Could have been a fifth victim in Claresholm murder-suicide
Posted Dec 19, 2011 6:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A young Lethbridge woman says she was supposed to be in a SUV heading to Calgary when it was allegedly run off the road near Claresholm by a jealous boyfriend of one of the passengers, who then shot the four people inside before turning the gun on himself.
The Globe and Mail reports a third woman, Cait McFarlane, had intended to travel to Calgary with the group but an oversized laundry basket left little room for a fifth passenger.
The young woman says she offered to stay behind and wished the others a safe trip.
McFarlane says when she heard the news that there had been a murder-suicide along Highway 2 and a green Sunfire was involved, she felt sick.
She says she immediately thought of her close friend Tabitha Stepple, who had a similar car, and feared the worst.
McFarlane described an incident last week where Stepple had told her ex to leave the apartment the former couple shared. He then shoved her into a wall.
That ex-boyfriend was Derek Jensen, the man identified as the shooter.
On Monday, a high school in Prince Edward Island will honour two of the victims in the tragedy with a game of catch; a tribute to the two men who loved baseball so much.
Early Thursday morning, Tabitha Stepple, Tanner Craswell and Mitch MacLean were gunned down by 21-year-old Derek Jensen who then turned the gun on himself.
Shayna Conway was also shot three times. She is the sole survivor, and will spend the better part of Monday undergoing surgery.
