Loretta Saunders' parents angry at police over handling of case

CTV Atlantic: Loretta Saunders' family feel misled The parents of a murdered university student have broken their silence and they’re angry at Halifax police.

The parents of a murdered Halifax university student have broken their silence and are now expressing anger at Halifax police.

Loretta Saunders’ parents say they can forgive the suspects charged in her death, but they can’t forgive the police who they feel deliberately misled them.

Mariam and Clayton Saunders say they are frustrated with the way the case was handled from day one and feel the justice system has failed their daughter.

“The law needs to change. From my own experience, her body could have been found probably the first day of the investigation, in the house,” says Mariam Saunders.

“As soon as they went into the apartment, they must have known she was gone. It don’t take a genius for that, where there had been struggles, especially when there was blood around the place,” says Clayton Saunders.

Loretta Saunders' body was found on a snow-covered median off the Trans-Canada Highway near Salisbury, N.B. on Feb. 26.

The 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador, who was studying at Saint Mary's University, had disappeared from Halifax on Feb. 13.

Police allege Saunders, who was three months pregnant, was killed the day she was last seen at a Halifax apartment she once shared with the two people accused in her death.

“They said they seen her coming out alive…when she went to get her rent they seen her coming out, the cops told me that, they seen her coming out alive, but the reality was that wasn’t true,” says Mariam Saunders.

She and her husband are still trying to come to terms with the loss of their daughter but say they have too many unanswered questions. They say they are raw, numb and drained from sleepless nights.

“I don’t sleep in the night, wondering if she was cut up, wondering if she was hurting, how long she was hurting,” says Mariam Saunders.

But Halifax police are defending their handling of the case. They say a liaison officer kept the family in the loop but some aspects of the file couldn’t be divulged, even to family members.

As for not launching a search once Saunders’ car was discovered near Windsor, Ont. on Feb. 18, police say that just wasn’t possible.

“Investigators with the integrated HRP/RCMP major crime unit, until the day Miss Saunders’ body was discovered, had no information as to where she was located,” says Const. Pierre Bourdages of the Halifax Regional Police.

“It’s a vast distance between Halifax and Windsor and we had no area to concentrate on.”

Bourdages says Saunders’ family hasn’t raised any concerns with police but says there is someone available to speak with them and is encouraging them to get in touch.

While they are furious with police and the justice system, Saunders’ parents say they are not angry at Victoria Henneberry and Blake Leggette, the couple charged with first-degree murder in Loretta’s death.

“I don’t hate those people. Maybe it’s because I’m not gone to that stage. I hope I don’t,” says Mariam Saunders.

“I don’t know why, deep down in my heart I don’t. I don’t even hate God.”

Leggette, 25, and Henneberry, 28, appeared at Halifax provincial court Thursday morning but the case was adjourned until April 9.

With files from NTV's Christina Marshall-Jeenes