The Richardson Family Murders: How A 12-Year-Old Helped Murder Her Family with Her 23-Year-Old ‘Boyfriend’
Jasmine Richardson and her adult boyfriend Jeremy Steinke were arrested the day after the brutal killings
It was a crime that shocked the small Canadian city of Medicine Hat, Alberta.
On April 23, 2006, the bodies of Marc Richardson, 42, and his wife Debra, 48, were found in the basement of their split-level home, the CBC reported.
Both parents had been viciously attacked. Marc was stabbed 24 times and Debra was stabbed 12 times, per CBC. Their 8-year-old son Tyler was found dead in his upstairs bedroom. The boy’s jugular vein was severed and he had stab wounds to his chest and face, according to the outlet.
The case took a shocking turn when the couple’s 12-year-old daughter Jasmine, who is not named in Canada because of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and her 23-year-old high school dropout boyfriend Jeremy Steinke were arrested in Saskatchewan the following day for the brutal slayings, per Global News.
Authorities believed Jasmine hatched the murderous scheme because her parents disapproved of Steinke, who was 11 years her senior, according to Global News.
“I have this plan,” she allegedly emailed Steinke, a self-proclaimed 300-year-old werewolf who wore a vial of blood around his neck, who she met at a punk rock concert earlier that year, per The New Zealand Herald. “It begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you.”
Jasmine allegedly left the basement window open for Steinke so he could enter, according to The Herald. He entered around 5 a.m. and killed Debra first before attacking Marc. Before he died, he allegedly asked Steinke, who was wearing a mask, “Why?”
Steinke allegedly responded, “It’s what your daughter wanted,” per The Herald.
After the slayings, the couple was seen canoodling at a house party, according to Global News.
At trial, the Crown hinted that the killings could have been inspired by Steinke’s favorite movie Natural Born Killers, the Oliver Stone directed story about a serial killer couple (played by Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson) who kill her parents before going on a three-state murder spree, per Global News.
Jasmine was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder after a jury deliberated for three hours in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat, CBC reported.
She was thought to be the youngest person in Canada convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder, per CBC.
Jasmine received a 10-year Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) sentence in 2007, the maximum for youth offenders between 12 and 14 years old, per Global News.
The following year, Steinke, who changed his name to Jackson May, received a life sentence, with eligibility for parole after 25 years, per Global News.
“He said he was extremely remorseful,” Steinke’s defense lawyer Alain Hepner said, per CBC. “If he could take it back, he would, but he just couldn’t speak. He actually did say those things. I think it’s an apology. I definitely think that’s what it is.”
Jasmine spent four years in a psychiatric institution and four and a half years under conditional supervision in the community before she was released in 2016, per The Herald.
At her final sentencing review before she was released, a judge told the then 22-year-old that she had met all her rehabilitation goals.
“I think your parents would be rather proud of you,” the judge said, according to CBC. “Clearly you cannot undo the past; you can only live each day with the knowledge you can control how you behave and what you do each day.”
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Musk’s xAI seeks $113 billion valuation in $300 million share sale, FT reports
(Reuters) -Elon Musk’s xAI is seeking a valuation of $113 billion in a share sale worth $300 million, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people close to the situation.
The deal would allow employees to sell shares to investors and a larger investment round is expected to follow the secondary stock offer, in which xAI will offer new equity to outside investors, the FT report said.
The artificial-intelligence startup acquired X, Musk’s social media business, in March.
The deal valued xAI at $80 billion and social media platform X – formerly known as Twitter – at $33 billion, Musk had said then.
XAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the FT report.
Musk recently stepped back from the Trump administration after the Tesla CEO ended a chaotic four-month stint leading the administration’s sweeping cost-cutting campaign. U.S. President Donald Trump, however, said Musk would remain a close adviser.
During an earnings call in April, Musk had said he would refocus his attention on the EV maker.
XAI was launched less than two years ago and was in talks with investors to raise roughly $20 billion in funding for the combined AI startup and social media business, Bloomberg News reported in April.
$302 Million Lost to Crypto Scams, Hacks, and Exploits in May: CertiK
Cryptocurrency investors lost more than $300 million to scams, hacks and exploits in May, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
The majority of those losses were related to code vulnerability exploits, which accounted for $229 million — a 4,483% rise on April.
Phishing, which involves an attacker stealing a user’s trading account or wallet credentials, accounted for $47 million of losses while private key compromise and price manipulation were behind $11.6 million and $1 million of losses respectively.
“Our research revealed an interesting anomaly in May: a significant increase in losses from code vulnerabilities, which represented a majority of exploited funds”, said CertiK senior blockchain security researcher Natalie Newson.
“It is important to point out that over the fast few years, losses from code vulnerabilities have decreased significantly. In 2024 $173 million was lost to code vulnerabilities, compared with $1.3 billion in 2021.”
The largest incident of all in was the Cetus Protocol exploit that prompted Sui to controversially pause the blockchain as attackers made off with $225 million.
