Accused in Manitoba cold case pleads guilty to manslaughter

The man accused of killing Crystal Saunders in 2007 has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a Winnipeg court.

A man charged in the 2007 killing of a Manitoba Métis woman described as “extremely vulnerable” has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Kevin Queau of Vancouver was charged by RCMP in 2024 with second-degree murder in the killing of 24-year-old Crystal Saunders. On Friday, court heard Queau enter a guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

The case had gone cold for years before a breakthrough came nearly a decade later, court heard, when investigators identified a DNA match that resulted in Queau becoming the main suspect.

According to an agreed statement of facts, an RCMP officer discovered Saunders’ naked and battered body on April 19, 2007, while checking on a trapline in the St. Ambroise area, northwest of Winnipeg. An autopsy of the body—found in a water-filled ditch—concluded that she died from strangulation.

Court heard Saunders had been involved in the sex trade and faced challenges with addiction and homelessness, factors that complicated efforts to investigate her disappearance.

The agreed statement of facts said she was last seen by two Winnipeg police officers getting into a vehicle on April 18. The officers, aware of her involvement in the sex trade, attempted to follow and stop the vehicle but lost it in Winnipeg’s North End.

Without a suspect, the investigation eventually fell under the jurisdiction of Project Devote, which reviews unsolved homicides of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Court heard that in 2015, the case experienced a breakthrough after Queau was convicted of sexual assault, overcoming resistance by attempting to choke, and aggravated assault in British Columbia, which led to his DNA being entered into a national bank. His matched unknown male DNA found on Saunders’ fingernails and neck, according to the agreed statement of facts.

As police had “exhausted traditional investigative techniques,” court heard RCMP embarked on a “Mr. Big” sting operation, which involves undercover officers befriending the suspect.

“Officers posed as members of a small but organized group of criminals who engaged in money laundering and the transport of unspecified illicit goods on a boat they operated in the area in and around Vancouver,” Crown attorney Michael Desautels read from the agreed facts.

The operation involved 52 scenarios from February 2023 to January 2024, with undercover officers socializing with him and inviting him to work his way up in the fictitious organization. It was also suggested to Queau that the fake organization could help deal with law enforcement issues if needed, court heard.

In the sting’s final scenario, undercover officers asked him about a 2007 killing in Manitoba and suggested that police were investigating him. One of the undercover officers suggested the group would help him, “but only if he were completely forthright with them.”

“Mr. Queau had promptly advised that he had killed a sex trade worker in Manitoba. He provided a detailed version of Ms. Saunders’ homicide,” Desautels read from the agreed-upon facts.

Court heard he picked Saunders up for a “sexual exchange,” drove to an alley, and began to “fool around” in the vehicle. He said Saunders then pulled out a knife and tried to rob him, and he choked her for two to three minutes before she died.

Queau also said he immediately drove two hours to a campground in St. Ambroise before stopping on a highway near Portage la Prairie and stripping Saunders of her clothing. He then drove down a road to the campground and disposed of her body in a ditch, court heard.

“A number of these details have never been disclosed by police and were proven independently from the confession,” Desautels said.

Queau then returned to his fraternity house in Winnipeg with her clothing and purse, which were burned in a backyard firepit, according to the agreed facts.

He drove back to Edmonton the next day, where he washed the vehicle down with bleach, court heard.

The agreed facts note that lawyers are expected to jointly recommend a 12-year sentence, minus time in custody.

Lawyers are also asking Court of King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond to recommend that he serve his sentence in British Columbia—a request Bond noted she has no authority to grant, as that decision rests with corrections officials.

“My family is there, as long as I have a recommendation,” Queau said.

Sentencing is expected on March 26.

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