Grieving Teulon father desperate for answers after daughter slain in Scotland

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This article was published 04/03/2024 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba father is facing a struggle to bring his slain daughter’s remains home to Canada, three weeks after her boyfriend allegedly killed her on a remote island in Scotland.

Clint Leveque, who lives in Teulon, said he doesn’t know where his daughter Claire Leveque’s body is being held or when she will be repatriated, following her death in Shetland Feb. 11.

“All I want is my daughter home. I want her home, and I want justice,” Clint Leveque told the Free Press Monday. “This doesn’t even feel real.”

Alberta-born Claire Leveque, 24, was found dead when Police Scotland officers were called to a seaside home in the tiny community of Sandness.

“She was an intelligent girl, a beautiful girl,” Clint Leveque said in a tearful interview.

Aren Pearson, 39, is charged with murder in the alleged case of intimate partner violence.

Clint Leveque wants to have his daughter cremated and her ashes returned to Canada, so he can spread them at Pyramid Island in Jasper National Park.

He said it’s where he got married to his late wife, Kathleen, when she was pregnant with Claire, and where he spread Kathleen’s ashes after she died of cancer in 2019.

Claire Leveque was living in Edmonton, where she worked at a Starbucks coffee shop, when she met Pearson last summer. They moved to Shetland, where Pearson has family, late last year.

The couple lived in an isolated community which is home to just a few hundred people.

“He promised her the world. He said, ‘Quit your job, and I’ll take care of you,’” said Clint Leveque, who has met Pearson on FaceTime but never in person.

The grieving father said he knew something was wrong Feb. 11, when Pearson allegedly sent a photo of Claire and messages to him.

Clint Leveque believes his daughter was dead when the photo was taken.

“He just said, ‘I’m sending your daughter home on a plane,’” said the father, who contacted police in Canada, after Claire didn’t answer his calls or messages.

In an earlier news release, Police Scotland said officers found the woman’s body when they responded to a report of a “disturbance” shortly before 5 p.m.

Clint Leveque was told by police that Pearson’s mother discovered his daughter and attempted to save her.

He said he was told his daughter was stabbed.

The suspect’s car was later pulled from the water near a pier. Pearson was treated for injuries in hospital before he was charged, the Glasgow-based Daily Record newspaper reported.

The Leveque family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for repatriation and funeral costs. Any leftover funds will be put toward Clint Leveque’s travel costs to Scotland, a relative said.

Earlier, police told the father an autopsy was being done and further investigation was required before Claire’s body could be released.

He said said he was distressed after being asked to help procure his daughter’s dental records in Alberta to help with positive identification.

There are additional delays if a murder suspect’s lawyer asks pathologists to carry out a second post-mortem examination.

In 2021, a member’s bill to put a 14-day time limit on defence requests failed to get approval from Scotland’s parliament. The bill was prompted by complaints from the family of a slain 15-year-old girl, whose body was held for 30 days.

Claire Leveque’s family has made inquiries into where her body is and when it will be released, but they are still waiting for answers. The lead investigator is on vacation, and there is a small complement of officers on the island, which is several time zones away, said a relative in Manitoba.

Canadian consular staff in Scotland are in contact with local authorities and are assisting the family, said Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod.

Clint Leveque doesn’t know if he will travel to Scotland to bring his daughter’s ashes home, but he wants to be in court for a trial or sentencing.

“I want him to get life without parole, nothing less,” the father said.

Pearson has not yet entered a plea. In Scotland, a murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. A sentencing judge sets a minimum term before the convicted person is eligible for parole.

There are no classifications of first- or second-degree for a murder charge.

Court records in Alberta show Pearson was fined in March 2019 for drug possession. Nine charges against him, including pointing a firearm, assault with a weapon and uttering threats, were dismissed in January 2018.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca