A collection of toys and flowers were left outside the home of Denis Carrier and Sandra Henry following their deaths on March 28, 2020. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Crime

Prince Albert families prepare for one year anniversary of triple homicide

Mar 26, 2021 | 5:00 PM

Upwards of 300 balloons will be released into the sky over Prince Albert on Sunday afternoon.

The event falls on the one anniversary of when Denis Carrier and his wife Sandra Henry were murdered at their property on the city’s west side, along with their seven-year-old grandson Bentlee. The couple’s five-year-old granddaughter Kendrah (now six) was also located at the house, but survived after spending close to two months at Edmonton’s Stollery Hospital before returning home. Kendrah’s mother Heather Lynn Sumners explained the event this weekend is also meant to help the Carrier family.

“I am honestly excited to help them, knowing that they are going through more than we are and with all of the help we’ve already had, they need help too,” she said.

In the days following the tragedy, two separate GoFundMe campaigns were created. The one for Sumners raised over $16,000, while one for Denis Carrier and his family received $2,600.

The balloons can be purchased Sunday between 12:30 p.m.and 1:30 p.m. outside the Co-Op grocery store on 15th St. E. and will cost $5 each. Sumners said she has maintained contact with Kendrah’s two uncles.

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“We’ve come closer, a lot closer since,” she said.

A photo taken of Denis and Sandra with their grandson Bentlee. (GoFundMe)

Nathaniel Carrier, the couple’s son, faces three counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder. While he has yet to appear in court in person or by video, his legal aid lawyer elected for the case to be tried by a jury at Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench. No dates have been set at this stage, but Sumners was asked how she feels about the possibility of sitting through a lengthy trial.

“Honestly, I’m scared,” she replied, “I don’t even know how I’m going to react to even seeing him.”

As the family sat around the dinner coffee table Wednesday evening, pouring over photos from the past year, and discussing plans for Sunday, young Kendrah, who has been aptly nicknamed “one tough cookie” happily played with her younger brother Alex in the nearby living room, talking and moving the way any young girl her age would be expected to.

The only reminders of the tragic incident are a thin faded line under her chin, and a small purple mark where the doctors once inserted a tracheal tube to help her breathe. Sumners explained Kendrah is aware of what happened and talks about her brother a lot, as well as her grandparents. Sumners also added how hard this experience has been on her 3.5 year old son Alex, who was alone for 52 days, wondering where his brother and sister were.

“It was hard on us to tell him that his sister was hurt and at the hospital and Bentlee had died. Bentlee and Alex were just starting to create a special bond and then Bentlee was taken away from him,” she said.

Kendrah’s other grandfather Corey Ferchoff also expressed how proud he was of how far she has come in the past year, and also proudly showed off a hand carved bench, bearing Bentlee’s name, that sits in his living room—a gift to the family after the tragedy. Ferchoff, who has talked in the past with paNOW about the family’s need for closure, explained there have been a lot of emotions over the past year.

“At the beginning of the year we were dealing with all the firsts we had without them, like the first Christmas, the first birthdays, and now the last month we are dealing with the last time we took him to the scouting program, the last time we had supper together was (Thursday night),” he explained, adding Bentlee was excited to spend the weekend with his dad and grandparents.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell