The Storms of Deceit

Jan 04, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

WHITBY - Police are investigating a suspicious death after the body of 16-year-old Kyla Holburn was found face-down on the pavement outside an apartment building Monday evening.

The victim, a Grade 11 student at R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate in Oshawa, was discovered around 6:30 p.m. by a resident of the Wood Farm Manor building at 1525 Nichol Ave., southwest of Dundas Street and Thickson Road.

The panicked resident alerted building superintendent George McLeod, who went to investigate. He said he found the partially clad teenager face-down on a concrete ramp leading to the building's parking area.

"It was obvious she wasn't breathing," said Mr. McLeod, who said he immediately called 911.

Mr. McLeod said Kyla appeared to be wearing work-out clothes and had no coat on. He said he did not recognize her as a resident of the building.

According to a report by Durham Regional Police released yesterday afternoon, Kyla had been reported missing at 10 p.m. Monday night to the Clarington Community Police Office. As of late afternoon yesterday, Durham police were still referring to the incident as a suspicious death. Police were awaiting the outcome of toxicology tests, after an autopsy failed to reveal an obvious cause of death, said Sergeant Paul McCurbin, police spokesman.

"There are signs of trauma, and obviously blood, and the fact she was partially clothed," he said.

Homicide cops were called in after the discovery of the body, which was found near a couple of garbage dumpsters at the east side of the building.

The girl was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Durham District School Board spokeswoman Terri-Lee Sanford said the board was alerted of Kyla's death by police Tuesday.

She said the board's emergency response team, which includes counsellors, was dispatched to McLaughlin, Kyla's school.

"We do know the details of the situation," Ms. Sanford said. "The school is dealing with it and the Durham District School Board has sent people over to help out."

The counsellors would likely remain at the school throughout the day yesterday to help young people deal with the loss of a fellow student, Ms. Sanford said.

Students said they arrived at school Tuesday to find the flag at half-mast and a number of classmates in tears. Later that morning, news of Kyla's death was announced over the PA system much to the shock of her friends.

"She was very caring and always had a good time," said Mitch Henry, who was in her home room class. "I'm going to miss her a lot. She was very friendly."

Fellow student Natalie Dobbie recalled the teen's good sense of humour, adding "she was good with the one-liners."

Near the scene where Kyla was found, bewildered residents of the 70-unit apartment building and surrounding neighbourhood described it as a quiet area where police activity is out of the ordinary.

"I'm so shocked," said resident Nooria Yama.

"It's the first time I've seen the police here."

Ms. Yama said she was on her way home from work Monday evening when she found the street in front of her building swarming with police officers and vehicles.

Her first thought, she said, was for her children in their apartment inside.

"I went home and hugged my kids," said Ms. Yama.

With files from Lesley Bovie

Jan 06, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Lesley Bovie

OSHAWA - Tributes to 16-year-old Kyla Holburn are starting to surface in the wake of her suspicious death earlier this week.

In the laneway of Wood Farm Manor in Whitby, a small memorial of flowers, cards, lit candles and stuffed animals sits near the spot where the teen's body was discovered Monday night.

At R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate in Oshawa, close friends and classmates are signing a memorial card to the popular Grade 11 student.

Their messages, scrawled around this year's yearbook photo of the teen, speak to her good sense of humour, her joy of life and her beauty.

One student writes: "I wish we could have partied more."

"It was a total shock to everyone," said principal Karen Allan, who described the general mood at McLaughlin as "disbelief."

"I think it's because there is so little information to give out," she added. "All I've been able to tell them is she died suddenly. And so there hasn't been any closure yet, so even from the grief point of view, we haven't seen a lot of outward grief at this point."

The memorial card, which school officials say is meant to help the healing process, will be available to students in the guidance room all week. Classmates are also being encouraged to bring with them any items that remind them of Kyla if it helps comfort them.

The card will eventually be given to Kyla's family after her funeral, said Ms. Allan.

"Students express themselves in different ways. Some will keep it all inside, and so they need a vehicle like that where they can write their thoughts down," she added.

Guidance counsellors were available to students all week to help them deal with Kyla's death, said Ms. Allan.

"Some of her very close friends went home (Tuesday) so they could cope it with in their own way," she said.

McLaughlin is also setting up a bursary in Kyla's memory to be given out at the school's commencement ceremony in November. The bursary will be awarded to a student pursuing post-secondary education who represents Kyla's type of "spirit and personality," said Ms. Allan.

"She was an energetic personality," she added. "People had fun around her. She had a lot of joyous life in her. Everyone has sincere wishes for the family and is thinking of them at this time."

Anyone wishing to donate to the bursary can do so through McLaughlin's guidance department. Cheques should be made out to the Durham District School Board and indicate that the donation is for the Kyla Holburn Memorial Fund.

Contributions of more than $30 will get a tax receipt.

Jan 06, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA - Police have arrested Kyla Holburn's ex-boyfriend, alleging he was with the Oshawa teen the day she died.

Shane Vincent, 21, of Durham Court in Oshawa, was arrested without incident in Clarington Wednesday night. Durham Regional Police have charged him with breach of recognizance.

Mr. Vincent had been ordered not to associate or communicate with Kyla after a police investigation last month, said a spokesman for the service. Kyla's lifeless body was found in a laneway beside a Whitby apartment building Monday.

Durham cops have refused to say why they came in contact with Mr. Vincent in December, or to discuss the circumstances surrounding the incident. There is no record of a recent court appearance or charges against Mr. Vincent on file at the courthouse in Oshawa.

"There was an incident involving the two of them at the time (December) and it did result in some conditions being placed on him by the police," said Durham police spokesman Dave Selby.

"We have made a determination (Kyla) was with him on Jan. 3."

Kyla, a Grade 11 student at R.S. McLaughlin in Oshawa, was found dead around 6:30 Monday evening near an apartment building on Nichol Avenue in the Thickson Road-Dundas Street area of Whitby. Police believe she was dumped there.

An autopsy performed Tuesday failed to reveal a cause of death; investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, scheduled to be done at the Centre for Forensic Sciences in Toronto.

Kyla's family members describe Mr. Vincent as an ex-boyfriend. They say they checked at his Durham Court home Monday night as they searched for the teen, who had failed to come home Sunday night and could not be reached.

Police descended on the Durham Court duplex, near the intersection of Gibb Street and Stevenson Road, Tuesday, and remained on scene throughout the day Wednesday. By Thursday morning, a forensics van was no longer there, but the home - which had been roped off with police tape - remained under observation by an officer in a cruiser.

Kyla's older sister Alyssa said family members are enduring an agonizing wait to find out how and why the teen wound up abandoned on the cold pavement in Whitby Monday night.

"We have a right to know," said Ms. Holburn, 28.

"Somebody is responsible for this; come forward for her family," Ms. Holburn said, tears forming in her eyes as she stood shivering in the cold on the front step of a house in Oshawa.

"Anybody who knows has to come forward.

"Call Crime Stoppers. Anything."

The mystery surrounding Kyla's death - how she died, how she wound up in Whitby, and where she'd been in the hours leading up to her death - is a troubling puzzle for her family.

It began with her failure to show up at the Nipigon Street apartment she shared with her mom and sister Amanda, 25.

"Kyla didn't come home Sunday night," Ms. Holburn said. "And Kyla never, never doesn't come home."

Unable to reach Kyla and becoming increasingly worried, Ms. Holburn and her mother starting searching for her Monday, visiting homes where she might be, and speaking to friends. Their search took them as far away as Bowmanville, where Ms. Holburn made a cellphone call to Durham police around 10 p.m.

"I'm the one who made the missing person report," Ms. Holburn said.

She returned with her mother to Nipigon Street to await word from police. When news came, it was from the homicide squad.

"I was with her (Kyla's mom) when they came," Ms. Holburn said.

Around 6:30 p.m., police got a call from the superintendent at the Whitby building, at 1525 Nichol Ave. Alerted by a resident, the building's superintendent had found a girl lying face down on the pavement near garbage bins at the side of the building.

Police had an identification kit Kyla had made at school last year; it included the teen's fingerprints, which Alyssa Holburn said helped police to make a positive identification.

Ms. Holburn agrees with the theory that Kyla was transported to the spot where her body was found.

"I think she was dumped there," Ms. Holburn said.

"Kyla had no reason to be in Whitby. She didn't know anybody in Whitby."

Kyla's family continues to wonder who she was with in the hours leading up to her death. Monday night, her mother, Sarah, made a statement saying that sometimes young people make the wrong choices about the people they associate with.

In the meantime, the family is preparing for a funeral tomorrow for a girl Ms. Holburn described as a loving "angel."

"She was such a loving person," she said.

"She was liked by everyone. She had a life and she had a future."

OSHAWA - A memorial fund has been established to help pay for the cost of Kyla Holburn's funeral.

"We don't have the funds," said Alyssa Holburn, 28, Kyla's sister. "My mother is a single mother."

The shock of Kyla's death Monday has been compounded by the high cost of a funeral, Ms. Holburn said.

"You're not prepared for this," she said.

"We want to give her a proper goodbye. She deserves it."

Anyone wishing to contribute can do so at TD Canada Trust, transit number 03912, account 6254266.

A funeral for Kyla is to be held Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Oshawa Funeral Service Thornton chapel, 847 King St. W.

Durham - Approximately 350 people filled the Oshawa Funeral Service funeral home on Saturday to say goodbye to a caring and sensitive 16-year-old girl who was a good friend.

Mourners at the funeral of Kyla Holburn, some holding bundles of flowers on their laps, filled the funeral parlour, spilling out of the main chapel into the hallway and filled another room.

A collage of pictures at the entranceway with a big heart and the words “We Love You” was posted on a board depicting different points in the teen’s life. Family shared their memories of the R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate student’s life, whose body was found Monday near an apartment building in the Thickson Road-Dundas Street area of Whitby.

Her brother, Michael, recalled his sister as someone who was not only beautiful on the outside, but on the inside as well and broke down in tears at the end of his eulogy.

Her sister Alyssa remembered Kyla’s laughter, smart alec remarks and hugs.

Kyla had a chance to speak at the funeral after Alyssa discovered a letter written by her sister while preparing for the wake.

“I’ve always been able to make people feel better when they are upset,” Alyssa said reading the letter she discovered while preparing for the wake. Alyssa brought laughter to an otherwise tear-filled eulogy when she revealed Kyla’s dislike of western and Broadway music in the letter.

Mourners heard Kyla again when her sister, Amanda, read from an essay written by the teen in Grade 10, revealing her love of swimming and her ambitions to become a psychiatrist and help those contemplating suicide. Kyla also had ambitions of modelling, Amanda said, and was preparing a portfolio for a modelling agency before he death.

“Kyla was so full of life and love,” she said.

Her Father, Robert Holburn, recalled his happiest day as the one when Kyla choose to take on his name, he recounted, before breaking down in tears. While Kyla’s death had caused him pain, Mr. Holburn took comfort in knowing that she was now with God.

“I never, ever thought I’d be in the position I’m in today. We’re hurting, (but) we’re not in despair,” he said of the courage he drew from his faith Kyla went to a better place. “The same God that loves Kyla loves everyone here.”

He finished his eulogy with the same prayer he prayed with Kyla as a child.

Kyla’s friend, Sarah Nelson, remembered the teen just as her family had.

“She was a really nice person,” she said. “She would do anything for anyone.”

An autopsy did not reveal the cause of Kyla’s death and police are awaiting toxicology results.

Jan 11, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA - An ex-boyfriend being investigated in connection with the suspicious death of an Oshawa girl is being held in custody as he awaits a bail hearing next Monday.

Shane Vincent, 21, of Oshawa, made a brief appearance in court Monday morning and was remanded into custody. He now faces a charge of obstructing justice in addition to breaching an undertaking, charges laid as a result of an investigation into the death of 16-year-old Kyla Holburn, whose body was found the evening of Jan. 3 outside a Whitby apartment building.

Mr. Vincent, who was arrested last Wednesday, is not charged with Kyla's death. But he is charged with breaching a police order to stay away from the girl with whom he had a relationship until this past Christmas. Durham Regional Police allege that Mr. Vincent was with Kyla Jan. 3, the day she died.

Police have confirmed that the charge of obstructing justice relates to the investigation into the young girl's death. Durham homicide investigators, who have been called in to probe the suspicious death, were at the courthouse to lay the additional charge Monday morning.

Police are still awaiting results from toxicology tests as they try to determine a cause of death for Kyla, who was pronounced dead after her body was found in a laneway near an apartment building on Nichol Avenue around 6:30 p.m. Jan. 3. An autopsy performed Jan. 4 revealed no anatomical cause of death, police said.

Part of the police investigation immediately following the discovery of the girl's body was a search of the Durham Court home where Mr. Vincent lives. A police forensics van was parked outside the duplex for two days following Kyla's death.

Family members gathered for an emotional service in memory of the girl Saturday. Friends and family have described Kyla, a Grade 11 student at R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate as a friendly, outgoing youth. Family members say she broke off a relationship with Mr. Vincent around Christmas time.

OSHAWA - An Oshawa man arrested in the days following his former girlfriend's suspicious death has been denied bail.

Shane Vincent, 21, of Durham Court, has been ordered held in custody pending his next court appearance Jan. 24.

He is charged with breaching an undertaking and obstructing justice; both charges were laid by Durham Regional Police investigators looking into the Jan. 3 death of 16-year-old Kyla Holburn, of Oshawa.

Ms. Holburn's body was found on the pavement beside a Whitby apartment building; she was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy failed to find a cause of death and police are awaiting results of toxicology tests as they continue the investigation.

Police allege Mr. Vincent was with Ms. Holburn the day she died. He had been ordered not to have contact with her after an incident involving police in December.

Mr. Vincent was arrested Jan. 5 and has been in custody since then. A publication ban prohibits reporting on evidence presented at the bail hearing, or the reasons given by a justice of the peace in denying the man bail.

Jan 27, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

DURHAM - Police have charged another man in connection with the death of an Oshawa teenager, alleging he helped move her body after she died.

The 34-year-old Bowmanville man was arrested at a Clarington residence Tuesday. Durham Regional Police investigators allege he assisted in the moving of Kyla Holburn's body to the spot where she was found in Whitby Jan. 3.

Michael David Boden of West Beach Road was arrested without incident, police said. He is charged with committing an indignity to a human body and obstructing justice in connection with the investigation into Kyla's death, and breach of recognizance for another matter.

Mr. Boden is reportedly a cousin of Shane Vincent, a former boyfriend of Kyla's who has also been charged. Mr. Vincent, 21, of Oshawa, was denied bail at a hearing last week; he is charged with obstructing justice and breach of an undertaking.

Police allege Mr. Vincent, who was ordered to stay away from Kyla after a drug-related incident involving police in December, was with the young woman the day she died.

Kyla, 16, broke up with Mr. Vincent around Christmas time, according to her relatives.

The body of the Grade 11 student was found outside an apartment building on Nichol Avenue in Whitby around 6:30 p.m. Jan. 3. She was pronounced dead at the scene, but an autopsy revealed no anatomical cause of death. Homicide investigators are awaiting results of a toxicological report, due next week.

The course of the investigation may be affected by the toxicology results, said Durham police spokesman Dave Selby.

"The investigation is ongoing," he said. "There may be more charges, there may not be."

Police have released little information as the probe into the young woman's mysterious death continues. They're refusing to discuss the time of death, although Mr. Selby allowed that there appears to be a relatively brief window between the time Kyla passed away and the discovery of her body.

Police believe she was alive Jan. 3 and with Mr. Vincent, Mr. Selby said.

"They were, earlier in the day, together," he said.

Mr. Vincent was arrested Jan. 5 on the basis of allegations he had been with Kyla. A charge of obstructing justice followed a few days later. He has not been charged with the young woman's death.

The arrest of Mr. Boden is the second to come in the high-profile case.

"The information from our detectives is this individual is accused of moving her deceased body from one location to where we found her in Whitby," Mr. Selby said.

Police aren't saying where Kyla died. But they have conducted an extensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.

One location of interest was the Durham Court residence of Mr. Vincent; police were on scene at the house for a couple of days following Kyla's death. A forensics van sat on the street in front of the house and a cruiser and yellow police tape secured the property.

"It's been an extensive investigation. I know they've talked to a lot of people," Mr. Selby said.

"They've knocked on a lot of doors."

Jan 29, 2005 - 12:00 AM

OSHAWA - Police have laid a third charge against the ex-boyfriend of Kyla Holburn, alleging he helped move the teen's body after she died.

Shane Vincent, 21, of Oshawa was charged Friday with indignity to a human body.

Police say the charges arise from the continued investigation into Kyla's death. The 16-year-old's partially clad body was found Jan. 3 at 6:44 p.m. in the laneway of a Nichol Avenue apartment building in Whitby.

An autopsy failed to determine the cause of her death. Police are still awaiting a toxicology report.

Mr. Vincent is currently in custody and was charged earlier this month with obstructing justice and breaching a police order to stay away from the teen. Police allege he was with Kyla the day she died and assisted in moving her body to where it was found in Whitby.

Earlier this week, police arrested 35-year-old Michael David Boden of Bowmanville, alleging he also helped move Kyla's body. Mr. Boden is reportedly Mr. Vincent's cousin.

Mr. Vincent faces a court date of Monday, Jan. 31, at the Ontario Court of Justice at 850 King St. E., in Oshawa.

Mar 17, 2005 - 01:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

WHITBY - A man arrested in the wake of his teenaged girlfriend's death has been freed on bail after a judge ruled there are not grounds for his ongoing detention.

Shane Vincent, 20, was released after a bail review hearing in Superior Court on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 16. He was charged after the body of 16-year-old Kyla Holburn was found on the pavement outside a Whitby apartment building Jan. 3.

Mr. Vincent, of Oshawa, was arrested Jan. 5 and has been in custody since then. Detectives investigating Ms. Holburn's death charged him with obstructing justice and breaching an undertaking.

Police allege Mr. Vincent was in the company of his ex-girlfriend the day she died, a breach of an order to stay away from her, which was put in place after a drug-related incident last December.

Mr. Vincent has not been charged with Kyla's death.

His release was opposed by the Crown. But Wednesday, Justice Hugh McLean ruled that a justice of the peace erred in denying Mr. Vincent bail. Evidence heard during that January bail hearing, as well as reasons for the JP's ruling, is subject to a publication ban.

Mr. Vincent's case is to go to the pretrial stage next Monday.

Meanwhile, two other men also face charges in connection with the discovery of Ms. Holburn's body. Michael Boden, 34, and 43-year-old Charles Ellis, both of Bowmanville, are charged with indignity to a human body. Police allege the two men helped move Kyla's body after she died.

No cause of death for the girl has been released by police.

Jul 26, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA - The "stain and stigma" of abandoning a dead girl on the pavement on a gloomy January night will remain with a Bowmanville man long after he has served his jail term, an Ontario Court judge said in sentencing him Monday to three more months in custody.

Michael Boden, 34, will likely serve the remainder of his term in solitary confinement for his own protection, Justice David Stone noted in handing down the sentence. Mr. Boden pleaded guilty to committing an indignity to a body in connection with the discovery on Jan. 3 of a lifeless Kyla Holburn near a Whitby apartment building.

Mr. Boden admitted he helped two other men dispose of the Oshawa teen's body after she overdosed on drugs. He also pleaded guilty for failing to appear in court after skipping bail and fleeing to British Columbia last spring.

The judge sentenced Mr. Boden to a total sentence of nine months, giving him two for one credit for the three months of "dead time" he's done since being re-arrested. Another man, 43-year-old Charlie Ells of Bowmanville, has already pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months time served awaiting trial.

Shane Vincent, Kyla Holburn's former boyfriend and the first person arrested following her death, was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.

Crown counsel Ken Polley called for at least a year in jail for Mr. Boden, labelling his crime an affront to society.

"This offence is just vile and reprehensible," he told the judge.

"Family pets get better treatment than Mr. Boden and his companions afforded Ms. Holburn."

Kyla, 16, was with Mr. Vincent at a house near the Oshawa Centre sometime after leaving her mother's apartment the evening of Jan. 2. She'd promised to return within hours.

Sometime between Jan. 2 and 3, Kyla overdosed on fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, Mr. Polley said. A frantic Mr. Vincent, who had been ordered not to be in contact with his former girlfriend following a drug-related incident in December, called his friends Mr. Boden and Mr. Ells for help.

They loaded Kyla's body into the back seat of Mr. Boden's car, Mr. Polley said. Mr. Boden was at the wheel as the men set out, looking for a place to dump the body.

Mr. Boden even stopped for gas as they carried on, Mr. Polley said.

"At no time did anyone call for emergency assistance or arrange for Ms. Holburn to be taken to hospital," he told the judge.

Finally Mr. Boden pulled up beside an apartment building on Nichol Avenue, just off Thickson Road in Whitby. He sat behind the wheel while Mr. Vincent pulled the girl's body from the back seat and left it on the pavement, near a dumpster.

The three men then took off in the gathering darkness.

Kyla's partially-clad body was soon found by a passerby. Police converged on the scene after a call from the building superintendent.

Meanwhile, Kyla's mother, Sarah, and her older sister, Alyssa, were driving around, desperately searching for the girl. Distressed at her uncharacteristic disappearance, they had called all Kyla's friends and had even contacted hospitals, Alyssa Holburn told the judge.

"All I wanted was my daughter safe in my arms," Ms. Holburn said as she read from a victim impact statement written by her mother.

"My sister did not deserve to be treated the way she was," Alyssa Holburn told Justice Stone.

In passing sentence, the judge said Mr. Boden and the others involved could have avoided serious criminal charges by doing the right thing, and seeking help for Kyla. Instead, Mr. Boden stands convicted of what is, in the eyes of many, a heinous crime, the judge said.

"He will carry the stain and stigma of this offence the rest of his life," Justice Stone said.

"That's why even in jail Mr. Boden has to be protected from other prisoners," the judge said, noting Mr. Boden's 23-hour-a-day lockdown in protective custody while awaiting trial. That strict imprisonment is likely to continue, the judge said.

Even as the men responsible for the disposal of Kyla's body come to justice, the girl's family members remain in the dark about many of the circumstances leading up to her death. No one has been accused of criminal culpability and the death has not been classified a homicide.

Indeed, some of those questions may remain unanswered, the judge noted in his ruling.

"This case is not about who killed Kyla Holburn," Justice Stone said.

A pretrial meeting for Mr. Vincent was to be held Wednesday morning. He was to appear in court after that.

Sep 29, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA -- A grieving family's anger and frustration boiled over Wednesday, when a man accused of dumping Kyla Holburn's lifeless body in a Whitby laneway appeared in court.

While he has pleaded guilty to a single count of committing an indignity to a human body, 21-year-old Shane Vincent remains free. His lawyer, John Olver, asked for an adjournment until next month, at which time the Oshawa man will likely be sentenced.

Mr. Vincent is the third man to plead guilty in connection with the discovery of 16-year-old Kyla's body near a Whitby apartment building on the night of Jan. 3. No one has been charged with causing the Oshawa girl's death.

As they have on a number of occasions, Ms. Holburn's immediate family and a number of supporters attended court in Oshawa Wednesday morning, hoping for the judicial process to come to a conclusion with Mr. Vincent's sentencing. Kyla's Holburn's mother, Sarah, was visibly angry when she learned yet another adjournment was to be granted in the case.

"I just feel it's totally unfair," a tearful Ms. Holburn said outside the courtroom.

"It's very tiring. I can't focus on my own life.

"I'm obsessed with what's happened to her," said Ms. Holburn, leaning on daughters Amanda and Alyssa for support outside the King Street East courthouse. "It's not right, what happened to her."

It was an emotional outpouring for a woman who has been careful to avoid making public comments as the cases against Mr. Vincent and two other men -- Charles Ells and Michael Boden -- proceeded through the courts. Mr. Ells and Mr. Boden have pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six and nine months, respectively.

Inside the courtroom, Crown counsel Ken Polley noted the ordeal undergone by Kyla's family as he grudgingly agreed to the adjournment.

"The Crown is most anxious to proceed with this matter, as is the family of Ms. Holburn," he told Ontario Court Justice David Stone.

"It's been quite a traumatic time for them."

Mr. Olver said his client needs more time to deal with medical issues. Mr. Vincent, who sat slumped in a chair at the front of the courtroom, offered mostly monosyllabic answers as the judge asked him if he was entering his plea voluntarily, and understood the ramifications of his actions.

"Yeah, I just want to get it over with," he told the judge. "I just want to plead -- plead guilty."

Court has already heard that Kyla Holburn died after taking the powerful painkiller fentanyl sometime Jan. 2 or 3. Her body was discovered in the gathering darkness Jan. 3, lying on the pavement near a dumpster on Nichol Avenue in Whitby.

A melee ensued outside the courthouse as news photographers and reporters, who waited more than a half hour for Mr. Vincent to emerge, closed in on him. Bent at the waist, he covered his face and rushed through the crowd, swearing at photographers who pursued him as he leapt into the back seat of a waiting car. He flashed a photographer an obscene hand gesture before the Sunfire sped off, its driver's side door yawning open as it made a sharp turn onto King Street.

"Pay for it!" an observer yelled as Mr. Vincent dashed through the crowd of reporters.

He is scheduled to return to court Oct. 17

Oct 19, 2005 - 12:00 AM

By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA -- A quiet garden in a residential neighbourhood seems a long way from the mean streets of Oshawa, where on a dark, cold night nine months ago Sarah Holburn searched frantically for her missing daughter.

But it's the place Ms. Holburn feels most at peace these days. She has created a memorial to her daughter, Kyla, whose lifeless body was found near a Whitby apartment building in the gathering dusk Jan. 3. Dead of an overdose from a powerful painkiller, the 16-year-old was left on the pavement by three men, one of them a former boyfriend.

On Monday that man, 22-year-old Shane Vincent, was the last of the three to be sentenced for his role that night, when Ontario Court Justice David Stone sent him to jail for six months.

"Thirty-eight days," Ms. Holburn mused after the sentence was passed. "It's very disconcerting."

Ms. Holburn and her family have expressed anger and disappointment throughout the court process, which has seen the men who dumped Kyla sentenced to jail terms after pleading guilty to offering an indignity to a body. No one was ever charged with causing the girl's death.

Kyla died after taking a dose of fentanyl, a painkiller many times more powerful than morphine. Ms. Holburn acknowledges her daughter's decision to hang around with the people she did, and to take the drug that night. But what haunts her, she said, is what happened after the overdose: Mr. Vincent and others in the Durham Court home that January night put Kyla in a shower in an attempt to revive her, court heard. After she died they drove around, looking for a place to get rid of her body.

They left her partially-clad body beside a dumpster at an apartment building on Nichol Avenue, just west of Thickson Road. No one called 911. No one took her to a hospital.

The sentences handed down by the courts come nowhere close to addressing the way in which Kyla was treated, Ms. Holburn said.

"I just thought they would have seen it the same way I did," she said. "Kyla didn't just die. She didn't have a disease.

"I do accept that she did a drug overdose. But I can't accept that nobody's getting more (jail time) for what they did in that house."

In handing down sentence for the men involved, Justice Stone has taken pains to point out that the case is not about whether or not anyone killed Kyla Holburn.

And he noted that the men involved in the dumping of her body will have to deal with the stigma of what they've done. The other men received similar jail time to that doled out to Mr. Vincent. One man, Michael Boden, did his jail time in isolation for his own protection, Justice Stone noted.

"He will carry the stain and stigma of this offence for the rest of his life," the judge said.

Ms. Holburn said she and her remaining daughters will also carry the burden of the events of that night forever.

"I only have good memories of Kyla," she said. "We completed each other.

"She was a good kid."