Mother of Saskatoon homicide victim shocked after Crown stays 1st-degree murder charges against 3 accused
Crystal Duquette says she didn't think anything could compare to the horror of a Saskatoon police officer knocking on her door and saying her daughter Melissa had been found murdered in a house on 33rd Street.
Then her phone rang last Friday, June 20. It was a Crown prosecutor.
"They said that the charges were stayed and that they were going to be released," Duquette said in an interview.
"My world fell apart again. My daughter was murdered again."
Saskatchewan Justice confirms that first-degree murder charges against Sundance Okemaysim, Kevin Keenatch and Kendall Ameech were stayed earlier this month. Specifics were not provided.
"After careful consideration, it was determined this case no longer met the prosecution standard," an official wrote in an email.
"Given this assessment, the prosecutor directed a stay of proceedings."
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Duquette does not know whether the trio are still considered suspects, or whether the investigation is now veering in a different direction. A stay means the Crown has one year to revive the charges, should the evidence warrant.
"I don't want to be that angry, bitter person. I can't," she said.
"But I am. I am angry, I'm hurt, I wanna scream at somebody, you know? Somebody that could make it better. But there's no making it better."
Melissa Duquette was 24 when she was shot in the basement of a house on 33rd Street in the Dundonald neighbourhood. It was in April 2024, some three months after Crystal said her daughter had pulled out of a gang lifestyle. It was a scary, hopeful time.
Melissa stayed in close touch with her family — she was the second oldest child — and planned on moving to Calgary to study welding. Crystal said Melissa would treat her siblings to Slurpees and fix things around the house. She had just started working in construction, building houses.
"I remember her waking up every morning, she would walk to work," she said.
"I still have her work boots."
Duquette said the weeks and months after her daughter's death were a blur of emotions. She remembers going to the house on 33rd Street.
"You could tell there was a murder there, it was a crime scene."
She learned from police that suspects had been arrested.
"I don't know if I could say I was happy but I felt like, OK, justice is going to be served," she said.
"They have three people, they're getting charged with first-degree murder. And I felt like, OK, somebody fought for my daughter, somebody did their best and, first-degree murder for my daughter, it's the best I could ask for from the justice system."
Today, she is left with pain and questions.
"I'm still in shock, it just hurts," she said. "Somebody getting charged with first-degree murder, and then them being released."
Did she get an explanation from police and the prosecutor?
"Not what I wanted to hear."
What did she want to hear?
"I don't know what I wanted to hear. I just didn't want to hear that the charges were stayed. It's unfair. [Prosecutors] need to do better."
Crystal and her other kids still visit Melissa's resting place at Woodlawn Cemetery.
"I go sit by her grave, my kids do the same thing. They'll get a meal and they'll go spend an hour or two there with her," she said.
"I tell her everything. I tell her about her brothers, I tell her how I'm feeling, who I talked to, and the people that talk about her."
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