'I want to f***ing kill Vanessa': James Smith inquest hears of warning signs before mass killing

Warning: Some readers may find details in this story disturbing.

Vanessa Burns wiped tears from her eyes as she described the feeling of defeat the last time she suffered physical abuse at the hands of her former partner, Myles Sanderson.

“I felt so mad at myself,” she said. “You know, it was just shitty, because I was back in that situation I fought so hard to get out of.”

On Thursday, a coroner’s inquest heard raw and emotional testimony from Burns about her relationship with Sanderson. Burns gave a rare glimpse into the mind of the man police say killed 11 people and wounded 17 others in the communities of James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon in September 2022.

Burns said she met Sanderson over Christmas in 2007 and the two started dating about a month later.

“In the beginning he was charming, funny,” she said.

They would spend time walking around the village with her cousin, sometimes going fishing. They also liked to drink together, she said, especially before they had children.

Two months into their relationship together, Burns said Sanderson became physically abusive. She told the inquest he would often get violent with her to avoid questions about his infidelity.

She says she reported his abuse to police about 12 times, but she often withdrew her statements to keep Sanderson out of trouble.

“He just put a lot of guilt into me,” she said.

She also said she needed his help to raise their five children.

When Sanderson was in the penitentiary for other assaults, she wrote to the parole board encouraging his release.

Crying, she read the letter aloud for the inquest jury.

“The main reason I support Myles is we have children who love and need his presence. I do notice the effect it has on them for not having him around,” she said.

In her letter, she outlines a plan to help her partner maintain a healthy lifestyle, seek addiction counselling, and to help him reconnect with his culture.

Sanderson was addicted to alcohol, Burns said. She testified she wasn’t aware he was involved with drugs until 2022, when he was released from prison.

Sanderson was prohibited from contacting Burns as a condition of his release, but he immediately moved in to her Saskatoon home.

Now, she regrets staying in contact.

“The best thing you can do is keep the no-contact, because that’s where I went wrong,” she said.

On August 17, 2022, Burns said Sanderson asked her for a ride to James Smith to sell cocaine.

“It was late. I thought it was kind of crazy, but I just wanted to keep the peace with him. I didn't want to piss him off. So I agreed, because I felt guilty.”

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She testified they would regularly pick up cocaine in Saskatoon and drive to James Smith to sell the product.

Burns said on Sept. 2 she was fed up with the drug dealing. She said she told Sanderson she was done and wanted to go home. He agreed they would leave after they dropped someone off in Kinistino, a nearby town.

On the drive there, Burns said she sensed Sanderson was setting her up for a conflict.

“We started driving back, that's when he all started acting weird.”

She said he started berating her, accusing her of “leading on” the man they dropped off in Kinistino. As the verbal abuse continued, Burns says she punched Myles to get him to stop.

Myles reached for the scale he used to weigh drugs and struck her with it, then Burns said he started choking her.

“I just kept driving. I could kind of pull my jacket over my head and he still hit me and I just thought that I had to get to his brother because he's the only one that ever helps me with Myles.”

When she took the stand Thursday afternoon, Skye Sanderson, the partner of Myles' brother Damien Sanderson, described an incident where Burns was eight months pregnant and Myles threw her across the floor before Damien stopped him.

After pulling up to Damien’s house on Sept. 2, Burns said she left her jeep and locked herself in Damien’s vehicle for safety as Myles frantically tried to get inside.

Finally, she says Damien convinced him to go to the other side of the house so she could leave. Myles' later killed Damien, the first victim of the Labour Day weekend mass stabbing.

During the fight, Myles got a hold of Burns' cards and cell phone, and was concerned he would get access to her bank account. She drove back to Saskatoon so she could deal with her bank.

Burns describes putting on a hat and sunglasses to cover her bruises when she went to the bank to get a new card.

Around 10 p.m. the next day, Burns met her mother in Wakaw to pick up her children. Her son Dallon stayed in James Smith with his grandfather, Earl Burns.

Burns said she stayed up late that night in case Myles returned. She had her keys and an escape plan ready.

When the emergency alerts started going off the next morning, Burns said she was scared Myles was coming for her next.

Through a cousin, she knew Myles had attacked her parents, but the extent of the violence wasn’t clear.

“We didn’t know where my dad was. We didn’t know if he was alive.”

In the aftermath of the mass killings and the death of her former partner, Burns said she’s been trying to learn to love herself, for her children.

“The first words my daughter said to me when her dad died was ‘at least you won't be getting beat up anymore,’” she said.

“I wish I left sooner.”

In her testimony Thursday, Skye alleged that Myles told Damien he did intend to kill Vanessa Burns.

“He said, ‘I want to kill. I want to f***ing kill Vanessa. And when I do, I’m gonna kill 10 others,” Skye said.

The coroner’s inquest into the stabbing spree at James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon continues on Friday. The head of security services at James Smith, an RCMP communications officer, and criminal psychologist Matt Logan are the next scheduled witnesses.