Christina Cline, Dartmouth NS
Christina Kathleen Cline was murdered on Saturday, November 19, 2011 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Christina was a beloved daughter, sister, and loving mother of three children.
Christina’s former common-law partner and his new wife were accused of murdering Christina after her body was found in Dartmouth’s Shubie Park in November 2011.
According to the Agreed Statement of Facts, Christina and her former common-law partner had been in a long-term relationship and had three children together when they began looking for a woman to join their relationship.
In September 2010, they met the Female Accused online. The Female Accused moved into their home with her daughter, but the three-way relationship ended when Christina and the Female Accused became exclusive. It was documented that Christina and the Female Accused had a “tumultuous relationship” that eventually ended. Following this, the Female Accused began dating Christina’s former common-law partner. In December 2011 Christina’s former common-law partner and the Female Accused were married.
The pair was arrested in November 2012, after the Female Accused spoke with an undercover officer posing as a “crime boss.” The Female Accused told the undercover officer that she asked Christina to go to Shubie Park where she knew Christina’s former common-law partner was waiting. While walking in the park, Christina’s former common-law partner ambushed her, stabbing her multiple times.
Almost a year after that gruesome discovery, Christina’s former common-law partner and the Female Accused were charged with first-degree murder in Christina’s death.
In December 2013, the Female Accused pled guilty to second-degree murder in Christina’s death. As a result, she received an automatic life sentence, without parole eligibility for 15 years.
According to the Agreed Statement of Facts, Christina’s former common-law partner confessed that the motive for Christina’s murder was based on perceived interfering by Christina in the relationship between the former common-law partner and the Female Accused. As well, the financial burden placed on the former common-law partner to pay child support for their children also served as motive for Christina’s murder.
He admitted to the crime after being charged with first-degree murder, and pled guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 15 years.
In a Victim Impact Statement, Christina’s mother, discussed what the death had meant to her.
“It’s a mother’s worst nightmare to wake up one morning and be told that your daughter has been brutally taken away from you and to make that nightmare even worse to find out later that it was someone you knew and trusted who took her from you,” she wrote.
Christina’s mother also wrote that she misses her daughter’s almost daily phone calls.
“Even to hear her problems made each day a little more worthwhile,” she wrote.
Crown prosecutor, Mark Heerema, called the murder horrific.
“It’s horrific to think of a partner killing a partner, not only depriving that person from their family and friends, but also removing a mother from three young children,” he said.
Justice Patrick Duncan called the murder a “brutal and senseless act.”
“Their children will be raised by someone other than their mother and father, and with the knowledge their father killed their mother,” he said.