Bio

Lulonda Lynn Flett was born in 1971 at a hospital in Norway House. Her family brought her back to their home community of St. Theresa Point. She was the second-youngest of six children. A seventh child had died as an infant. Her mother worked as a community health worker. Her father did odd jobs to help the family.

Her parents drank often. Adults at home sometimes held large drinking parties. Her older sister locked the younger children in a bedroom during those times. The sister slept by the door to keep others out. Her father sometimes went to Winnipeg for long drinking binges. When her parents were away, Lulonda sometimes stayed with an aunt.

Before she turned ten, Lulonda said an older relative abused her. She said she told her mother and an aunt but felt they did not believe her. Later, her mother stopped drinking after Lulonda’s father became ill.

At about 14 or 15, Lulonda went away from St. Theresa Point to attend school in Teulon. She and her sister lived at a residential school run by nuns. The nuns did not allow students to speak their Oji-Cree language. Lulonda said she did well in school and liked sports. Around this time she had her first drink. In 1986–87 she became pregnant and had a baby at Villa Rosa.

After becoming a young mother, she tried to finish high school by living with a relative in Brandon, but that plan did not work out. She returned to St. Theresa Point. She still hoped to finish school and to work at the local nursing station, but caring for a child made school difficult.

By age 18 she met a man she later married. They had five children. Her sister said Lulonda was an active and supportive parent. Over time, Lulonda said her husband pressured her to drink and to use drugs. She described physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. She said he sometimes locked her in the house and hit her. She said she had bruises and cigarette burns and that people called her “raccoon eyes” because of the bruising.

Despite these problems, Lulonda worked at the community Northern Store. She earned certificates in home care support work and in first aid. In 2009 she received a child-benefits payment and moved to Winnipeg with her children. There she began a relationship with a man from her community. At first she said he was kind and supportive. Later, she said his drinking and money problems made life hard. She and he drank a lot. Child and Family Services later took custody of her children. Lulonda reported drinking up to a 26-ounce bottle of liquor a day at times and having hospital stays for alcohol withdrawal. She said she tried to quit but relapsed.

Murder Story

Lulonda Lynn Flett (born 1971) is classified as a mass murderer. On July 16, 2011, a fire at a Winnipeg rooming house killed five people. The method of murder is listed as fire and the characteristic is arson. The victims were Norman Darius Anderson, 22; Maureen Claire Harper, 54; Kenneth Bradley Monkman, 49; Dean James Stranden, 44; and Robert Curtis Laforte, 56. Flett was arrested the next day. She pleaded guilty in October 2012 to five counts of manslaughter and one count of arson. On June 12, 2013, she was sentenced to five life sentences, one for each manslaughter count. The sentences will be served concurrently, and she will be eligible for parole in five years, with two years credited for time already served.