Vanessa Burns, former partner of killer Myles Sanderson, expected to testify Thursday afternoon

The coroner’s inquest into the stabbing massacre that occurred at James Smith Cree Nation included an emotional exchange Thursday morning when a retired RCMP officer apologized to the daughter of one of the victims.

“I am the daughter of Earl Burns,” Deborah Burns told retired Staff Sgt. Darren Lee Simons, after he answered her questions about how he responded to the violent attacks.

Earl Burns was one of the 11 people killed by community member Myles Sanderson during the stabbing massacre on Sept. 4, 2022.  Seventeen other people were gravely injured.

“I can’t imagine your loss, but just know this one’s tough on me personally, and I apologize that your father did not get my attention earlier,” Simons said to Deborah Burns. She is one of the family members who has standing in the inquest, which means she can ask witnesses questions.

The inquest began on Monday in Melfort — a small city about 30 kilometres southeast of James Smith Cree Nation — and is scheduled to continue until Feb. 2.  Jury members are listening to the evidence and will be tasked with providing recommendations to help prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.

Simons was the detachment commander at the time of the massacre and was among the first RCMP officers to arrive at the crime scenes.

Deb Burns questioned why it took police so long to find her father. By the time Simons found Earl on the school bus, he had died.

Myles Sanderson attacked Earl Burns and his wife Joyce in their family home, but Earl was later found dead on the school bus he drove for the community. The bus was rolled off a grid road backward into a ditch. His relatives said Earl, despite his stab wounds, was trying to chase down Myles Sanderson and lure the killer away from his family home.

Deb told Simons that her mom had reported to police that Earl, who was injured, had gone from their home in the school bus prior to 7 a.m. She asked why officers drove past the bus multiple times without investigating.

Simons said he personally passed the bus twice, and made note of it, but didn’t stop and didn’t return until later in the morning, after attending scenes where there were confirmed dead and injured people.

“I believe in connections. Everything is connected,” he said, explaining that the other places he had been before the bus had been linked to Earl.

Simons said that, at one point, he was taking steps to secure the area near the triage centre at the band office and noticed a truck fishtailing down the grid roads toward the centre. The man inside was screaming that he was going to hunt down the person who killed his father. Simons stopped the truck, took the keys, removed a shotgun and secured it.

He said he then had to secure another home, which was covered in blood, to make sure there was no one inside.

“The individual that I took the shotgun off was the son of the bus driver. The house I cleared was the residence of the bus driver, the bus driver was a proud veteran of the Canadian Army,”  Simons said, wiping tears from his face and noting that he, too, is a veteran of the Canadian Army.

“I wish we had gone there earlier. This is a member of a community I’ve sworn to protect and assist. This is a veteran. I would have rather dealt with that earlier, but at the time I was looking at it, ‘why is that bus in the trees?’ I never imagined I would find what I found when I opened that bus door.”

The coroner’s inquest began on Monday. So far, all testimony has come from police officers. They have detailed the series of events leading up to and during the mass casualties, as well as the response that followed.

Sanderson’s partner expected to testify

Vanessa Burns, Myles Sanderson’s former partner, is expected to testify on Thursday afternoon.  She is also one of Earl Burns’s daughters.

The inquest previously heard that Myles Sanderson was extremely violent with Vanessa just days before the violent stabbings.

Sanderson was selling cocaine to James Smith Cree Nation residents in the summer of 2022. He had Vanessa drive him back and forth between there and their home in Saskatoon.

On Sept. 1, 2022, they had driven out to James Smith Cree Nation together, with their four children, so Sanderson could sell drugs. They were staying with Myles’ brother Damien and his wife Skye Sanderson.

About 40 hours before the mass killings, Sanderson snapped and became angry with Vanessa. He brought up issues from the couple’s past, including Vanessa’s other relationships.

Myles attacked Vanessa with a scale and attempted to strangle her while she was driving. She stopped the vehicle outside of the home and fled, but Myles continued to assault her. Myles’s mother and Skye, along with some children in the house, witnessed parts of this attack.

Vanessa hid behind Myles’s mother as Myles got into the driver’s seat and rapidly drove toward them. The people there believed that Myles wanted to run Vanessa over. She went back to Saskatoon, leaving Myles with his brother Damien. Damien would later become the first person Myles killed in the massacre.

Sanderson, 32, died in custody shortly after police arrested him on Sept. 7, 2022.