A Canadian woman has been convicted of killing her friend after police discovered the murder weapon used in a picture of the pair on social media.
Cheyenne Rose Antoine, 21, pleaded guilty on Monday to killing Brittney Gargol, 18, in March 2015.
Gargol was found strangled to death near a landfill in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with Antoine’s belt near her body.
Antoine was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter.
She was identified as a suspect after she posted a selfie on Facebook of the two of them, showing her wearing the belt hours before Gargol died.
Antoine, who was initially charged with second-degree murder, also eventually confessed to a friend that she had hit Gargol and strangled her, CBC reported from court.
She said they were drunk and high on marijuana, and got into a heated argument.
Police said that aspects of the story she first gave to them – which was that the pair had visited several bars before Gargol left with an unidentified man, while she went to see her uncle – did not add up.
They used Facebook posts to help establish the movements of the pair that night.
Police realised that Antoine’s Facebook post on Gargol’s personal page the following morning – “Where are you? Haven’t heard from you. Hope you made it home safe” – was a diversion.
As part of her plea, Antoine accepted responsibility for Gargol’s death but said she did not remember killing her.
“I will never forgive myself. Nothing I say or do will ever bring her back. I am very, very sorry… It shouldn’t have ever happened,” she said in a statement through her lawyer.
Her lawyer said her client had suffered years of abuse in the Saskatchewan care system and had gone to police to report abuse by foster parents a month before the killing.
Before Antoine was sentenced, Gargol’s aunt gave a victim impact statement to the court.
“Most days we can’t stop thinking about Brittney, what happened that night, what she must have felt fighting for her life,” Jennifer Gargol said.
Source: BBC
