• January 27. Penny Boudreau notifies Bridgewater Police at 7:30 p.m. that her 12-year-old daughter, Karissa, is missing. She tells officers she left the girl in the car outside the Bridgewater Mall Sobeys store following an argument and when she returned Karissa was gone. Police and family members begin looking for the child believing she has run away from home.

• January 28. Bridgewater Police contact other police agencies and alert the media as they extend the search for the missing 12 year old.

• January 29. Penny Boudreau makes a tearful plea to her daughter to come home at a press conference at the Bridgewater Police station. She explains that she took Karissa for a drive on Sunday “to have a heart-to-heart” with her. They argued over “typical teenage things” that really weren’t significant.

• January 30. Reports that Karissa is missing continue to spread as the 12 year old’s photo is plastered in stores and businesses around Bridgewater and beyond.

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• February 1. Penny Boudreau makes a second emotional appeal to her daughter or anybody who knows where she is to make contact. “It’s hard not to know where your kid is,” she tells reporters. Police admit they have no evidence to confirm that Karissa was in the Sobeys lot on Sunday because there are no surveillance videos of the area.

• February 6. A week of searching on the ground and from the air turns up no sign of Karissa. After two days in the LaHave, RCMP divers say they are confident that the missing girl is not in the river.

• February 9. A passerby discovers Karissa’s frozen body on the bank of the LaHave River below Highway 331 just outside Bridgewater town limits in Conquerall Bank at 11:30 a.m. Forensic investigators descend on the scene.

• February 14. The RCMP and Bridgewater Police call a news conference to confirm that the body found on the riverbank was Karissa and that the missing person case has become a homicide investigation.

• February 15. Two Bridgewater residents known to Karissa are released after being held for 24 hours for questioning. Police won’t confirm their identities, but continue to say they are confident the murder was not random and Karissa knew her killer.

• February 17. Police warn the murder investigation could take days, weeks or months to complete. “For us to do a proper job, we’re going to take the time we need to take,” Sgt. John Collyer, Bridgewater’s acting deputy chief, says.

• February 18. Bridgewater Police Chief Brent Crowhurst urges the community to feel safe, asking residents to trust investigators when they say Karissa’s murder is an isolated incident. He assures townspeople that more than 20 investigators from his force and the RCMP are working on the case and have the combined training and experience to resolve it.

• February 19. Hundreds of people attend a funeral service for the slain 12 year old in Shelburne County, where she previously lived and her father and grandparents still reside. She’s buried in a cemetery in Clarks Harbour.

• February 23. Bridgewater mourns Karissa at a memorial service organized by nine churches. She has become “Bridgewater’s daughter.”

• June 14. After four months of assurances that they are making progress in the case but can’t release details of the investigation, police announce they arrested Penny Boudreau the previous evening and have charged her with first-degree murder. Chief Brent Crowhurst says, “Investigators feel confident that there was only one person responsible for this homicide. We do not expect anyone else to be charged in this case.”

• June 16. Penny Boudreau is arraigned on a single count of first-degree murder. Crowds jeer and yell profanities as she is escorted from the Bridgewater courthouse in handcuffs. Crown attorney Paul Scovil won’t say how Karissa died, but confirms that the charge indicates the crime was planned and deliberate. Court documents reveal that police believe she was killed in Bridgewater on January 27, the same day her mother reported her missing.

• June 24. Concerned residents are disappointed when they show up for Penny Boudreau’s second court appearance and she does not. A Halifax defence lawyer appears on her behalf and has the case bumped to July 15 so documents can continue changing hands.

• July 15. Defence lawyer Pat Atherton appears in Bridgewater provincial court on Penny Boudreau’s behalf again. Disclosure of the Crown’s evidence is ongoing and the case is adjourned until September 3.

• September 3. The case is adjourned again without Penny Boudreau’s attendance. She remains in custody in the Burnside correctional centre.

• October 22. Penny Boudreau doesn’t appear for her latest court date, but defence lawyer Pat Atherton waives his client’s right to a preliminary hearing, which moves the case to the Supreme Court. Mr. Atherton continues to refuse to comment on the case, but Crown attorney Paul Scovil speculates that the move may mean the defence is satisfied the Crown could meet the minimal test at the preliminary hearing level. The case is scheduled for December 3 to set a trial date.

•  December 4. The accused mom makes her second appearance in a Bridgewater courtroom, this time for arraignment in the Supreme Court. She rocks back and forth, periodically wiping tears from her face, as lawyers discuss dates for future court appearances. Crown and defence are still talking. Penny Boudreau is scheduled to return to court on January 30.

• January 27, 2009.  About 200 people attend a candlelight memorial at Shipyards Landing marking the one-year anniversary of Karissa’s reported disappearance and death.

• January 30, 2009.  Penny Boudreau pleads guilty to second-degree murder and is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years. The court hears that she killed Karissa because the child was in the way of her relationship with her boyfriend.

posted on 10/27/08