House of horrors: Shocking details emerge around gruesome western Manitoba double-murder

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This article was published 17/08/2017 (2441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Stunning details have emerged publicly for the first time about a double-murder mystery that rocked a tiny Manitoba town and led to months of rumours, speculation and police frustration.

Payton Saari, 24, has entered a surprise guilty plea to two counts of second-degree murder for the killings of 81-year-old Elsie Steppa and her nephew, 50-year-old Clarence Thornton. The bodies of the two victims were found in January 2013 inside and outside their residence in Ethelbert, a community of 312 people located 60 kilometres north of Dauphin.

An autopsy, along with an eventual confession from Saari, revealed they had actually been killed nearly a month earlier without anyone noticing.

The Free Press reviewed an audio transcript Thursday of the hour-long sentencing hearing which occurred in late July in Dauphin, in which Saari was given a mandatory life sentence and had his parole eligibility raised to 20 years (from 10) as part of a joint-recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers. In exchange, the original first-degree murder charges were stayed. Saari had been set to begin a jury trial in early September.

Queen’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk, upon hearing the facts of the case, called them “rather shocking.”

“They didn’t deserve to have their lives end this way,” Cliff Thornton, the brother and nephew of the two victims, told court in an impact statement.

Steppa and Thornton had moved from Ontario around 1994 and settled in the Polish-Ukrainian community, where neighbours told police they essentially kept to themselves. Both had previously worked in the food and hospitality industry, court was told.

Steppa was viewed an an eccentric who was nicknamed the “Cat Woman” by locals for all the strays she harboured, with as many as 20 at a time.

Thornton suffered from mental-health issues and was described by police as a “nuisance” in town, including several issues of causing a disturbance in which he would tell people he was Jesus. As well, Thornton had legally changed his name to “Harry Jones” upon arriving in Manitoba — apparently because he was wanted on an arrest warrant in Hamilton which remained on file, gathering dust, until the day he died.

On Jan. 19, 2013, RCMP got a call from concerned neighbours that Steppa and Thornton hadn’t been seen for several weeks. Officers went to the residence and found a side door open. They could also hear two dogs barking from inside a locked bedroom.

Police entered what turned out to be a literal house of horrors. Steppa was dead, with an axe sticking out of her skull. All her hair had been removed. She was missing her entire right arm, and part of her left arm, along with both ears. Her throat had been slit. A bloody hammer and saw were found near her body.

“As well, the walls were covered in religious and political ramblings,” Crown attorney Jay Funke told court.

Police immediately suspected her nephew may be involved, given that he was also missing and had a history of bizarre behaviour. But that theory was put to rest two days later when they found his body underneath a pile of pallets in the back of his pickup truck on the sprawling rural property which had been the subject of an intensive search. His throat had also been cut, and portions of his head and skull were missing. A bloody axe was also found in the snow near the truck.

Investigators determined it was a double-murder and interviewed more than 300 people — essentially the entire community. At first, there was no clear motive and no suspects. But all of that changed when the mother of Saari’s girlfriend called police about a conversation her daughter had with him.

Saari, also a resident of Ethelbert, had apparently told his girlfriend he’d gone to the local garbage dump with Thornton and that the pair got into a fight which ended with Saari hitting him in the head with a two-by-four. This chat happened prior to the discovery of the bodies.

Saari was quickly brought in for questioning by police and claimed he was just joking.

“He said he made it up to see how she would react if he confessed to a crazy criminal act. And that she had passed the test,” Funke said of Saari’s explanation.

But a major hole in his story occurred when he told investigators he’d spoken to Thornton only days before he was found dead — something police knew was impossible considering he’d been dead for weeks.

Police began to put more pressure on Saari but still didn’t have any solid evidence linking him to the killings. They asked him to take a polygraph. He initially accepted, then changed his mind.

“It was explained to him that if he passed the polygraph, the suspicions against him would be lifted and RCMP would be able to shift the focus away from him,” said Funke.

Saari then flip-flopped again, agreeing to take the test in early May 2013. But just two days before he was to come down for it, he called the lead investigator and told him “I think I will confess first.”

Saari then presented a detailed account of what happened way back on Dec. 22, 2012. He said Thornton asked him to help him unload some pallets at the dump and would pay him $20. But once at the site, he said Thornton “spazzed out” and uttered a slur about his First Nations background.

Saari said he grabbed a wooden plank and swung it at Thornton at least half-a-dozen times. With Thornton still moving around on the ground, he “decided to kill him because he didn’t want him to go to police and tell them what happened.” Saari grabbed a pocket knife and slit his throat, then described using a “mafia toss” to throw his dead body in the back of the truck.

Saari said he then returned to Thornton’s home, where he planned to go inside and steal some items he could pawn “so he could get high, as he figured he was going to get caught,” said Funke.

But as he returned, Steppa emerged from the house. Saari said he “panicked” and grabbed an axe, which he threw at her head. He then began hitting her with a saw and hammer, then said he slit her throat to “end her suffering.”

He then left the woman’s body in the bedroom with her two dogs, locked the door and left. The missing limbs, ears and hair are believed to be caused by her dogs, court was told. No explanation was given for the religious and political writings on the wall in the home.

Saari then spent the next three weeks driving around with Thornton’s vehicle — with his body still in the back underneath the pallets, court was told. He even went to Dauphin to pawn off some items he stole from the residence. Saari also put his bloody clothes in a garbage bag he stashed at his mother’s house. And he hid some of the stolen items in a suitcase at his girlfriend’s residence.

Police eventually got a warrant and recovered all of these items. They also had Saari on surveillance video at the Dauphin pawn shop. He was arrested and has remained in custody ever since. As a result of his guilty plea, Saari will be eligible to apply for parole by 2033.

Saari was born into an unstable First Nations family, which included a mother who abused drugs and alcohol while pregnant. There was plenty of Child and Family Services involvement and he was eventually seized and then adopted by the Saari family at the age of four. He also suffered psychological issues which had gone undiagnosed until after his arrest, including paranoid schizophrenia. However, it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t appreciate right from wrong and make a claim of being not criminally responsible, court was told.

“They didn’t deserve to have their lives end this way.” – Cliff Thornton, the brother and nephew of the two victims in an impact statement

At the time of his arrest, Saari was a member of something called the “Intention Experiment Community,” a website that boasts of being a place where “people may express their views about the New Age, science and quantum physics, spirituality, religion, healing and philosophy.”

Defence lawyer Todd Bourcier told court his client has expressed remorse about his actions, which can at least partially be explained by his fragile mental health which included hearing voices and believing people were plotting against him.

“In my view this undiagnosed schizophrenia contributed to this offence,” said Bourcier. Saari had no prior criminal record and no history of violence.

“I don’t want to downplay how shocking and serious this incident is, but it’s very much outside the character of Mr. Saari,” said Bourcier. “He clearly reacted to some comments made (by Thornton) and then panicked and overreacted and did a bunch of other terrible things that compounded.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikeoncrime