- 4 months ago
Just days away from a family Easter dinner in 2019, a young single mom and her 22-month-old daughter disappeared. Days passed, and their loved ones grew increasingly concerned, eventually contacting the police. Investigators said it appeared all footprints of life had come to a sudden end.
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00:00This program is rated 14 plus and contains scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
00:08Viewer discretion is advised.
00:15They've been reported missing and that was very unlike Jasmine to not be in contact.
00:20Jasmine was a really good mother.
00:21That's all she wanted to be in life as a mother and she and Aaliyah were completely inseparable.
00:27All signs of life.
00:30Stopped.
00:31How's it going?
00:32Says she's with her sister.
00:33You know, in my experience as an investigator, it wasn't adding up.
00:37It's starting to look very bad.
00:39Things go from I hope she's alive to I hope we can find her.
00:44To know that someone has killed a 22-month-old child.
00:49It's crazy.
00:50But you're saying that is not you?
00:52Of course not.
00:53You're dealing with a very volatile man.
00:56My opinion?
00:57Yeah, he's cold and he's a monster.
01:03We are trying to move forward and think of only positive things and happy memories and keep their spirits close.
01:12Welcome to Crime Beat.
01:19I'm Anthony Robart.
01:20When a young mother and her 22-month-old daughter miss a series of family and work engagements, loved ones grow concerned.
01:27Police worked to retrace Jasmine Lovett's movements only to learn that her footprints of life had come to an abrupt and shocking end and there was no sign of them anywhere.
01:40Here now is Nancy Hicks with Vanished.
01:45In the spring of 2019, a young Calgary mom was planning Easter celebrations.
01:55That week, Jasmine Lovett and her 22-month-old daughter Aaliyah Sanderson went to a nearby grocery store in the southeast community of Cranston.
02:10They were captured on CCTV using the self-checkout on Monday, April 15th at 3.06pm.
02:19That was the last time the mother and daughter were seen together alive.
02:25On Good Friday, Jasmine's sister texted her.
02:29When there was no answer, she reached out on Facebook and later knocked on her door.
02:36Again, there was no answer.
02:41Two days later, on Easter Sunday, Jasmine's mother knocked on her door.
02:48When no one answered, she left a note for Jasmine to call her.
02:52But that call never came.
02:57On April 23rd of 2019, the Calgary Police Service received a missing persons report in regards to Jasmine Lovett and her daughter Aaliyah Sanderson, who was 22 months old at the time.
03:10They had been reported missing by their mother as not being heard of for seven or eight days at the time.
03:15And that was very unlike Jasmine to not be in contact.
03:18According to Calgary Police, 99% of missing persons cases are resolved within 24 hours when the people are located.
03:30However, it was quickly apparent to investigators that this case might be one of those rare 1%.
03:37I see Jasmine and Aaliyah just leaving the Sobeys on the 15th.
03:49The homicide unit was brought in to investigate.
03:54We focus right away on interviewing family members, exes, anyone that might be able to provide us information to find our missing persons.
04:03Just trying to find out last time they spoke to them, who are some of her friends and associates, anybody else that we could talk to that might have some information that will, I guess, get us further to finding out where they might be.
04:17So one of the first people we speak to is Aaliyah's dad. He's been estranged from Aaliyah. Unfortunately, he can tell us a lot of details, but we are able to rule him out as being involved at this time.
04:29I remember interviewing the sister initially in our police car, and she was very emotional about how uncharacteristic this was for Jasmine to not have any communication with them.
04:40That's when police learned Jasmine had a roommate.
04:44So we learned that Jasmine's a single mom, but she is in a relationship with Robert leaving, who actually lives at the same residence as Jasmine.
04:52We learned that Robert's from the UK. They met on a dating app. And we also learned that Robert had recently been unemployed.
05:03The relationship between Jasmine and Robert was always a little bit questionable as to the exact status of what that relationship was.
05:13There were some family members that thought it was more of a roommate situation, and there were some family members that thought for sure that they're intimate and they were a couple.
05:23If you're living with somebody and those people go missing, we're going to need to talk to you to find out what you know.
05:28Whether you're involved or not, we need to know what you know because you're the most important person and most important piece of that puzzle.
05:39On April 24, 2019, more than a week since any of her family had heard from Jasmine, police went to the Cranston townhouse.
05:49Interactions with Robert Leeming were captured by several officers' body-worn cameras.
06:02How's it going?
06:04Says she's with her sister.
06:06Hmm.
06:08Well, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
06:11All right.
06:12Well, we're just going to take a quick look around.
06:13We need to have a look.
06:14So, sir, you're Robert?
06:15Yeah, I am.
06:16Okay.
06:17So...
06:18I've been drinking and smoking a lot, so...
06:19Okay.
06:20Okay.
06:21So...
06:22She's not with her sister.
06:24What do you mean?
06:25What do you mean?
06:26Well, that's the reason that we're here.
06:27I think we're here.
06:28Because the family's calling us saying we haven't heard from our daughter and our sister.
06:31Yeah, that makes sense.
06:32Okay.
06:33That makes sense.
06:34Okay.
06:35That makes sense.
06:36Okay.
06:37That makes sense.
06:38Yeah.
06:39Okay.
06:40Why does that make sense?
06:41Because I haven't heard from her either.
06:42This isn't just like a roommate.
06:43This is your girlfriend.
06:44No, it's more roommate than girlfriend.
06:45Okay.
06:46Okay.
06:47Okay.
06:48Okay.
06:49Okay.
06:50Okay.
06:51Okay.
06:52Okay.
06:53Okay.
06:54Okay.
06:55Okay.
06:56Okay.
06:57Okay.
06:58Okay.
06:59Okay.
07:00Okay.
07:01Okay.
07:02Okay.
07:03Okay.
07:04Okay.
07:05Okay.
07:06Okay.
07:07Okay.
07:08Okay.
07:09Okay.
07:10For the most part, Mr. Leeming's denying kind of any relationship and playing just straight
07:15up roommate.
07:16Knows her, friends with her, friends with Aliyah, but doesn't keep track of her comings and goings.
07:24To patrol, it seemed like there was a likelihood he could just be a roommate and he's got a girlfriend.
07:32So obviously with that information, we look and we have to speak to the girlfriend who actually
07:35confirms and corroborates that she did spend time with Mr. Leeming.
07:40Okay.
07:41So the last time that you saw Jasmine was when?
07:43Thursday.
07:44Okay.
07:45And at that time, you guys were a-okay or fighting or what was the status?
07:53I would say in the air.
07:57So what makes you believe that she's with her sister?
08:00She told me that she was going to go and spend Easter with them on Tuesday.
08:06Initially, we were looking at the possibility of Jasmine running away.
08:12We did know the relationship, at least according to family, did have some issues.
08:16So we have to keep that in mind that maybe this was a personal decision of hers just to leave and basically cut off all ties so she couldn't be found.
08:25If that was true, investigators felt they'd find some sort of footprints of life.
08:31It's not normal for people, especially in today's culture, to just not be in touch with something, not be online somehow.
08:39And for that to all stop is really the only reason would be your phone's dead and that doesn't last that long.
08:49So basically the week prior to Jasmine being reported, all signs of life stopped.
09:14Welcome back to Crime Beat.
09:16The police worked tirelessly to find a young mother and her 22-month-old daughter.
09:21A quick search of her home came up empty and interviews with family and friends didn't provide any new leads.
09:31Here again is Nancy Hickst with Vanished.
09:35It is the devastating news no one wanted to hear.
09:46A homicide investigation is now underway into the disappearance of a young Calgary mom and her 22-month-old daughter.
09:53Good evening.
09:5425-year-old Jasmine Lovett and her little girl, Aaliyah Sanderson, have not been seen in nine days.
10:00Tonight, police confirm there is no evidence they are alive.
10:04So the last Footprints of Life we have for Jasmine was a purchase made at the Sobe store at around 3 or 5 p.m. on the 15th.
10:13If something has happened to somebody, you lose a whole week or ten days, in this case, of gathering evidence and allowing cleanups to be done and things to be discarded,
10:25phones to be gotten rid of, anything like that, that in a suspicious death would be common that you have that kind of time.
10:33So at this point, decisions made that we're going to arrest Mr. Leeming, bring him for an interview, and get a on the record story of him about his relationship with Jasmine and Aaliyah, how long they've been together, what the circumstances are, what he knows about what's going on.
10:50And did he have any knowledge or involvement in what happened to Jasmine earlier?
10:55I was assigned by the primary investigator to conduct an interview with Robert Leeming, who was the boyfriend slash roommate, whatever his role was at the time.
11:06He was from England, but he was living in Canada, owned the condo. He was very cooperative. He was providing a timeline of their relationship, a timeline of when he said he saw them last, a timeline of what he did that week, what he didn't do that week.
11:26When Detective Cole does the interview, myself, along with other team members, are monitoring this. And the real reason is to look for the things that are being said that, okay, we can prove this, we can prove this, we can prove it falls here, that's great. It doesn't matter which way it goes, it's just to find the truth.
11:46Behind the scenes, investigators retraced Leeming's movements.
11:51He actually received a speeding ticket just west of Calgary on April the 18th.
12:03Good afternoon, sir. It's real fast at 1.32 and the post is 1.10. So take a quick look at your license.
12:09It ended up being a red flag for us because of the way Mr. Leeming presented his story to us.
12:15That was not included in anything, nor was a trip to Kananaskis or Canmore or Cochrane or anything like that, that would have brought him out there.
12:23And that's a significant enough event that if I was trying to explain where I was, that's a perfect example of, you know, I was here, here's my proof.
12:34But he doesn't mention any of that to us.
12:37Cell phone evidence revealed inconsistencies in his timeline.
12:42So, for example, he talked about this particular day being home all day.
12:47Well, then once confronted with cell phone evidence from Jasmine's phone to say that, no, she's in Bragg Creek, then he said, oh, that's right.
12:55Yeah, we went for a picnic.
12:56And then he was able to describe some of the snacks that they took for the picnic, where they went for the picnic.
13:01If he's telling the truth, we're trying to corroborate it.
13:04So if he says there for a picnic, then we'll go to Bragg Creek and we'll try to pull video from anything that would capture his vehicle driving by,
13:12or possible of his vehicle in the time frames that we're looking at.
13:15So we're trying to do everything we can to get as much information and accurate information as we can.
13:21A massive police presence descended on Bragg Creek. As investigators looked for CCTV, search crews scoured the densely forested area on foot and on horseback.
13:38We did not find any CCTV. We didn't find any evidence that would suggest that there's a picnic happening.
13:44Police also got a warrant to search the home Jasmine and Aliyah shared with Robert Leeming.
13:53The front entrance to that residence, it had been braced shut with two extended telescopic posts
14:03that were attached to both sides of the door and then braced down to the floor.
14:09And I thought that was odd for sure.
14:12Then, an even more unusual discovery.
14:17We started finding bacon, raw bacon.
14:21Bacon that was strewn over the chairs within the kitchen, the backs of the chairs.
14:27It was raw. It took some time before I actually was able to identify what it was, but it wasn't rotted.
14:34It wasn't, hadn't been there long.
14:37And that really raised some alarms for myself as to what we had here.
14:44I had spoken to a few people and I thought, well maybe it was a tactic that he was trying to employ to confuse the cadaver dogs.
14:53Our dogs aren't trained with use of pork. So it had no effect on the dogs. I've never seen that before.
15:00Some of the stuff he had no answer for. Like, for example, the raw bacon. I said, any idea how that got there?
15:06He goes, poof, yeah, no idea. I said, you would agree that's a strange place to find raw bacon.
15:11And he said, yeah, absolutely. I don't really have an answer for you.
15:15It appeared to me that the house had been cleaned. With infrared and UV light source, we could start seeing some smear marks on the floor and on the walls.
15:27Investigators worried key evidence had been destroyed.
15:31Generally, if there is blood, we'll get a reaction. It'll glow immediately. And the camera will pick up on that.
15:38We were getting a ghosting effect. Knowing that time gap, there is quite a bit of a challenge.
15:45We know the fact that if there's been a murder within the house, there is a good chance that he has had time to clean the residence.
15:55Police said Leeming's SUV had also been cleaned. And it wasn't a new model. So there was no GPS data of its movements.
16:05So there's a lot of things that were adding up that were adding more evidence to suggest that they were murdered. We just didn't know where they were.
16:14Investigators were finally able to create a true timeline of Robert Leeming's movements based on CCTV evidence they'd located.
16:36We actually captured Mr. Leeming throwing items into the communal garbage bins.
16:41Those garbage bins were seized by police and would be searched. They also found footage from April 20th of Leeming dumping mulch at his townhouse complex.
16:54The mulch, the cuttings from the paper being found out there. We're finding it in the front yard. We're finding that mulch is containing, I'm not sure if it's trying to hide documentation.
17:12This is when things start taking a turn. So from the CCTV, one of the key ones we found was actually from one of the gas stations.
17:21We were able to capture Mr. Leeming filling up a jerry can. But when he actually opens the hatch of his vehicle, under the blanket you can actually see what appeared to be the stock of a gun.
17:37Once you see that, things go from, I hope she's alive to, I hope we can find her.
17:44At Calgary Police Headquarters, Robert Leeming was questioned for 24 hours.
17:52I was trying to appeal to the human side of him to say, hey, listen, we have a mom and a little girl out there.
17:59You know, it's important for you to share where are they. It's looking like you're responsible for this.
18:07But he was released without charges on that first interview.
18:10Well, this is obviously a very difficult situation. Homicide detectives are working around the clock to help solve this case.
18:17And many of these investigators have children as well. So knowing they're dealing with what's considered a double homicide is extremely difficult.
18:24Police say the suspect in this case remains a suspect. He was taken into custody at 11 a.m. Thursday.
18:3124 hours later, police officers released him.
18:34Now, Nancy, with police confirming that the man taken into custody yesterday is still the main suspect in the case.
18:40Can you explain more about why police released him today?
18:43You know, we've seen this in a number of cases in the past. And to be very clear, police say that this suspect remains the primary suspect in this case.
18:54However, once somebody is taken into custody, police have 24 hours to either charge that person or let him go.
19:02So he has been let go. That does not mean the investigation stops. It doesn't stop. This continues on. And police gather more evidence.
19:10And, of course, we will have more information on that in the coming days.
19:14At that point, we didn't have the evidence to lay a charge. But we felt it necessary to keep tabs on him.
19:20So we had our covert surveillance teams following him.
19:23Leeming was spotted near his townhouse complex as forensic crime scenes investigators were inside the home.
19:32And Global News tracked him down.
19:35As the search for Jasmine Lovett and her 22-month-old daughter, Aaliyah Sanderson, continues,
19:40the man police questioned after their disappearance has been released.
19:44Robert Leeming spoke tonight to our Nancy Hickst, who joins us in the newsroom. Nancy?
19:49Robert Leeming confirmed to me that he is being questioned in connection to the suspected double homicide case.
19:56Leeming said he was released from custody Friday morning and he spent his day at a local pub.
20:01How do you feel about this whole thing? I mean...
20:03Terrible. Of course.
20:05But to know the police are calling this a homicide, to know that someone has killed a 22-month-old child...
20:12It's crazy.
20:14But you're saying that is not you?
20:15Of course not. Of course not.
20:18So then what happened? Where did she go?
20:21I don't know.
20:23Like, if you have tenants, do you keep track of them?
20:28Well, you're in a relationship as well.
20:30Well, we weren't at this time.
20:32Okay, so when was the last time you saw them?
20:35Would have been Thursday, around about 7 o'clock, on the 18th.
20:40From what we see, you're considered a suspect in a double homicide, so this is your chance to tell us what has transpired.
20:49Yeah, it's pretty serious, right?
20:52But who says that they're dead? That's crazy. I don't know where they are. And that's the biggest thing. If they were dead, then the CPS would know, right? But they're not. They don't know. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's anything to do with me.
21:20Just watching that interaction, the first instinct that came to my mind was, he thinks he's beaten us. He thinks he's smarter than we are, is what I took from it.
21:33There was just an arrogance and bravado around him. I think because we released him at that time, he thought he'd gotten away with murdering these two people.
21:45That's when further details about Robert Leeming's history emerged.
21:52Court documents obtained by Global News show the man at the center of the suspected double murder investigation has prior convictions for animal cruelty.
22:02Court records also indicate he owned an arsenal of weapons, including two handguns, one shotgun, and approximately 60 knives.
22:11Global News has confirmed Robert Leeming pleaded guilty to three charges under the Animal Cruelty Act following an incident near Pritis last May.
22:19Did something happen with your family pet? No.
22:23Or was there something that you have an explanation for about something that happened with a pet?
22:29No. No comment at this time.
22:32But if somebody's capable of harming an animal, I mean, that obviously leaves us sceptical.
22:37No, it doesn't. It has nothing to do with it.
22:40There's a lot of inconsistencies and a lot of things that we ran into again where it just doesn't make sense.
22:48And the more you look at it as a roommate or a friend, more and more stuff is pushing up against Mr. Leeming as being not truthful with us about what he knows.
22:59You're dealing with a very volatile man who believes he's already gotten away with it in his mind.
23:06I guess I'll just wait in the pub until I hear something.
23:12Family, friends and complete strangers gathered at a vigil for Jasmine and Aaliyah.
23:31Aaliyah was a wonderful blessing in the family. She was a really happy baby. Always happy to see Nana.
23:42She was really an amazing baby. It's a huge loss.
23:47Bye-bye.
23:50Jasmine was a really good mother. That's all she wanted to be in life as a mother.
23:55And she and Aaliyah were completely inseparable.
23:59Aaliyah, she took after Jasmine quite a bit, even in all of the small things for sure.
24:07She was like a little angel. And she had such an amazing spirit. She had a really, really cute laugh.
24:18So this corner residence is where Jasmine and Aaliyah live with Mr. Leeming.
24:29The garbage disposal area where we got three dumpsters out of.
24:33CCTV footage captured Robert Leeming tossing garbage into dumpsters after Jasmine and Aaliyah disappeared.
24:43The forensic crime scenes unit had the daunting task of searching them.
24:49I found a purse with prescriptions labeled Jasmine Lovett.
24:56So personnel start noticing some firearm components.
25:00So the condition of the firearm, it was in three pieces.
25:05The butt of the firearm as well as the handle.
25:08That was broken into a piece and the end of it was melted or burned.
25:14The second part was a forend. That was also burnt at the end.
25:19And then there was a small piece, a Ruger 22 laser.
25:23I found pretty much a clump of shredded paper.
25:29And I started digging through and noticed something very distinctive.
25:34It was a navy blue and gold emblem shredded, but it was partially shredded.
25:40So I decided to start picking out the pieces of the shredded paper.
25:44And I saw the eye set as well as a name Jasmine Lovett.
25:49And determined that it was a Canadian passport.
25:52Like the passport and those type of things that you shouldn't be throwing away if somebody's alive.
26:00This is looking bad.
26:02It's starting to look very bad.
26:05Evidence was building against Robert Leeming.
26:09I was contacted by Mr. Leeming's family.
26:13The police were now looking at Mr. Leeming as a suspect.
26:17Despite Mr. Leeming being suspect number one and perhaps maybe the only suspect,
26:24the police were not able to move on it.
26:26They didn't have enough to charge him because, first and foremost, they didn't have any bodies.
26:31And without the bodies, it's very difficult to know if this is a murder or something else.
26:37Or whether the, you know, Ms. Lovett and her child had just disappeared on their own.
26:43We tried calling, sent a written communication over.
26:50But days went by and Leeming didn't contact his lawyer.
26:56Then, on May 5th, nearly three weeks after the mother and toddler disappeared.
27:04Mr. Leeming was crossing the street not far from his house and was approached by two strangers.
27:12The two men recognized Leeming from his interview with Global News.
27:17These two so-called bikers had some physical pieces of evidence.
27:24For example, the shredded passport of Ms. Lovett that Mr. Leeming had shredded a day or so earlier and had thrown it out into the garbage.
27:35That didn't just pique Mr. Leeming's interest.
27:38It convinced him that these people had something that he would be interested in and took him down the road of believing that they could help him.
27:48And so he, in short order, trusted them.
27:53Though he was a bit suspicious at first, Leeming didn't realize that his new friends were actually undercover police officers.
28:07And so he had to find the cops you have to tell him, right?
28:09Yes.
28:10We need to find them.
28:11And that's ultimately the biggest goal is, again, holding that sliver of hope that they might still be alive.
28:16Is, if they're alive, we need to, we need to know.
28:20And if he doesn't want to talk to us, then maybe this technique will work.
28:25Do you want to know where to take this off with me?
28:28I put bacon in my basement because it's pork.
28:36It's the closest thing to people in the way that dogs react to them.
28:48There were different things offered to him.
28:50You know, we can help dispose of evidence.
28:52We can help you get away.
28:54There were different things like that offered.
28:56But the condition was always, we need to know what we're dealing with.
29:01So these two new friends he had made said, in order for us to help, we need to know what's going on.
29:08We need, if there's bodies, we need bodies.
29:10If we're going to dispose of bodies, you know, we need to get them to be able to dispose of them.
29:16So things like that, I suspect, convinced Mr. Leeming that these were not only trustworthy people who were going to help him,
29:25but he needed to take them to where the bodies were.
29:29That's when Robert Leeming finally opened up.
29:32So you head towards the Kittsville, like you're going to the ski hill.
29:37And carry on going for 40 or 20 close.
29:44And so you see a gas station on the left.
29:46You go a little bit further up from there.
29:48You can't miss it.
29:49You keep going on Highway 40.
29:51And as the road turns up the hill, you kind of have to look backwards.
30:01And there's a little maintenance road.
30:06You need a truck to get up there.
30:09Was Robert Leeming finally telling the truth?
30:15Would this information lead police to Jasmine and Aliyah?
30:19We are throwing a lot into this basket.
30:22Once you get out into the wilderness, there's, you know, the animals.
30:26You have just the sheer ability to try to find somebody out in the wilderness.
30:32It's near impossible.
30:33You know, the main thing we want to do is find Jasmine and Aliyah.
30:52Welcome back.
30:53Nearly three weeks after a young mother and her daughter disappeared,
30:57it was looking like they might never be found.
31:00But behind the scenes, a carefully crafted plan carried out by undercover officers
31:05finally solved the mystery.
31:09Here now is Nancy Hicks with the conclusion of Vanished.
31:14Robert Leeming took his new friends deep into the wild and forested mountains of Kananaskis country,
31:33less than five hours after they met.
31:37Yeah, so it should be just around the tree and then off to our left.
31:49Mr. Leeming guided us down here until we're able to find Jasmine and Aliyah.
31:58This changes everything.
32:01This is the point where we now know that both Jasmine and Aliyah are deceased.
32:07We know that Mr. Leeming is the one who takes us to the bodies.
32:10We have zero doubt that Mr. Leeming is the one responsible for them being there.
32:14But we just don't know how they've deceased at this time.
32:17We also had sent our crime scene members out to the Kananaskis area to start processing that scene.
32:24It's about an hour, 30 minutes from the city.
32:28But it's in an area where clearly the grizzly population habitats that infrequence that area.
32:35At that time of year, it was very, very cold and still going through a thaw process.
32:41When we first arrived, there was a sense, a high sense of concern for our welfare as well.
32:48Because with the park wardens being present, they told us that they were going to provide us lethal overwatch.
32:54Because there was a female sow, grizzly, 30 metres within the area with her two cubs.
33:00She obviously honed in on the smells of the decomposition that was occurring.
33:05Investigators were also met with the scent of gasoline.
33:09As officers identified three separate crime scenes.
33:14A burn site, where evidence had been destroyed.
33:18A culvert, where some items had been hidden.
33:21And then the shallow graves, where the bodies were located.
33:26It's such an isolated location, heavily forested, with indentations in the ground that were almost perfect for preservation of the body.
33:39I had requested from the arson unit an accelerant dog from the Calgary Fire Department to attend the scene.
33:48So that they could help us with identifying what areas within our large scene contained accelerant.
33:56She identified the fire pit was one.
33:59And, of course, the location of where the bodies were found was another.
34:04Investigators recovered the charred remains of a child seat and stroller, shoes, and a partially burned children's book.
34:14There was what appeared to me to be transfer stains, blood transfer stains, in the book.
34:20The submission of the book provided no DNA profile.
34:26And, again, because of the heat.
34:29Police also found the same type of mulch Leeming had dumped outside at his townhouse complex.
34:36This particular mulch contained shredded paper.
34:40The same sort of mulch that we found in his front yard contained shredded paper.
34:44So we learned the mulch was actually Mr. Leeming's attempt to hide the smell of bodies being transported.
34:52A heart-wrenching scene unfolding in Kananaskis.
35:02Police believe they found the bodies of missing mother Jasmine Lovett and her 22-month-old daughter Aliyah Sanderson.
35:08Nancy, a devastating day for the victims' families and for our city.
35:13It is absolutely heartbreaking.
35:17This was the worst possible outcome to know that the bodies of Jasmine and Aliyah have been recovered.
35:24Even though this has been considered a double homicide for some time, I think everyone just held out some hope.
35:30So really just devastating news.
35:32So the autopsy revealed that Jasmine had received multiple blunt force injuries to the head, as well as a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
35:40And Aliyah had also received multiple blunt force injuries to the head.
35:45Robert Leeming was arrested and charged with two counts of second degree murder.
35:55What was different about him is in the first interview he had a full head of hair and a beard.
36:00And in this interview he had shaved his head and shaved his beard.
36:04And his demeanour was a complete reversal from the first interview.
36:10He had no comment to make about anything.
36:13I presented him evidence, additional evidence, tried to appeal to his human side as to why this had to happen.
36:22And he had nothing to say about it.
36:24Yeah, he's cold.
36:26He's a monster.
36:28I saw no remorse from him whatsoever.
36:30By now, Leeming had finally contacted high-profile criminal defence lawyer Belfordur
36:37and realised his new friends were undercover police officers.
36:44I spoke to Mr. Leeming within probably hours of him being arrested.
36:50You know, whenever we encounter one of these cases where someone makes a statement to the police,
36:59either because he knows they're police officers or because he doesn't know they're police officers,
37:04but they've undercover officers have fooled him.
37:08You know, it just goes contrary to everything that a defence counsel tells an accused,
37:14which is keep your mouth shut.
37:17You have no friends.
37:18The walls have ears.
37:20Don't say anything to anybody about anything.
37:25Yet, people cannot help it.
37:30They tend to talk.
37:33In the fall of 2021, almost two and a half years to the day after Jasmine and Aliyah vanished,
37:44their loved ones prepared to learn disturbing details of their deaths at a double murder trial heard by a judge alone.
37:52We are trying to move forward and think of only positive things and happy memories
37:59and keep their spirits close and move forward that way.
38:04But it's been very difficult.
38:07I never heard a first word.
38:11I just really miss them.
38:14On that first day, there was an unexpected development.
38:19With the evidence stacked against Robert Leeming, he pleaded guilty to killing Jasmine Lovett,
38:26but not guilty to killing Aliyah.
38:29It became apparent to me, and of course, Mr. Leeming, that his guilt would clearly be proven in relation to Miss Lovett.
38:42He said he just flew into a rage and there happened to be a hammer on the kitchen counter nearby.
38:50He said he took the hammer and hit her in the head as she was starting to turn away from him.
38:57He said he hit her hard, hit her at least two times.
39:01She fell to the floor, but she wasn't immediately dead.
39:06She was lying there, obviously in distress.
39:09So he went to the garage, took his .22 rifle, came in, shot her once, just behind the ear.
39:17And according to the forensic pathologist, that would have caused instant death.
39:24The trial continued for the second-degree murder of Aliyah.
39:29The prosecution theory was that the mother was killed, then the daughter.
39:36And the daughter was killed so that he could make a getaway.
39:40He could say that they both left so that he could cover his tracks,
39:43and they wouldn't have any bodies left to be able to pin him with the murder.
39:48We have a dead mother, a dead 22-month-old child.
39:56The mother has been beat with something, a hammer, shot in the head.
40:01Bodies are hidden away, disposed of out in the bush.
40:07And the accused person is overtly to the public, proclaiming his innocence, trying to cover his tracks.
40:18None of it looked good.
40:20Like what happens in most of these cases where someone's committed to crime and try to cover it up,
40:28it's impossible.
40:31It's not like the movies.
40:33It's so, it's very difficult to think of everything that the police have at their disposal.
40:38He was covering his tracks, and at the same time, was speaking to media, to reporters,
40:47saying that, you know, I don't know where they've gone, you know, I don't know anything about the disappearance.
40:52He said that to the police.
40:54The biggest piece of evidence against him was, of course, that he took undercover police officers to where the bodies were.
41:01Who else would have known where the bodies were except the person who put them there?
41:06And then, Leeming testified in his own defence.
41:10The defence was that the child died by way of an accidental fall off some stairs that she was a little toddler,
41:18hit her head, and it was head injuries that caused her death.
41:22The judge found that Mr. Leeming's explanation was inconsistent with what the forensic pathologist said about how the death was caused to the child.
41:34In the end, the judge found Mr. Leeming guilty of second-degree murder of the child.
41:41And along with that, his guilty plea to the mother meant that he was guilty of two counts of second-degree murder.
41:53Robert Leeming was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 22 years.
42:04The judge, when he sentenced Mr. Leeming, said that he had breached the trust that Ms. Leavitt had put into him,
42:13that she loved him and he committed the worst type of domestic abuse imaginable.
42:20In relation to the child, the judge said that Mr. Leeming had again breached the trust of this child who was loved and who felt safe in his arms,
42:30and yet he would murder the child.
42:34And 22 years without eligibility for parole is really good.
42:42Obviously, 200 years is not going to bring them back, but we're pleased.
42:48We feel that justice has been served, justice for Jasmine and Aliyah.
42:54It's been very difficult, especially the fact that, you know, it's been such a long process for my family and I,
43:02but we're just really grateful today to have the closure that we do,
43:08considering that some families don't get this type of closure.
43:11We're just extremely grateful to be able to move forward.
43:15Yes.
43:16Thanks to everybody who worked on the case.
43:19Everybody.
43:20There's no explanation for me, and look at all the lies.
43:23I can't believe a word.
43:26Leeming doesn't react, so it's hard to know if there's any remorse.
43:31I feel like there is none.
43:33I do wish I did know a little bit more about why he did the things that he did,
43:37but we're not going to get that, and we have to be satisfied with what we do know.
43:41And I think that the Crown or the prosecutors did an amazing job,
43:47and the Calgary Police Service as well.
43:50That question continues to haunt everyone involved, including the investigators.
44:00We don't have a why.
44:02We don't have really a good idea of what happened to have this all come to fruition, so it's hard that way.
44:12Deep in the woods in Kananaskis, there's a special plaque police created and put up
44:24to both remember and honour the mother and daughter whose lives were so senselessly stolen.
44:31It's just tragic for the family, and it's so sad they'd have to end this way.
44:36This is one I'll never forget.
44:38Like this, I'll keep with me until the day I die.
44:45Jasmine and Aliyah's family has worked to raise both awareness and money for victims of domestic abuse,
44:52donating thousands of dollars to the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter in their honour.
45:02Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
45:05I'm Antony Robart.
45:07Want more episodes of Crime Beat?
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45:15or wherever you find your favourite podcasts.
45:17And for past episodes of Crime Beat,
45:20go to the Global TV app, visit GlobalTV.com,
45:24or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.
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