The plan was to hurt — possibly kill — Hannah Leflar’s new boyfriend, and she would have been “collateral damage” if she attempted to interfere.
That and other new details have emerged for the first time in the murder case of 16-year-old Thom Collegiate student, Hannah Leflar.
An agreed statement of facts was made public Tuesday, documenting the events that had happened prior to the grisly murder of Leflar, and what had transpired after.
The “Agreed Facts” is a list of facts approved by both the Crown and the defence; parts of the statement had been redacted with identifying information removed.
In it, the document outlines how the victim, Leflar, and the youth (who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act) were in a romantic relationship.
The two were together for about roughly eight months between Oct. 2013 and May 2014. It was a serious relationship for the both of them.
Project Zombify
Leflar ended the relationship in May 2014, and according to the documents, the “young person had a very difficult time with the break up,” and had “great difficulty moving on.”
Sometime after Oct 2014, the youth hatched a plan to hurt, or possibly kill Leflar’s new boyfriend. The project was dubbed “Project Zombify.”
Project Zombify was to involve a number of people – all of whom shared the common goal of hurting or killing the new boyfriend.
The agreed facts reveal the youth had started to gather items for the group, including baseball bats, knives and masks to conceal their identities.
Duct tape was also used to cover an old pair of shoes – to conceal any identifiable foot prints.
According to the youth, if Leflar attempted to interfere with the plan they would “knock her out” in order to target the new boyfriend.
The youth had attempted to get chloroform, but unable to, purchased paint thinner instead to use as a substitute.
Project Zombify did not come to fruition. In late Oct. 2014, Leflar ended her relationship with her new boyfriend, and the youth did not feel the need to continue with the plan.
A few months later, the youth tried to convince Leflar that they should get back together – frequently messaging her on Facebook Messenger and through the X-Box communication feature.
Leflar had made it clear that she “wanted nothing to do with him” and that the youth should “leave her alone and to allow her to move on.”
During that time, the youth had a friend keep tabs on Leflar, signing up for the same driver training class as her.
This friend would use this as a way to feed information about her personal life to the youth.
January 2015
In January, the youth created a fake Facebook account, using it as a way to view Leflar’s Facebook profile and see her photos and posts.
On Jan. 11, 2015 – one day before her murder – the youth saw on Facebook a number of pictures and posts involving her and her current boyfriend.
These posts suggested to the youth that Leflar had moved on, and was “happy with someone else,” the document read.
“As the young person had held out hope of reconciliation with the victim, his discoveries on January 11th, proved to be a tipping point for him. At approximately 01:00 on January 12th, 2015, he made the decision that he was going to kill the victim later that day.”
In the early morning of Jan. 12, the youth sent a Facebook message to his friend and told him to bring a knife to school.
When the friend did not respond, the youth sent a similar message to another friend who eventually said “OK.”
The document showed the second friend had tried to get Leflar to hang out with him – something Leflar thought was “strange and suspicious.”
She sent a message to her current boyfriend, writing “random for him to ask to hang [when] we haven’t actually talked in a while… so no thanks,” and “there’s something sketchy about it, I don’t trust him.”
At around 2:50 p.m., the youth, carrying a backpack, picked up his friend from school and drove to Leflar’s house. Wearing latex work gloves, dark jeans and a camouflage jacket, the youth entered the house, wielding a knife in his right hand.
The youth then attacked Leflar, stabbing her at least ten times in the torso, arm, back and hands with the knife. The killer also cut himself during the attack.
A forensic pathologist found the cause of death to be a stab wound to the back of her head.
When the youth left, he grabbed the knife and Leflar’s cell phone, giving them to the friend to stash.
Later, the youth concocted a story that he had hurt his hand while hunting. The knife was stashed in the snow, near an abandoned farm yard.
Police arrested the youth a few hours later. He has been held in custody at the Paul Dojak Youth Centre ever since.
Day Two of Sentencing Hearing
Tuesday’s sentencing hearing had psychologist Elizabeth McGrath take the stand. A psychologist of almost 30 years, she testified that she had met with the youth four times, and had assessed him.
The Crown asked McGrath if the youth had ever said he was sorry about killing Leflar, McGrath said she believed he did.
“I think what I did was wrong and I regret it,” the youth told McGrath.
In her report, McGrath said the youth “thinks he won’t do this type of thing again.” The Crown argued it’s the language that that he had issue with, primarily with the word “think.”
Crown prosecutor Chris White said it’s the word “think” that he took to mean that the youth didn’t know himself if he would kill again.
McGrath said she could not say for certain whether the youth would or would not do this again.
The youth’s thoughts of suicide was also a focus of discussion on the stand. He had told McGrath that if he got the adult sentence, he would kill himself.
Tuesday ended with a cross-examination from the defence. The defence is arguing that he needs rehabilitation, highlighting a history of depression and dependency on others.
Wednesday resumes with testimony from a court ordered psychiatrist.
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