GUILTY Canada - Melonie Biddersingh, 17, found dead in suitcase, Vaughan, ON, 31 Aug 1994

[coco]

Anything further on this case? I believe the stepmother got out on $1000 bail?!!

 

[dotr]

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/1.3293119
"Elaine Biddersingh's trial on first-degree murder is set to begin in April 2016."
snip>

"Melonie was pretty and a happy girl. However that did not last long. After living in the Biddersingh home, Melonie's appearance changed," Tenhouse said. "Everton's attitude towards Melonie changed."

Melonie was made responsible for one of Everton Biddersingh's other children, who was a baby, was responsible for keeping the family's small apartment clean and was often not allowed to leave the home, court heard.

She was subjected to all kinds of abuse that included being kept in a closet, being placed in a barrel, having her head placed in a toilet which was flushed as punishment, being chained to the furniture at times, being kicked and punched and being deprived of food, Tenhouse said.

The girl was also called "the devil" and told she brought evil to the family, Tenhouse said.

"Melonie became thinner and weaker as a result of the abuse and food deprivation," Tenhouse said, adding that the teen, who was not given medical attention, told her older brother Cleon she wished she was dead.

Melonie died on Sept. 1, 1994, but Tenhouse told the jury they would be hearing two different versions of just how the teen died."

 

[Jasper52]

"The case was cold until December 2011, when Elaine Biddersingh “confessed to her pastor, Rev. Eduardo Cruz, that the female in the suitcase” was her husband’s daughter, Melonie, prosecutor Anna Tenhouse told the court in her opening statement."

Much more info at the link below.

Teen suffered greatly before being found in burning suitcase: Crown

 

[OkieGranny]

Everton Biddersingh's trial has begun; his wife Elaine's trial is scheduled for April 2016.

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/11/24/murder-trial-hears-about-teens-injuries

Melonie Biddersingh was so hobbled by a “constellation of injuries” she suffered that walking would have been “difficult, if not impossible,” a jury heard Tuesday.

Dr. David Chiasson was testifying at the trial of her father, Everton Biddersingh, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 1994 death of the abused, malnourished 17-year-old girl...

Earlier, court heard that Everton stomped, kicked and punched Melonie.

 

[mikkismom]

Closing arguments to begin in trial of dad accused in girl's burning death
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...gin-in-suitcase-murder-trial/article27990816/

 

[dotr]

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2...nts-of-melonie-biddersinghs-murder-trial.html


Guilty verdict urged in closing arguments of Melonie Biddersingh’s murder trial

“His reign of terror over Melonie ultimately resulted in her death,” said Crown prosecutor Mary Humphrey. “But for his actions or his omissions, Melonie would have been alive today. She would have been 38 years old.”

The case has taken two decades to get to trial because police weren’t able to identify Melonie’s remains for years until they received a tip that eventually led to the arrest of Biddersingh and his wife in March 2012.

Expert evidence indicated Melonie had 21 “healing fractures” in her ribs, spine, pelvis, right knee and left ankle that were caused three weeks to six months before her death.

It also indicated that Melonie had inhaled water shortly before her death.

A post mortem also found that Melonie had a piece of a vegetable inserted in her vagina when her body was found, court has head.

“One reasonable inference is there was a sexual assault,” Humphrey said. “A degrading and demoralizing assault on Melonie’s dignity.”

rbbm.

 

[musicaljoke]

What terrible tragedy. We have safe, crisis shelters for women, and child Help Lines, and 911 emergency services, but these desperately needy teens may not have known how to find help.

Let's hope that justice comes for Melonie and her brother.

 

[dotr]

Father convicted of first-degree murder in death of daughter found in suitcase


Everton Biddersingh is seen in this courtroom sketch.
http://www.cp24.com/news/father-con...death-of-daughter-found-in-suitcase-1.2727047

TORONTO -- A father accused of starving or drowning his teenaged daughter two decades ago was convicted of first-degree murder on Thursday after weeks of graphic and disturbing testimony about the horrific abuse she suffered before she died.

Jurors took about four hours to find an impassive Everton Biddersingh guilty, which carries a mandatory life sentence without parole for 25 years.

 

[Woodland]

The trial for the beast this murdering father is/was married to gets underway in a few months - have to believe she can look forward to the same outcome.

Elaine Biddersingh has been charged with the same offence but her trial won’t be held until next spring.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...verton-biddersinghs-murder-trial-dimanno.html

 

[redheart]

Great news!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/everton-biddersingh-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-1.3438450

Everton Biddersingh has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for the murder of his daughter Melonie.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/new...cle_b7a030b7-e720-54c2-9de3-842c6f12990d.html

A woman accused of killing her stepdaughter was the "mastermind" behind the horrific abuse suffered by the teen, whose body was found in a burning suitcase two decades ago, a Toronto jury heard Thursday.

In opening remarks to jurors, a Crown prosecutor said Elaine Biddersingh turned her stepdaughter's life into a nightmare when the girl was in her care.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/05/melonies-mom-testifies-at-biddersingh-trial

Mother to mother, Opal Austin glared at the woman finally on trial for murdering her daughter all those years ago.

She had entrusted Elaine Biddersingh with her two children, Melonie and Dwayne; she let her take them away with their father to Canada, with promises of giving them a better life than the one she could provide in her dirt house in a Jamaican ghetto.

Now both are gone.

Dwayne Biddersingh was just 13 when he died accidentally in Toronto on June 15, 1992. Two years later, when Melonie was 17, her mom was told that she’d run away to the U.S. Austin spent the next 18 years desperately trying to find her.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2691790/p...mothers-confession-that-led-to-break-in-case/

An Ontario pastor is telling the trial of a woman accused in the death of her stepdaughter about a confession that led to a break in a homicide case that lay unsolved for years.

 

[0101ABA]

Religious confessions highlighted in suitcase murder trial

The case of an Ontario pastor who reported to police information a parishioner shared with him during a church conversation has raised questions about the confidentiality of confessions to religious leaders.

Rev. Eduardo Cruz’s report helped police solve a seven-year-old murder case involving an unidentified body found in a burning suitcase in an industrial parking lot north of Toronto in 1994.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2693881/religious-confessions-highlighted-in-suitcase-murder-trial/

 

[dotr]

http://www.cp24.com/news/jury-finds...se-murder-of-melonie-biddersingh-17-1.2953508

TORONTO -- A woman accused of killing her 17-year-old stepdaughter more than two decades ago was found guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday.

Elaine Biddersingh had pleaded not guilty in the death of Melonie Biddersingh, whose charred, malnourished body was found in a burning suitcase in an industrial parking lot north of Toronto in 1994.

The conviction carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
Biddersingh, who had been out on bail throughout the trial, shook her head slightly after a juror read the verdict and picked up a bible she'd brought in with her

 

[dotr]

http://www.citynews.ca/2016/09/19/e...-parole-for-16-years-in-stepdaughters-murder/

Calling the treatment of her stepdaughter “cruel, callous, relentless, and ultimately lethal,” a judge sentenced Elaine Biddersingh to life in prison with no parole for 16 years on Monday.

Biddersingh was smiling and shaking her head as Justice Ian MacDonnell read the sentence, saying that Biddersingh neither accepted her role in her stepdaughter’s death, nor showed any remorse for it.

 

[Wondergirl]

http://www.citynews.ca/2016/09/19/e...-parole-for-16-years-in-stepdaughters-murder/

I say throw away the key for both her and her despicable husband.

Absolutely appalling.

 

[MrsThreadgoode]

A recent W5 documentary segment about Melonie Biddersingh.

https://youtu.be/H9-5CNI8Pbg



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[jessica-]

Ont. court upholds father's murder conviction in death of Melonie Biddersingh

Ontario's highest court has upheld a Toronto man's murder conviction in the death of his teenage daughter, whose emaciated remains were found in a burning suitcase more than two decades ago.

Everton Biddersingh was found guilty in 2016 of first-degree murder the death of his 17-year-old daughter Melonie.

He was later sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, which is the automatic sentence for first-degree murder.

Biddersingh challenged the conviction on several grounds, all related to evidence regarding what caused Melonie's death.

He argued, among other things, that the judge who presided over his trial erred in allowing jurors to consider a suggestion that he starved his daughter to death.

But in a unanimous ruling released last week, the Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed Biddersingh's appeal, saying the judge was not mistaken in leaving that option with the jury.

“In this case, there was both lay and medical evidence which could have supported an inference that Melonie's death was caused by her extreme state of starvation, whether following a near-drowning event or independent of any drowning,” the appeal court said.

The three-judge panel also rejected Biddersingh's suggestion that the judge erred in allowing one of the experts who examined Melonie's body to provide an alternate cause of death should jurors disregard his evidence on her probable drowning.

It further dismissed his argument that the judge should not have allowed jurors to consider the expert's explanation on how microscopic plants that were found in Melonie's sinus and bones - which indicated a potential drowning - could have been transferred inside the family's apartment.

Prosecutors alleged Biddersingh drowned or starved Melonie, who weighed 50 pounds and had 21 broken bones at various stages of healing when she died in 1994. A vegetable was also found in her vagina.

They alleged the teen could also have died while her father unlawfully confined her in the small Toronto apartment they shared with her stepmother, Elaine Biddersingh.


The Crown alleged Biddersingh then crammed his daughter's body into a suitcase, took it to a remote area north of Toronto and set it on fire.

Court heard he then told friends and relatives, including Melonie's mother in Jamaica, that the teen had run away from home. He never reported her missing.

Police weren't able to identify Melonie's remains until they received a tip that eventually led to Biddersingh's arrest in 2012.

The trial heard Melonie, who came to Canada from Jamaica with her brothers in 1991 to live with their father, was never allowed to leave the apartment.

Jurors heard the girl was treated like a slave, chained to furniture for hours and stuffed in a small closet, or locked out on the balcony.

One witness said Biddersingh would kick Melonie and hold her head in the toilet while flushing.

Defence lawyers argued at trial there was no evidence Biddersingh had killed Melonie, and pointed the finger at his wife instead.

Elaine Biddersingh told her pastor about Melonie's death in 2011, which allowed police to identify her remains and lay charges in the case.

She was also charged with first-degree murder, but after being tried separately from her husband, was found guilty of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 16 years.

Elaine Biddersingh also challenged her conviction. That case is ongoing.

........

Father and step-mother tried to appeal their convictions. May they both rot! R.i.p Melonie.

 

[dotr]

This is a desperately sad story.
Sept 13 2021

• 
  Melonie Biddersingh is shown in a Toronto Police Service handout photo. (The Canadian Press/HO-Toronto Police Service)

Retired Toronto detective who cracked 'girl in the suitcase murder' reveals what led to arrest
''TORONTO -- The retired Toronto homicide detective who solved the horrific "girl in the suitcase murder" says he's still haunted by the abuse that ultimately led to her death and maybe that of her younger brother.

The murder of 17-year-old Melonie Biddersingh is something retired Toronto Homicide Detective Steve Ryan says he still thinks about everyday and wonders if Melonie's brother was murdered too.

Now CP24's crime analyst, the 30-year police veteran, looked back on the dreadful murder and offered his theory as to what happened to Melonie’s younger brother Dwayne, whose fall from a 22nd floor balcony was ruled death by suicide''

"Once she said 'I didn't know anything,' I knew in my mind 21 broken bones that were healing that were never seen by a doctor, never reported and the doctors told me before that interview that Melonie would have been in such excruciating pain and she could not move she would have been basically immobile because her pelvis was broken, her legs were broken her ankle was broken and her vertebrae was broken. So when Elaine says to me I didn't know this was going on, you got to call B-S on that one."

While neither confessed to their roles in Melonie's severe abuse, once the interviews were complete, Ryan was sure they were responsible for the child's death.

"I actually went outside of 52 division, that’s where those interviews were done, and I stood on the corner of Dundas and University and I found myself almost gasping for breath for about 15 minutes because I could not believe I just came face to face with those two who I consider monster."

 

[dotr]

Jan 12 2022
Ontario court upholds Biddersingh’s murder conviction in death of 17-year-old stepdaughter - Toronto | Globalnews.ca
''TORONTO — Ontario’s top court has upheld a Toronto-area woman’s murder conviction in the death of her teenage stepdaughter, rejecting the argument that she should have been granted a judge-alone trial due to negative publicity surrounding the case.

Elaine Biddersingh was convicted in 2016 of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Melonie Biddersingh, and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 16 years.

Melonie’s emaciated body was discovered in a burning suitcase in a parking lot north of Toronto in 1994, and her body remained unidentified until 2011, when Elaine Biddersingh told her pastor the girl had died after being confined and deprived of food and medication.''