A man who admitted to dismembering and burning the body of a Beaumont mother in 2023 has been ordered to serve prison time.
The Alberta Court of Appeal ruled Joseph Skelly’s original sentence wasn’t enough.
Back in March 2024, Joseph Donald Skelly received a two-year conditional sentence. Twelve months would be served under full house arrest followed by 12 months with a curfew. A 12-month probation period would have followed.
But now he’s been ordered to turn himself in for jail time.
Skelly pleaded guilty in December to causing indignity to a dead body in the death of Treasa Lynn Oberly.
Oberly was reported missing on July 16, 2023. She was found dead eight days later.
Oberly’s boyfriend and father of her child, Kenneth Skelly, was charged with second-degree murder.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Kenneth arrived at Joseph’s home with Oberly’s remains. Court document shows Joseph Skelly, who worked as a butcher, dismembered and burned Oberly’s body and placed the ashes in a recycling bin.
The next day he drove her remains to a rural property near Whitecourt and dumped them.
The Crown appealed the conditional sentence and argued prison time was warranted.
In this decision, the court sided with the Crown, calling the original sentence “demonstrably unfit.”
It adds the sentence had to reflect the impact of the crime on the victims, and denunciation in the sense previously outlined of what the respondent did.
“It also had to deter other like-situated offenders from committing similar crimes. It had to reflect the respondent’s moral responsibility for what he did,” the decision read.
The court then ordered Skelley to turn himself in to serve a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He’s been given credit for time already served. He has until Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. to report to prison.
Family friend Tracey McCleave described the appeal process as tedious and emotional.
“The emotional toll has been big. It’s been a rollercoaster. Every time we go to trial, every time we have to see Joseph. Or if we have to see Ken. Or have to hear the details of what happened. You have to shake your head at every time and you have to go back into the fight,” McCleave told Global News.
She says she’s elated to hear the new ruling and believes justice was finally served.
“We were on pins and needles waiting for that decision to come in. We were a little nervous about it,” she explained.
“I’m sure Treasa is looking down on us right now saying, ‘Thank you, thank you you guys. You did it. You did it. You didn’t let go.’ We got justice that we were looking for.”
McCleave says although she would have wanted a longer prison sentence, she says she’s glad he’s still able to get some jail time.
Despite the emotional rollercoaster in courts, she says the most difficult part through this process is seeing Oberly’s three-year-old son without his immediate family.
“This is the most traumatic thing any young child can experience,” she explained.
“Her son lost his mother, his father, his grandfather which was his immediate family in the area,” she added.
McCleave says Oberly’s family and friends will now shift their focus from Joseph Skelly to Kenneth Skelly. Kenneth’s case is scheduled to be heard in late 2025.
— with files from Jasmine King and Caley Gibson, Global News