Jeremy Steinke was 23 years old when he agreed to help Jasmine Richardson murder her parents and eight-year-old brother inside their home in Medicine Hat, Canada on April 23, 2006.
Jeremy SteinkeJeremy Steinke was 23 years old when he helped his 12-year-old “girlfriend” kill her family.
In April 2006, the community of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada was horrified when Marc Richardson, Debra Richardson, and their eight-year-old son Tyler were found murdered in their home. Their 12-year-old daughter Jasmine was also missing. But as investigators soon shockingly discovered, Jasmine and her older “boyfriend” Jeremy Steinke were the killers behind the brutal triple homicide.
Steinke, then 23 years old, had met Jasmine through a friend. He purportedly didn’t know her true age — though he knew she was very young — and the two fell in love. Then, when Jasmine’s parents forbid their relationship, Jasmine suggested killing them. And Jeremy Steinke helped her do it.
But while Jasmine Richardson was tried as a minor and sentenced to 10 years for the gruesome crime, Steinke, of course, was tried as an adult. He was sentenced to life in prison.
This is his story, from his childhood of abuse to his purported “remorse” over the Richardson family murders.
Jeremy Steinke’s Abusive Childhood
Jeremy Allan Steinke was born on January 15, 1983 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. And as the jury heard at his murder trial, Steinke’s upbringing was anything but stable.
He spent most of his childhood with his mother, Jacqueline Ann May, who struggled with alcoholism. They moved often, which made it hard for the young boy to make friends, and Steinke’s mother’s boyfriends and husbands were frequently abusive.
According Runaway Devil by journalists Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose, Steinke endured terrible abuse as a child. At one point, one of Steinke’s stepfathers locked the boy in a deep freezer. At another, Steinke broke the arm of one of his mother’s ex-boyfriends while defending himself with a lead pipe.
“Jeremy’s dad started using the belt on him around two,” Steinke’s mother testified, according to reporting by CBC in 2008. “He would sometimes pick Jeremy up by the ears and carry him to his room, or grab him by the ears and drag him to his room.”
Medicine Hat High SchoolJeremy Steinke’s high school yearbook photo.
Steinke’s life at school, where his classmates called him “Stinky” wasn’t much better. CBC reported in 2008 that Steinke was diagnosed with depression and hyperactivity at the age of 13, and soon began cutting. He even tried to hang himself.
“He continuously would say to me that he wished that he wasn’t alive,” May, Steinke’s mother, testified. “He wished he was dead.”
By the age of 14, Steinke had started drinking. He then began to consume other substances as well, including shrooms, ecstasy, acid, and marijuana. Then, in 10th grade, he dropped out of high school. Though Jeremy Steinke spent the next several years trying to find ways to continue his education or find a job, he eventually seemed to give up.
Instead, Steinke became immersed in the goth subculture. According to reporting from the New Zealand Herald in 2016, he described himself as a “300-year-old werewolf” and began to wear a vial of blood around his neck.
Then, through mutual friends, Jeremy Steinke crossed paths with a girl named Jasmine Richardson.
Jeremy Steinke Meets Jasmine Richardson
According to Runaway Devil, Jasmine Richardson — though just 12 — had embraced the violent fringes of the goth subculture as much as Steinke had. On social media, she posted a picture of herself holding a replica handgun, and claimed she was 16. Jasmine also listed her interests as “hatchets, serial killers, criminal psychology, blood, moonlight, human anatomy, and ‘kinky shit,'” and claimed to be a fan of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
It was during this time that Jeremy Steinke, 23, met Richardson through a mutual friend at the beginning of 2006. They soon began “dating.” But when Jasmine’s parents, Marc and Debra, heard about their daughter’s much-older boyfriend, they refused to allow the relationship to continue.
Wikimedia CommonsJasmine Richardson was 12 years old when she started dating Jeremy Steinke.
As a result, Jasmine Richardson reportedly began to plot their murder. According to the New Zealand Herald, she sent Steinke an online message which read: “I have this plan. It begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you.”
Meanwhile, Steinke also began expressing his desire to hurt Jasmine’s parents online.
“My girlfriends family are totally unfair,” he wrote. “…She is slowly going insane…Their throats I want to slit, they will regret the shit they have done… Their blood shall be payment!”
And Jeremy Steinke and Jasmine Richardson soon put their plan into action.
The Gruesome Richardson Family Murders
On April 23, 2006, Jeremy Steinke arrived at the Richardson family home in Medicine Hat. He snuck into the family basement wearing a neoprene mask and carrying a knife, and when he encountered Debra Richardson, Steinke stabbed her to death — 12 times. Marc Richardson, hearing his wife in distress, came running.
Google MapsThe Richardson family home.
Though Marc tried to fight back with a screwdriver, Steinke stabbed him 24 times. And when Marc Richardson asked why he was doing it, Steinke replied: “It’s what your daughter wanted.”
However, Steinke and Jasmine Richardson both told different stories about what happened next. According to Reuters in 2007, Jasmine claimed that Steinke ordered her to then murder her eight-year-old brother, Tyler, who was upstairs in his bedroom. Steinke, however, testified that he stood in the doorway and watched as Jasmine stabbed her brother and slashed his throat. She reportedly did not want to leave her brother “an orphan.”
After the murders, Jeremy Steinke and Jasmine Richardson had sex, according to Reuters. They later went to a party where they were seen kissing so intently that they made some guests uncomfortable, and where partygoers also noticed that Steinke had a black eye. The two also reportedly bragged about the murder.
Indeed, it didn’t take long for investigators to find them. The very next day, April 24, the two were arrested in Leader, Saskatchewan. There was little doubt about their guilt. Steinke had even bragged to an undercover police officer about the murder, stating that while it was Jasmine’s idea, he had also been inspired by the film Natural Born Killers.
Jeremy Steinke Is Sentenced To Life In Prison
After the Richardson family murders, both Jeremy Steinke and Jasmine Richardson were put on trial. Jasmine, tried as a minor, was found guilty and sentenced to a 10-year Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) sentence, which included four years in a psychiatric hospital.
Steinke, who claimed at trial that there had been no murder plot and that he had been “surprised” by Debra Richardson, was also found guilty. He was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility for parole after 25 years behind bars.
“He said he was extremely remorseful,” Steinke’s lawyer stated. “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.”
Jeremy Steinke, who now goes by the name Jackson May, remains in prison to this day.
After reading about the man behind the gruesome Richardson family murders, discover the disturbing murder of Jun Lin. Then, learn about the Barbie and Ken killers of Ontario.
