HALIFAX - The father of a Halifax university student whose daughter was murdered says he can't find it in his heart to forgive her killers.
But Clayton Saunders says he imagines how difficult life must be for the parents of Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry because he knows they are suffering as he does.
"We could only imagine what they are going through too," he told a news conference Thursday. "They have feelings like us, hearts like us. I wouldn't know what to do if my children did the same thing to somebody else."
The body of Loretta Saunders was found on the side of a New Brunswick highway in February 2014, about two weeks after she was last seen in Halifax.
Leggette pleaded guilty Wednesday in Nova Scotia's Supreme Court to first-degree murder and will be sentenced to an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
Victoria Henneberry pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which carries a life sentence and no parole eligibility of between 10 and 25 years.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Friends of Saunders have said she was three-months pregnant at the time of her death, and her father said he believes she rests in peace.
"Loretta is in a better place now. And her baby is in a better place where they can't be touched anymore," he added.
Two statements of fact submitted to the court say Leggette and Henneberry were having "financial difficulties" soon after they moved into a sublet room in Saunders' apartment, which they had found through a kijiji ad in January 2014.
The documents say the two wanted to get out of Halifax, but they don't say why.
"Mr. Leggette planned to kill Ms. Saunders, take her car and leave the province," both statements say.
On Feb. 13, 2014, Saunders went to collect rent from the couple but they didn't have the money, and Henneberry lied when she said she had lost her bank card and needed to contact her bank, according to the statement.
Leggette then grabbed Saunders by the throat and choked her, but the young woman fought back, managing to tear through the three plastic bags he pulled over her head.
At one point, Leggette and Saunders fell down. He twice hit her head on the floor and she stopped moving.
"Ms. Henneberry remained during the struggle," the documents say.
Saunders body was found in a hockey bag on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway near Salisbury, N.B.
Leggette and Henneberry were arrested five days later in Harrow, Ont., while driving Saunders' car. They also had the young woman's phone, bank card and identification.
Saunders was an Inuit student at Saint Mary's University, where she focused her studies on missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Miriam Saunders said she hopes the family can continue the work her daughter started.
"For some reason the statistics are higher on aboriginal women and I'd like to know why," she said.
"We need to know why our children are being murdered."
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