WARNING: This story contains graphic details of violence involving a minor.
THUNDER BAY – A youth has been convicted of first-degree murder in the grisly death of 14-year-old Kayliegh Ivall.
Ivall was found dead on April 27, 2020 after she was reported missing by her family. Her body was found in a wooded area near Arundel Street and Lyon Boulevard.
The accused, who cannot be named in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was 14 at the time of their arrest on May 4, 2020.
They didn’t enter a guilty plea, but conceded there was sufficient evidence for a conviction.
There will be no trial.
On Monday, an agreed statement of facts was read into the record by Crown lawyer, Tiffany Boisvert, that included statements from Jarett Sainawap, who was also arrested and charged with first-degree murder in May 2020, but later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of accessory after the fact.
During the evening of April 26, 2020, the accused and Sainawap met at a motel, then went to Sainawap’s residence where the youth told him to bring a blue glass bottle with him and they would smash it off a bridge like they had previously done.
They met Ivall at Claude E. Garton school and the three walked towards the nearby baseball diamonds before heading into a wooded area to look for a dead deer.
The youth struck Ivall in the back of the head with the blue bottle three times and Ivall fell onto the ground, then the youth straddled Ivall’s body, produced a knife and began to stab her all over her body.
Ivall didn’t fight back but asked the accused to stop and said she was sorry for whatever she had done to upset the youth.
The youth and Sainawap then covered Ivall’s body with branches and took her backpack and scooter. Sainawap threw the scooter into Boulevard Lake on their way back to his apartment, where they cleaned themselves and changed clothes.
A post-mortem examination revealed Ivall suffered 100 sharp force injuries all over her body, including her head, neck, torso and several to her liver and one to her heart.
She also suffered blunt force trauma injuries to her head.
Her official cause of death was multiple stab wounds, and the pathologist noted the wound to her heart alone would have been fatal.
Two journals belonging to the accused had also been seized by police, with both outlining ways to kill people and how to get rid of bodies. The second journal also included an entry that said, “Kayliegh is still gone. Why? Because I killed her.”
Clothes with Ivall’s blood were also found in Sainawap’s apartment with two pieces of a broken knife that matched a piece of a plastic handle found under Ivall’s body.
An examination of the youth’s cell phone also revealed a note titled “body reminders” and internet searches of how to sharpen a knife and quick ways to get rid of a body.
The defence noted it would be seeking several pre-sentence reports and Boisvert said the Crown would be filing an application to sentence the youth as an adult.
The matter will return to court at the end of summer to possibly set a date for sentencing.
