Pair from eastern P.E.I. plead guilty to 2 charges each in Summer Kneebone case

A man and a woman from southeastern P.E.I. pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to the disappearance and death of 27-year-old Summer Kneebone over a year ago.  

The provincial courtroom in Georgetown was full for the proceeding, with Kneebone's relatives and friends among those in attendance.  

Donald Roy Holmes and Samantha Jemima Parlee-Buell are both from Pembroke, just north of Murray Harbour. They were arrested in New Glasgow, N.S., more than a month after Kneebone was last seen alive on Aug. 7, 2023, in Charlottetown. 

At the time, police said the pair was arrested under Section 182(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada on charges of interfering with a dead body or human remains.

Appearing before Judge Nancy Orr on Thursday, both Holmes and Parlee-Buell pleaded guilty to those counts, in addition to one charge each of misleading police. 

The pair will continue to stay in custody until their sentencing hearing, scheduled for Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. in Georgetown. 

Kneebone's family did not want to do a taped interview after the pleas were entered, but said she was a sweet, kind person who would do anything for anyone.

In the wake of Kneebone being reported missing, Charlottetown police asked homeowners and businesses to preserve any surveillance video they had from the evening of Aug. 7.

Social media posts begged for information on the young woman's whereabouts, including a post submitted to the Aboriginal Alert Facebook page that flags when Indigenous people have gone missing.

In court on Thursday, Crown attorney Christopher White read out an agreed statement of facts — a document that describes what happened in detail, with both the defence and the prosecution signing off on it. 

Vehicle in surveillance image was Outlander

Court heard that surveillance footage from a Charlottetown business showed Kneebone getting into a dark-coloured SUV in the Value Village parking lot on Aug. 7. Police weren't able to discern the vehicle's make, model or licence plate. 

On Sept. 5, investigators determined that vehicle was a dark-brown 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander registered to Holmes. 

Holmes told police he had met Kneebone unexpectedly at Value Village and said he had given her a ride to a private residence on Queen Street. 

"He had no explanation for why he failed to contact police in response to repeated pleas by the police to the public for any information people had to provide," the agreed statement of fact said. "He denied that Ms. Kneebone or her phone would have been in his vehicle after he dropped Ms. Kneebone off."

The court heard that, in an effort to divert suspicion from themselves, Holmes and Parlee-Buell told police they didn't see Kneebone after that. But according to the agreed statement of facts, Kneebone had decided to go to Kings County with them. 

At some point, she became unresponsive and died. The pair did not call the police.  

No conclusive cause of death

The next day, Aug. 8, Holmes and Parlee-Buell drove Kneebone's body to DeGros Marsh in rural Kings County and buried her remains. 

Police later got an anonymous tip that the two were in New Glasgow, N.S., trying to sell a vehicle matching the description of the black SUV identified in the Charlottetown surveillance footage.

The two were arrested, and Parlee-Buell eventually led police to Kneebone's remains, on Sept. 15. 

A Nova Scotia-based medical examiner could not determine how Kneebone died, but reported evidence of "numerous nervous system stimulant drugs" in her system.  

"The contribution of these stimulant drugs to the cause of death cannot be ruled out," the medical examiner's report said.