Eastern PEI couple sentenced to 3 years in prison in Summer Kneebone case

A southeastern PEI man and woman have been sentenced to three years in prison for their actions following the death of 27-year-old Summer Kneebone more than a year ago.

About 20 of Kneebone’s family members and their supporters were at the Georgetown courthouse Thursday as Donald Roy Holmes and Samantha Jemima Parlee-Buell received their sentences.

The couple are both from Pembroke, just north of Murray Harbour. They were arrested in New Glasgow, N.S., more than a month after Kneebone was last seen alive in Charlottetown on August 7, 2023.

Police said at the time that two people were arrested. Canadian Criminal Code Section 182(b) On charges of tampering with a corpse or human remains.

Holmes and Parlee-Buell pleaded guilty to those charges in October, along with one count each of misleading police.

Before Thursday’s sentencing, the court heard Holmes and Parlee-Buell initially lied to police about how much they knew about Kneebone’s whereabouts after she was reported missing.

The two eventually admitted to investigators that Kneebone died while he was with them and that they hid his body in a rural area of ​​eastern PEI.

Holmes apologized to his family

On Thursday, Judge Nancy Orr accepted the joint sentencing recommendation from Crown and defense attorneys.

Both Holmes and Parlee-Buell were sentenced to three years in prison for tampering with human remains and six months for misleading police. They will serve these sentences simultaneously.

They had already spent 419 days in jail, so they were each given 628 days of pre-trial detention, which will be deducted from their sentences.

The couple will be sentenced to three years of supervised release after serving their prison sentences. They will also have to provide a DNA sample and will be banned from contacting members of Kneebone’s family.

Four of Kneebone’s family members read victim impact statements in court Thursday.

Parlee-Buell did not speak when given the opportunity, but Holmes addressed Kneebone’s relatives, saying: “I apologize to the family, the community and the state for my actions.”

The identity of the vehicle was determined using security camera footage.

After Kneebone was reported missing, Charlottetown police asked homeowners and businesses to preserve any surveillance video they had from the evening of Aug. 7.

Social media posts asked for information on the young woman’s whereabouts, including a post to the Aboriginal Alert Facebook page stating that indigenous people had gone missing.

Surveillance footage from a Charlottetown business showed Kneebone getting into an SUV in the Value Village parking lot on Aug. 7, according to agreed facts read in court last month. Police were unable to distinguish the make, model or license of the vehicle. number plate.

On September 5, investigators determined that the vehicle they were looking for was registered to Holmes.

Holmes told police he met Kneebone unexpectedly at Value Village and dropped him off at a private residence on Queen Street.

The court heard Holmes and Parlee-Buell told police they did not see Kneebone after that in an attempt to divert suspicion from themselves. However, according to the agreed facts, Kneebone had decided to go with them to Kings County.

At one point Kneebone became unresponsive and died. The couple did not call the police.

The next day, August 8, Holmes and Parlee-Buell took Kneebone’s body to DeGros Marsh in rural Kings County and buried his remains.

Police later received an anonymous tip that the duo was trying to sell a vehicle in New Glasgow, N.S., that matched the description of the SUV seen in Charlottetown surveillance footage.

The two were arrested, and Parlee-Buell eventually led police to Kneebone’s remains on September 15.

A Nova Scotia-based medical examiner was unable to determine how Kneebone died, but reported evidence of “numerous nervous system stimulant drugs” in his system.

The forensic medicine report said, “The contribution of these stimulant drugs to the cause of death cannot be ignored.”