HALIFAX -A former roommate of Loretta Saunders’ alleged murderer is still wrapping his head around the crime she is accused of committing.
Jason Crawford, 38, is from Deep River, Ont. and first met Victoria Henneberry, 28, about 10 years ago.
Henneberry and Blake Leggette, 25, are accused of murdering the Halifax university student in February then discarding her body in a New Brunswick highway median.
READ MORE: Calls for inquiry at vigil for murdered Halifax woman Loretta Saunders
“When I first saw the picture of her and Blake as suspects, I was shocked,” Crawford said.
Crawford said he plans to see what the outcome of the trial is before he passes judgment but he still cannot reconcile the woman he used to know with the woman he saw coming out of the sheriff’s van.
READ MORE: Tensions high in Loretta Saunders murder case
- Henneberry wore a white jacket and kept her hood on as she tried to shield her face from media.
Crawford said he first met Henneberry through friends.
“We hung out quite a bit,” he said. “She didn’t have a lot of friends.”
Crawford admits he does not know much about Henneberry’s past other than that she told him she had dropped out of school and was trying to find a job.
“She was having a hard time and was really trying to get her life back to normalcy.”
“Her personality was very open. She seemed like she was…a very people person,” he said, adding he felt she was often misunderstood.
He then offered her a place to stay when she was kicked out of her apartment.
“The person she was staying with…was getting fed up with how he was being taken advantage of. I said, ‘If you need a place, come stay with me. I’ll try to help you out a little bit more’.”
Henneberry moved into Crawford’s apartment and ended up sleeping on his couch for about six months.
He said she was fairly social.
“Near the end, she had gotten more friends. They would come down, pick her up and leave. While she lived with me, she didn’t go out too much,” he said.
He also remembers that she often spoke her mind.
“She was very opinionated. I admit that when she wanted her way, she did what she could to get her way. If she didn’t like you, she would tell you. If she liked you, she was like you best friend,” he said.
“Looking back, I admit she would tell you what you wanted to hear if that makes sense.”
Crawford did not think Henneberry had a temper or violent tendencies.
“Her and I had a couple confrontations, with her being unemployed and not having the money. I couldn’t always afford to, for example, get her cigarettes. She would get very, very moody,” he said.
“There was a couple times when she would just flip out a little bit and get mad but she would calm down afterwards.”
He said that after Henneberry moved out of town, they kept in touch for a short while.
But he did not hear from her or about her until the news broke last month that she was a suspect in Saunders’ disappearance and murder.
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