Previous abuse factored into lessened sentence for slaying

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This article was published 16/01/2025 (450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Savannah Dueck was having a psychotic episode after smoking meth and not sleeping for days when she beat her grandfather to death with a baseball bat as he lay in bed in 2022.

Cornelius (Neil) Schroeder, 69, was likely asleep when his adopted granddaughter began the brutality.

The attack, which Court of King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond said involved “a horrific level of brutal violence,” caused extensive injuries to his face and head, as well as bruising to his lower abdomen and genitals. Blood was on the walls and ceiling of the master bedroom of his home on Whitby Crescent in Steinbach on July 29, 2022.

Dueck, 37, had been released from jail about a week earlier. Her mother and grandmother had arranged for her to stay with Schroeder, who had been diagnosed with early stage dementia, while her grandmother went on a trip.

RCMP charged her with second-degree murder but, Monday in a Winnipeg courtroom, Dueck pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Dueck was sentenced to 10 years in prison, less time served, based on a joint recommendation from Crown prosecutor Shahzad Musaddiq and defence lawyer Leonard Tailleur.

Musaddiq said Dueck has a history of substance abuse and likely has mental health issues, although she hasn’t been formally diagnosed.

Amanda Kroeker, Schroeder’s daughter, read an emotional statement to the court in which she expressed deep grief and the desire for justice, as well as her hope that Dueck, whom she considers a little sister and a niece, will be rehabilitated from her addictions.

“My repeated cries of ‘why’ still go unanswered and may forever go unanswered,” she said.

She began to cry as she said Dueck’s place in her heart has never changed, adding that the Dueck she knew to be sweet, kind and gentle was not capable of such violence.

Kroeker said she fears Dueck will fall back into addiction upon release from prison and move back in with her grandmother with the same deadly result, so wants Dueck to attend rehab and therapy.

Musaddiq told court that Dueck disclosed at Adult and Teen Challenge, a substance abuse program, that she had been abused as a child.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, the prosecutor said Dueck had told a friend her granddad had sexually assaulted her as a child.

“There is no tolerance, absolutely, for vigilantism or the public taking matters into their own hands, it’s completely unjustified. However, the accused’s personal circumstances, Gladue factors, the history of her abuse, mental health and substance addiction were all factors that led to the (sentencing) recommendation,” said Musaddiq.

Musaddiq said Dueck’s mom, Joanne Thomas Dueck, who is the adopted daughter of the victim and his wife, had gone to their home on the afternoon of the killing. She found a note written by Dueck outside the front door.

“‘I’m really sorry, I f—d up bad. Don’t go in upstairs bedroom, please forgive me. Don’t let (grandma) come in here,’ and lastly, ‘there were spirits testing,’ and ‘you will not want to go in there,’” said Musaddiq, reading from the note.

Thomas Dueck found her daughter barricaded in the computer room. Schroeder’s bedroom door was locked. A wooden bat was in the kitchen sink.

Her mother called the RCMP from outside the home and said she believed Dueck had killed Schroeder. RCMP found the baseball bat and broke into the bedroom.

“The master bedroom was covered with blood, including on the walls and ceiling,” said Musaddiq. “It was obvious to the RCMP that Cornelius was dead.”

Mounties arrested her and took her to the Steinbach detachment, where she exhibited odd behaviour that suggested she was intoxicated. They did not interview her until the next day, when she told officers she was “fighting demons” and had heard voices in her head telling her “don’t let him live,” Musaddiq told court.

Thomas Dueck had noticed her daughter’s odd behaviour one day before the attack and had tried to get her to a crisis unit, but she refused to go, said Musaddiq.

Dueck’s lawyer noted her previous lawyer had arranged for an assessment to determine whether Dueck was fit for trial. She was ultimately found fit, but a forensic psychiatrist found she had a history of psychosis without a clear cause, though stimulant abuse is a main factor.

Tailleur said she has an Indigenous background and struggled with substance abuse beginning in her teens. She then went to Adult and Teen Challenge in 2012 in Brandon, but relapsed and spiralled after the end of a long relationship in 2018.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca