Nowhere To Turn: Mother Knew It Was “The Most Dangerous Time”

The whole corrupt system…the courts, the police, everyone needs to wake up to the fact that little children are being murdered like this all the time at the hands of abusers.  Not just in Alberta, or in Canada, but everywhere.  Little Colton Saunders is the one paying this time for the corruption and indifference towards abused women and children.  Mothers being threatened with being charged with filing false reports, and questions about being “fit” for reporting abuse just didn’t happen here, it happens everywhere, all the time.  I really hope each and every one of the corrupt bastards that had anything to do with this case looks deep within themselves and ask why they allowed this to happen, and find it within themselves to prevent it from happening ever again, for little Colton’s sake. 

ROSEDALE — The swing set is rocked by the wind and a red tricycle is abandoned by a shed in tall grass – signs of life left behind by a young boy killed by his own father.  Yesterday, the three-year-old’s mother, Meara McIntosh sat on a deck outside the very house she fled just recently, saying she feared it was the only way to save her son from harm.

‘I WAS TERRIFIED’

“I left here because I was terrified to be in my own home,” she said yesterday.

Last Sunday, her nightmare – a culmination of what she says was months of stalking and no one listening – became reality when police found Colton dead in a Drumheller home at the hands of his own father, Richard Saunders, who was found dead at his side.  “I think it happened the way it did so I would have to wake up every day for the rest of my life without snuggle bubble,” the 27-year-old said yesterday while holding her son’s tiny stuffed monkey.  “But I won’t let him take my happiness, I will celebrate his life and one day I will remarry and have more children.”

Last Friday, McIntosh said she was forced to hand Colton over to Saunders for the weekend – despite fearing he would harm them and planned to leave town to get away from her estranged husband.  “I knew statistically, it was the most dangerous time and had no intention of letting him see Colton again,” she said.

Terrified, she obeyed the court order – and now will never see her son alive again.

“I forgot to say goodbye,” she said. “But baby boy didn’t, he always said goodbye.

“He said goodbye over his shoulder and went bouncing off.”

McIntosh said she left her husband when Colton was 10 months old because of his drug use and late nights.  After she moved from Fort McMurray to Drumheller, however, Saunders soon followed to try to rekindle the relationship, she said.  From there, an ongoing custody dispute unfolded.  “Then the stalking started,” she said.

It began with suspicious footprints in the snow outside her home, vandalism and slashed car tires.  She got a restraining order but after it expired she sought help – only to find none. She said cops “threatened to arrest (her) for making false complaints,” while a social worker tried to claim she was an unfit mother and some people in the community simply didn’t believe her.

She said she started keeping a journal, got a tape recorder and put video surveillance outside her home, hoping to convince officials of her claims of fear.  She went into hiding about two months ago when a court order forced her to stay in Drumheller.  “I was absolutely terrified,” she said.

RCMP have not revealed the cause of Colton and his father’s death but suspect it may have been carbon monoxide poisoning.  McIntosh’s father, John, is pointing fingers at authorities.  “Police, social services and the court system worked in perfect conjunction to deliver Colton to his death,” he said.

REVIEWING COMPLAINTS

RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said cops are reviewing the many complaints filed by the couple dealing with child custody issues. 

He said there were none involving threats or physical danger.

Original story at the Edmonton Sun.

New!  Also see commentary from blogger “Crooked in Canada“

New:  Colton’s burial arrangements.