True crime: Was Jeremy Steinke a 300-year-old werewolf – or a predator?

Werewolves in Canada – or just another grisly true crime? In the mid-aughts, that was the question for one small town in Alberta after a boy came running from a friend’s house after seeing his & his family’s bodies mangled in the basement. 

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the work of a real werewolf, but a deranged individual who preyed on the naivete of a twelve-year-old girl. Discover how a twisted fantasy involving werewolves & vampires led to a horrible true crime: a family annihilation. 

Gruesome scene

In 2006, a little boy wanted to go over to his friend’s house to play. His mother said yes and he skipped off to see if his friend was home. However, when he knocked on the Richardson family’s door to see if his friend could play, he discovered a gruesome scene that no six-year-old should have to see. 

After running back home, he told his mother that through his friend’s basement window to see if they were home, he saw the Richardsons laying in the basement, covered in blood. After calling the police, authorities confirmed that the Richardsons perished in a bloody home invasion. 

Mrs. Richardson, 48, had twelve stab wounds, including one that pierced her heart. This wound was 12 cm, or about five inches, deep. Mr. Richardson had twenty-four stab wounds. The little boy’s friend, Jacob, was found in his room with blood all over his toys and his throat slit. 

Missing girl

With the rest of the Richardsons accounted for, authorities began worrying about Jasmine, the Richardsons’ twelve-year-old daughter. Nowhere to be found, investigators grew concerned that another true crime took place: Jasmine had been kidnapped on top of her family’s murder. However, as authorities dug deeper, it looked like Jasmine may not have been so innocent, or a victim, after all. 

At the tender age of twelve, Jasmine had met a man eleven years her senior online. Jeremey Steinke was twenty-three years old when he & Jasmine started chatting. Steinke had a troubled background. His mother was an alcoholic and he had been diagnosed as depressed & hyperactive when he was a teenager. Online, he crafted a persona stating he was a “300-year-old werewolf” on a site called VampireFreaks.com. 

After Jasmine Richardson found this so-called werewolf online, she reportedly fell for him. She began dressing “goth” and describing herself as “nocturnal & insane”. One of Jasmine’s teachers remarked at how fast & baffling her transformation was from a typical twelve-year-old into a wannabe goth who dressed older than her age. 

Of course, once Jasmine’s parents uncovered the reason behind her sudden change, they forbade Jasmine from speaking to Steinke again. That’s when things took a turn from a messed-up goth crush to true crime. 

Natural Born Killers

Authorities uncovered a disturbing note on one of Steinke’s social media pages, reading: “Payment! My Lover’s rents are totally unfair; they say that they really care; they don’t know what is going on; they just assume . . . Their throats I want to slit. They will regret the sh*t they have done. Especially, when I see to it that they are gone. They shall pay for their insulince. Finally, there shall be silence. Their blood shall be payment!”

While this message led investigators to believe Steinke concocted the plan, further digging into the couple’s chats revealed it was Jasmine Richardson who came up with the plan. According to friends, they based their true crime on Oliver Stone’s Natural-Born Killers, featuring two spree killers who annihilate Mallory Knox’s (Juliette Lewis) family to begin their crime spree. 

April 23rd, 2006

The authorities pieced the story together from their investigation, from Jasmine Richardson & Jeremy Steinke’s confessions, and from witnesses who claimed the duo bragged about the crime at a house party later that night. 

On April 23rd, Jeremy snuck into the Richardsons’ basement, breaking a window to do so. Mrs. Richardson went downstairs to investigate, where she encountered Steinke. Mr. Richardson came downstairs and in a frenzy, tried to fight Steinke. Steinke, who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol & drugs at the time of the murder, ended up stabbing him, but not before Mr. Richardson gouged Steinke’s eye out. 

After killing the parents, Jeremy Steinke went to Jacob’s room where he & Jasmine reportedly argued why eight-year-old Jacob hadn’t been killed yet. It was unclear who killed Jacob, as neither member of this true-crime pair would own up to Jacob’s murder. During the interrogation, Jasmine confessed to the crime, telling authorities she reasoned it would be cruel to leave Jacob without their parents. 

After leaving the scene of the crime, Steinke & Jasmine went to a diner and a house party where they bragged about their true-crime spree. 

Not so happily-ever-after

Police caught up to the self-professed werewolf and his underage partner-in-crime in a small town in Saskatchewan, about eighty miles from Jasmine’s hometown in Alberta. After finding the perps of this grisly true crime hiding under a blanket in the bed of Steinke’s truck, they were taken into custody. 

After an interrogation, both Jasmine Richardson & Jeremy Steinke were charged with triple homicide. In 2007, Jasmine became the youngest person in Canadian history to be convicted of three murders at the age of thirteen. Because she was a minor, she was sentenced to ten years in jail. She served four years in a psychiatric institution and four under “conditional community supervision”, or probation. 

Authorities said Jasmine was a model prisoner during her stay and turned her life around. She was allowed to go to college during her probation but under a strict curfew & monitoring. She was released from custody in 2016 at twenty-three. Meanwhile, Jeremy Steinke was sentenced to three life sentences, which are twenty-five years in Canada. He will be eligible for parole in 2033.