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South Surrey mother Lisa Batstone collapsed to the floor when she described to investigators in a recently released police interrogation video how she killed her eight-year-old daughter, Teagan Batstone.
Bastone is charged with second-degree murder in connection with her daughter’s Dec. 10, 2014 death.
The court recently released video of the police interrogation to CBC News.
When asked by police investigators what Batstone used to smother her daughter, Batstone said “a bag,” before falling out of her chair and curling into the fetal position.
“I just grabbed a bag from under the cupboard,” she said, adding that “I needed the pain to end.”
“She just looked so beautiful and peaceful and I just didn’t want her to have to live with what I have to live with,” Batstone said during the police interrogation.
In the video, Batstone said the decision to kill her daughter was spontaneous, and she let people know that Teagan wouldn’t be in school that day, “because I wanted time to kill myself.”
Batstone was arrested after Teagan’s body was found in the trunk of a car in a cul-de-sac just south of Crescent Road.
In the video, Batstone says she was driving, with Teagan’s body in the trunk, to drop off her dog. She said she missed a three-point turn and ended up stuck in a ditch.
“That’s when I went and knocked on someone’s door and said, ‘Please call the police. My daughter is dead in my car,’… and then I crawled in and snuggled with her until the last minute,” Batstone said.
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During closing submissions last month, lawyers for Batstone said her level of intoxication at the time – along with borderline personality traits, significant levels of depression and a “cloud of stressors” – raises doubt as to whether Batstone had the intent to kill.
Her lawyers suggested manslaughter would be a more appropriate finding.
However, Crown prosecutors argued in its closing submissions that intent can be found in Batstone’s own words: notes that read, “I’m so sorry,” and “you win Gabe, you broke me,” and a four-page letter with phrases that included, “I couldn’t imagine leaving her to him.”
During the trial, the court heard from Batstone’s ex-husband, Gabe Batstone, who described their relationship as sometimes “combative” and “acrimonious.”
The month after Teagan’s death – after a court-ordered “fitness assessment” – Batstone was deemed fit to stand trial on the murder charge, however, the proceedings were delayed multiple times over the years.
Court proceedings finally got underway in early October.
A verdict is expected next month.
To watch the Batstone’s police interrogation video, click here.
