Along with the drama of killings and murder trials are more mundane matters. The home in which a Medicine Hat family was slain became a real estate story with a twist: What was to become of the death house? It sat abandoned during the daughter’s triple murder trial — there wouldn’t be a definitive answer until after the verdict. If Runaway Devil was innocent, it would be hers. If she was found guilty, she wouldn’t get a dime — the property would be considered proceeds of crime. She was convicted of her family’s murders, but her grandfather vowed to put the money from the home’s sale into a trust fund to pay for her education.
Scene of triple killing up for sale: House may have stigma for some
Monday, March 26, 2007
Sherri Zickefoose
Calgary Herald ©
Medicine Hat’s most notorious crime scene will soon be for sale.
Fresh paint and new carpet are transforming the suburban family’s dream home, erasing traces of the deadly nightmare that befell a father, mother and their eight-year-old son within its walls a year ago.
“It’s going to be sold, everything will be liquidated. We don’t know how it’s going to go,” said the slain man’s father of Sudbury, Ont.
The four-level split house that was once so full of life will soon be appraised and put back on the market.
“It’ll be better when someone moves in. It won’t be so dark and gloomy. There will be some life over there,” said next-door neighbour Phyllis Gehring.
But even before the for-sale sign is planted on the Cameron Road S.E. lawn, real estate experts say “crime scene stigma” can scare buyers off, stall sales and even see prices below what they’re worth.
“To some people it doesn’t matter. To some people, it is significant. It could have religious connotations,” said Bill Fowler of the Alberta Real Estate Association.
“And there’s a third type of person to whom it is an absolute thrill, and that’s a shame.”
In 2003, Medicine Hat real estate agent Linda Brooks sold the family their dreamhouse with a fenced backyard and wooden deck perfect for summer barbecuing for $169,000.
“They were a nice family,” she remembers.
In some U.S. states, real estate agents are required by guidelines to disclose a home’s traumatic history.
In Canada, there is no similar law. Home sellers are instead expected to share details of homicide or suicide just as they would for defects.
It’s an unpleasant conversation, but it is the ethical thing to do, said Brooks.
“Of course, everyone in Medicine Hat knows what happened. It’s going to be rather difficult. It would have a huge effect on it,” Brooks said.
Predicting what the home may sell for is in itself a challenge, even in Medicine Hat’s “excellent” housing market, she said.
Other houses for sale in the slain family’s Ross Glen community range from $219,500 to $309,900 right now.
A 1,200-square-foot house built in 1974 that is similar to the family’s split level is listed at $274,900, according to the real estate listing website mls.ca.
But whether homebuyers would feel comfortable separated from the tragedy by a layer of paint remains to be seen.
“Will their house go for fair market value? I don’t know what’s been done inside. I can’t predict if it will be under or over,” said Brooks.
“There’s quite a bit of house there. The homes are a little bit older and the resell has always been good in that area.”
Homes where notorious murders and suicides happened are often magnets for attention, even when empty.
Twice the family’s house has been broken into since the family was found slain inside April 23, 2006, police say.
In the U.S., residential crime scenes have created a macabre tourism industry.
Homes of serial killers, infamous celebrity murders and even the Clutter house in Holcomb, Kan. — made famous in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood — attract bus tours.
In Canada, the St. Catharines, Ont., “house of horrors” where Paul Bernardo raped and killed two schoolgirls with Karla Homolka was bulldozed.
Home of murdered ‘Hat family sold; Sale price was thousands under listing
Calgary Herald
August 21, 2007
Sherri Zickefoose
The house in which a Medicine Hat family was slain has a new owner who paid tens of thousands of dollars less than it was listed for just two weeks ago.
The 1,014-square-foot house, owned by the family before their murders, was listed earlier this month for $239,900 after being extensively remodelled last spring.
It sold Friday for $219,000.
The sale is final, according to a Medicine Hat real estate company.
The realtor did not respond to the Herald’s calls Monday, and the identity of the purchaser is unknown.
Interest in the split-level house was steady during its brief availability on Medicine Hat’s housing market, neighbours on Cameron Road say.
“There was lots of activity for the first two weeks. There were people coming and going, two or three a day,” said Vernon Gehring, who lives next door.
“There was one night when four vehicles were out front. There was a lot of interest. It’s surprising.”
The discounted price reflects the home’s dark history.
The father, mother and their eight-year-old son were stabbed to death inside on April 23, 2006.
A six-year-old neighbour coming over to play discovered bloody bodies and ran for his mother.
The couple’s daughter, who was 12 at the time and her boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, now 24, were arrested with friends the next morning in Leader, Sask., and charged with the killings.
As the girl’s first-degree murder trial was in full swing this summer, the province quietly took official ownership of the home as public trustee on June 21.
The 13-year-old girl was found guilty July 9.
Steinke has not yet entered a plea.
During the high-profile trial, Cameron Road neighbours say they grew weary of people driving by to look at the empty death house.
News of a new owner has lifted the spirits of many in the community who have seen the silent, darkened house as a painful reminder of the family tragedy.
“Sometime in the next month or two we’ll have somebody moving in and that will make it better,” said Gehring.
“It’s not been the best year.”
Real estate experts say “crime scene stigma” typically scares superstitious buyers off.
Stigmatized properties can stall sales and see homes sold for less than they’re worth.
The family purchased their grey Ross Glen house with a fenced backyard and wooden deck for $169,000 in 2003. The four-level split was built in 1977. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Houses of similar size and vintage in Medicine Hat are listed between $240,000 and $289,900 — much higher than what the home went for.
The realty office handling the sale on behalf of the provincial government disclosed that the property was the scene of a violent crime.
Unlike some U.S. states, Canadian real estate agents are not required by guidelines to disclose a home’s traumatic history.
Sellers are instead expected to share details of violent crime or suicide just as they would for home defects.
According to Medicine Hat real estate agents, the resale market has always been good in Ross Glen, a suburban neighbourhood with schools and churches. But buyers of houses fixed up after infamous and grisly crimes benefit from bargain prices.
