Rallies held for 3 slain B.C. children
As the RCMP continue to probe tips in connection with the slayings of three children, memorials and rallies were held in their memory Sunday throughout British Columbia.
About 100 people took part in a candlelight vigil Sunday at the Merritt, B.C., home of Darcie Clarke, mother of the three children whose bodies were found April 6.
A motorcycle fundraiser took place in Merritt on Sunday to gather funds to help Clarke, Vancouver radio station CKNW reported. Another rally was planned for Monday at the B.C. Legislature.
It was Clarke who found the bodies of her children — Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8, and Cordon, 5 — in her home.
Police have been looking for the children's father, Allan Schoenborn, since last week and have received more than 200 tips so far, said RCMP spokeswoman Annie Linteau.
They include a report that Schoenborn, who police say is the main suspect, was seen Wednesday at a store in Lumby, a small community about 120 kilometres east of Merritt.
"This particular sighting has been given to an investigator for follow-up," said Linteau. "I have yet to hear what they've determined as a result of this tip."
Vancouver lawyer Kathleen Walker helped organize the rally that will be held at the legislature in Victoria Monday.
Through social networking website, Facebook, Walker encouraged B.C. mothers and grandmothers to gather at noon "in memory of children killed in Merritt, B.C., and others who have fallen through the system in B.C."
"What I'm hoping we'll do is just sort of bring to everyone's attention this issue of protection of kids in British Columbia," Walker says.
Participants were encouraged to wear pink or baby blue clothing for the memorial themed 'No more excuses: Protect B.C. kids now.'
That theme is also the name of the Facebook pages.
Walker says she was inspired to organized the memorial by the deaths of the Schoenborn children and that of six-year-old Christian Lee in Victoria last September.
The coroner's service said Victoria restaurant owner Peter Lee used a 10-centimetre-long knife to kill his son, wife and two in-laws before taking his own life with the same knife.
"My goal is this never happens again," Walker says. "Never ever do I ever want to hear about this again. A child stabbed to death or murdered in their own home. Never again."
Schoenborn was restricted from contacting wife
Schoenborn was under a peace bond that restricted his contact with his wife at the time of his disappearance.
He was also arrested three times in the week prior to the killings, including once for an alleged confrontation at the children's school three days before the slayings.
He was arrested and charged with uttering threats and then released on bail despite the objections of RCMP.
Police wanted Schoenborn held, but a justice of the peace ordered him released, unaware Schoenborn had been charged last year with violating his contact restrictions involving Clarke.
Transcripts of the hearing show the justice of the peace asked whether Schoenborn posed any risk to his wife and was told no.
RCMP have said they were unaware of the peace bond at the time but did believe Schoenborn posed a flight risk.
Schoenborn told the justice of the peace that he was struggling with the separation of his family.
Police have issued a Canada-wide alert for Schoenborn and received unconfirmed reports of sightings as far away as Quebec.