Robert Major is shown in an undated handout photo provided by the Edmonton Police Service. He pleaded guilty in May to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Mchale Busch, 24, and her son, Noah McConnell. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Edmonton Police Service, *MANDATORY CREDIT*
HINTON, Alta. – A sentencing hearing has started for a man who admitted to killing a woman and her 16-month-old son in western Alberta.
Robert Major pleaded guilty in May to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Mchale Busch, who was 24, and her son, Noah McConnell.
Busch and her son were found dead in an apartment complex in Hinton, about 250 kilometres west of Edmonton, on Sept. 17, 2021.
The woman and her partner had moved into an apartment next to Major’s three weeks earlier.
Busch’s father was the first to read out what are expected to be at least 20 victim impact statements submitted at the hearing.
Stuart Busch says he battles with nightmares and is forever haunted by the image of his daughter and grandson being killed “at the hands of a monster.”
“It frightens me to the bone that these people live among us,” he said of Major.
Parole Board of Canada documents show Major, a registered sex offender, was sentenced to almost four years for an offence in 2012, in which he took a toddler from a babysitter’s care for an unsupervised walk and sexually assaulted the child.
Edmonton police later issued a warning about Major being released into the community, warning there was a chance he could harm “a female, including children.”
The Crown has said it isn’t known how Mchale Busch ended up in Major’s apartment, but that is where he sexually assaulted her, strangled her and mutilated her body.
Court heard Major then suffocated the child by stuffing a sock in his mouth and putting a plastic bag over his head.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2022.
