Jennifer Teague
Jennifer Teague (June 30, 1987 – September 8, 2005) [1] was a teenager who lived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in the district of Barrhaven. She was murdered during the early morning hours of September 8, 2005.
Jennifer Teague | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 30, 1987 |
| Died | September 8, 2005 (aged 18) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
Murder
On September 8, 2005, Jennifer was going home from a late-night shift at Wendy's, when she disappeared. Teague had met up with some friends at around 1 am in Mac’s Milk, a local convenience store on Tartan Dr. and Jockvale Rd. after her evening shift. It was when she started walking home alone in the early morning hours that her murderer, Kevin Davis abducted her.[2] An extensive search was conducted by many local residents across much of the Barrhaven area and the disappearance made headlines across Canada. On September 18, her body was discovered by an off-duty police officer, dumped near a secluded parking lot leading to the Lime Kiln Trail off Moodie Drive in the Stony Swamp Conservation Area.[3]
On June 9, 2006, a resident of Barrhaven named Kevin Davis, a 24-year-old pizza maker, stripped naked and rushed out onto Fallowfield Road, screaming in the middle of speeding traffic that he killed Jennifer Teague. He was almost hit by an oncoming car as he repeated several times "I killed Jennifer Teague." He was later charged with first-degree murder. During a brief visit at an Ottawa area hospital, he later denied the facts. However, a few days after he approached an off-duty officer leaving a mall and admitted his actions. The officer then called Ottawa Police and Davis was arrested without incident shortly after.[4] In a news conference and statement made on the Ottawa Police website, it was revealed that Davis had ingested psilocybin (magic mushrooms), the day he confessed to the murder.[5]
The reason for the murder of Jennifer Teague, 18, was revealed by her murderer Kevin Davis, 24, in a statement provided by him in a court appearance. Her teary-eyed family and friends had trouble in the courtroom listening to the statement being made. Davis had revealed that he’d been searching for a young woman to rape and murder for a week before he had found Teague. He said he wanted a younger victim because she would be easier to control. Finding Jennifer Teague in the early morning hours after she was coming home from an evening shift was a completely random opportunity. Once he had Teague in his possession, he was unable to go through with the original plan which included raping her. Instead, he strangled her in his home, where his mother was sleeping in the next room, and disposed of her body near a trail on Moodie Drive, in the suburb of Barrhaven. It was described in the statement that Davis’ hatred towards women played an important role in the reason behind the murder. There were also many other underlying reasons for the murder and abduction of Teague, such as his general anger towards the world, which was influenced by being fired from his job at Home Depot and the death of his pet cat.[6]
Trial of Kevin Davis
On January 12, 2008, the same day that Chris Myers, the suspect in the 2003 murder of Ardeth Wood (a case that was compared often to the Teague case) pleaded guilty, Davis had announced his intentions on pleading guilty on murder charges at the start of his trial which was scheduled for January 25, 2008.[7][8] He was then sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years. Prior to the announcement of the sentence, Davis testified about the course of events in which he abducted Teague on September 8 near the Via Rail train tracks near Jockvale Road and committed the murder at his home a few hours later before leaving the victim's body at the Conservation Area 5 kilometers away just before dawn.[1]
In the trial, it was revealed that Davis thought that he deserved his punishment of life in prison. He revealed that if he could, he would give up his life in order to bring back the life of the young teenage girl. It is an extremely rare case for an individual to plead guilty to first degree murder. Teague's father said he did not see any sincerity in the statement made by Davis, however her mother had said that she was relieved by the guilty plea because it meant that the family and friends of Teague did not have to go through the hardships of a trial.[6]
Aftermath
Teague's killing thrust the Barrhaven community into a sense of shock. For 10 months, residents explained how they lived in fear because they did not know which one of their neighbours could have killed the 18-year-old girl. Residents were scared for the lives of their children and their friends during these months the killer was running free. Several individuals living in the Barrhaven area told news channels that they did not let their loved ones walk home alone during the night. They would offer them drives or walk with them themselves.[9]
Councillor of Barrhaven, Jan Harder made a statement saying that the community should learn from the experience. People will look at their next door neighbours more closely. They will look at people, whom they are not aware of more closely, pay more attention.[5]
Nine years after the murder of Teague, her father and stepmother are writing a book about how to cope with similar tragedies as this one. They are advocating for individuals who have been murdered and forgotten, saying that everyone remembers the murder but they forget about the victim and that there should be justice for them as well. After Jennifer Teague's death, her family received counselling, up-to-date information from police officers and anything else that would prepare them for the trial. However this isn't something that every family who has lost someone to murder receives, so Teague's stepmother is working on proposing a bill of victims' rights. With the help of Victims of Violence, a charity providing support to victims of violent crimes as well as support to their families, the Teague's have been pushing for the elimination of the "faint hope clause." It was a bill which was repealed in 2011, that allowed murderers to pursue early parole after only 15 years in prison.[10] The Teague case was featured on the CBC crime series The Detectives on September 20, 2018.[11]
References
- 'I killed Jennifer'
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-post-photos-of-potential-witnesses-in-teague-killing-1.614695
- Police confirm body of missing Ottawa teenager found
- 'I killed Jennifer'
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/neighbours-stunned-after-ottawa-man-charged-in-teen-s-slaying-1.586319
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/jennifer-teague-s-killer-heads-to-prison-after-pleading-guilty-1.712530
- http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2008/01/09/4759727-sun.html
- Ottawa man to plead guilty to murdering Jennifer Teague: lawyer
- http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/1109905/family-of-murdered-teen-jennifer-teague-urges-justice-for-the-victim/
- Laucius, Joanne (September 20, 2018). "'This could be your daughter, your wife': How Jennifer Teague's disappearance shook Ottawa".