Winnipeg –
It has been more than a week since Tammy St. Jean received a phone call from the Manitoba RCMP to inform her that her daughter and two grandchildren have been found dead, but she still has trouble handling the devastating news.
“It simply came to our notice then. It can’t be real. It’s a nightmare, isn’t it? “Saint Jean told CTV News on the phone from her home in Calgary.
Mountis said a 32-year-old mother and her two children, a six-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, were found dead on April 10 at a fire-damaged home in Portage la Prairie, Man.
St. Jean identified the victims as her daughter Chantelle Murphy and her two children Isabella and Mason.
Murphy’s partner and the father of her two children, 50-year-old Travis McLeod, has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder and one arson in connection with his death. The charges have not been investigated in court.
McLeod was initially detained on April 10, but was released because the RCMP said they did not have enough evidence to detain him.
Mountis said McLeod was told to stay at a specific address in Portage. However, they warned the public on April 12 that they were actively looking for him after he was spotted in Winnipeg.
Officials said Friday that he was arrested in downtown Winnipeg without incident.
He was due to appear in the Portage la Prairie courtroom on Tuesday, but his appearance was canceled until May 16.
“I still have a little trouble imagining how someone can do this to his wife and two children. I just can’t imagine how he can do that with babies, especially, “said Saint Jean.
According to St. Jean, her daughter met McLeod through a mutual friend about seven or eight years ago in Calgary. St. Jean said she initially disapproved of the relationship because of the age difference.
“I didn’t think much about him,” she said. “So I told her so much that I’m not happy about it and I told her she could probably do much, much better. You know, as a mother, you do. ”
However, the mother and grandmother said that although she did not like McLeod, she never suspected that he was a danger to Murphy or their children.
“I never saw anything when I stayed with them for a while in Ontario. I helped move them there, so I’ve never seen anything like it and it never occurred to me that he could do this to them, “she said.
This trip to Ontario nearly two years ago was the last time St. Jean saw her daughter and grandchildren.
From there, the family moved back to Winnipeg and then to Portage la Prairie, Saint Jean said.
She said that communication with her daughter has become sporadic in recent months and believes that McLeod is mostly to blame.
“Honestly, I don’t know the circumstances in which they lived or surrounded her at the time,” she said.
St. Jean remembers his daughter as a cheerful, sociable man with a great sense of humor. She said Murphy has plans to continue his education so he can help others.
“She wanted a better life for her and the children,” St. Jean said.
She will remember her granddaughter Isabella as a talkative, energetic girl, and her grandson Mason as always running and on the go.
“They were just full of energy and life,” St. Jean said.
A GoFundMe page has been launched to raise money to return the remains of St. Jean’s daughter and grandchildren back to Alberta and to pay family members to travel to Manitoba to attend the McLeod trial.
St. Jean knows it will be a challenge to be in the courtroom, but he hopes it will bring a little to an end to the devastating tragedy.
“I know this will be difficult to do, but I need answers,” said Saint Jean.
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