A man admitted Monday in court in Edmonton that he was the author of a double tragedy that occurred in 2021 in Hinton, Alberta: the murder of Mchale Busch, a 24-year-old woman, and her toddler Noah McConnell, 16 months.
Robert Keith Major intentionally killed the young woman before suffocating his toddler on the afternoon of Sept. 16, 2021, the judicial report explains the facts.
Her confession, before Judge Marta Burns of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, means she is giving up her right to a trial. His sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 22.
The minimum sentence for first degree murder is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
Robert Keith Major was initially charged with two counts of second degree murder and one count of indignity over human remains. Those charges were changed to two counts of first degree murder and two counts of indecency on human remains. These last two numbers remained.
Known sex offender
The Agreed Statement of Facts states that shortly before his murder, Mchale Busch moved to Hinton to allow his fiancée Cody McConnell, to work there in the oil and gas industry. Their residence is adjacent to the residence of the man who pleaded guilty to double murder. The latter was a sex offender known to police.
Four years earlier, in 2017, Edmonton police issued a public warning about him when he was just released. Police said they had reason to believe the man would again commit a sexual offense, including against children.
In a statement to CBC/Radio-Canada, Cody McConnell, the boyfriend of the deceased, said the family had no idea of Robert Keith Major’s criminal history.
scary story
At his residence in Hinton, a town about 300 kilometers west of Edmonton, Robert Keith Major tried several times to trap a female cleaner by inviting her, without success, to his apartment.
Another woman also declined her invitations and even complained to the building owner, the court report continued.
Then, on September 16, he suggested to the girl to clean the mud outside their apartment and it would come from her boyfriend’s boots.
According to a neighbor who overheard the conversation, Robert Keith Major asked Mchale Busch when his wife would be home from work.
The account does not say how the maiden ended up inside the man’s apartment. On the other hand, he indicated that the latter attempted to sexually assault him, an attack to which the victim responded, primarily by biting his attacker.
Using his hands and cable, the man strangled the woman to death, then raped her, before leaving the inert body in her bathtub.
He then attacked his infant son whom he killed with his own hands and the corpse he placed in a garbage bag which he then dumped in a dumpster near the building.
Both bodies were discovered the following day by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
There is information from Madeleine Cummings
Source: Radio-Canada
