawyers.
Both Holmes and Parlee-Buell were sentenced to three years for interfering with human remains as well as six months for misleading police. They will serve those sentences concurrently.
They had spent 419 days in jail already, so each was credited for 628 days of pre-trial custody, which will be subtracted from their sentence.
After serving their jail time, the pair will be on probation for three years. They will also have to provide a DNA sample and are prohibited from contacting members of Kneebone's family.
Four of Kneebone's family members read victim impact statements in court Thursday, including her mother, stepmother and two of her brothers.
Kneebone's mother, Irma Hughes, spoke about how she looks for her daughter everywhere and still waits for her calls.
"I still look for her because she should still be here," Hughes said.
"On her headstone there is a date, but it doesn't seem real, because we didn't get to say goodbye… I will never get to say goodbye to my daughter."
Summer deserved better. Her beautiful boys deserved better.— Joey Richards, Summer Kneebone's brother
Hughes said she was also speaking on behalf of Kneebone's three young sons.
"I don't think they realize yet the permanency of the situation they are in," she said. "This is life sentence for them, a life without their mother."
Hughes said she even went as far as recording a video plea to the accused in an effort to find her daughter after she vanished. She believes that's what convinced Parlee-Buell to lead police to Kneebone's body.
"I will never forget the words, 'We found Summer,'" Hughes recalled, before her relief turned to anguish: "My beautiful baby girl was gone."
Joey Richards, Kneebone's brother, addressed Holmes and Parlee-Buell directly in his statement.
He spoke of his own daughter being born on Aug. 31 last year. Instead of capturing every happy moment in the hospital, the family was waiting for news from the police about his sister.
"She was actually in the cold, in the rain, in the woods... thanks to your horrific actions," Richards told Holmes and Parlee-Buell. "Summer deserved better. Her beautiful boys deserved better."
Parlee-Buell did not speak when given the opportunity, but Holmes addressed Kneebone's relatives, saying: "I apologize to the family, community and the province for my actions."
'Their lives will continue'
Kneebone's sister Kayla Richards didn't read her victim impact statement Thursday, but the Crown did quote from it.
Outside court, she told CBC News the family felt "defeated" about the length of the sentence, though she said no amount of jail time would feel like justice for what's been taken from them.
"We have to continue to go on without my sister and their lives will continue at the end of their sentence, so it's quite frustrating," she said. "Three years is not worth my sister's life."
Family members who spoke to CBC News after the sentencing expressed their thanks to Islanders and people in other provinces for their help in searching for Kneebone.
Vehicle found using surveillance footage
After Kneebone was reported missing, Charlottetown police asked homeowners and businesses to preserve any surveillance video they had from the evening of Aug. 7.
Social media posts begged for information on the young woman's whereabouts, including a post submitted to the Aboriginal Alert Facebook page that flags when Indigenous people have gone missing.
According to an agreed statement of facts read in court last month, surveillance footage from a Charlottetown business showed Kneebone getting into an SUV in the Value Village parking lot on Aug. 7.
Police weren't able to discern the vehicle's make, model or licence plate.
On Sept. 5, investigators determined that the vehicle they were seeking was registered to Holmes.
Holmes told police he had met Kneebone unexpectedly at Value Village and had given her a ride to a private residence on Queen Street.
The court heard that, in an effort to divert suspicion from themselves, Holmes and Parlee-Buell told police they didn't see Kneebone after that. But according to the agreed statement of facts, Kneebone had decided to go to Kings County with them.
At some point, Kneebone became unresponsive and died. The pair did not call the police.
The next day, Aug. 8, Holmes and Parlee-Buell drove Kneebone's body to DeGros Marsh in rural Kings County and buried her remains.
Police later got an anonymous tip that the two were in New Glasgow, N.S., trying to sell a vehicle matching the description of the SUV seen in the Charlottetown surveillance footage.
The two were arrested, and Parlee-Buell eventually led police to Kneebone's remains, on Sept. 15.
A Nova Scotia-based medical examiner could not determine how Kneebone died, but reported evidence of "numerous nervous system stimulant drugs" in her system.
"The contribution of these stimulant drugs to the cause of death cannot be ruled out," the medical examiner's report said.
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With files from Nicola MacLeod