WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.
Two days before a child in their care died, someone at Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney’s home used an iPad to Google “I hate my son,” the women’s first-degree murder trial was told Thursday.
In the weeks after her death, searches on the couple’s devices included how to define homicide, how to delete footage from a Wyze security camera system and how to clean up the crime scene.
Sergeant. Julie Powers, the Halton police officer who investigated Cooney and Hamber, has testified all week about evidence police found on their electronic devices, including photographs, surveillance videos, audio recordings and text messages from 2019 to 2022. The sergeant said many text messages were deleted on Dec. 25, 2022, but were recovered.
The Milton, Ont., courtroom heard recordings of the women berating the boy who died and his brother, and numerous messages were read in which Hamber and Cooney talked about restraining children while calling them vulgar and degrading names.
The women, from Burlington, Ont., pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the boy’s death and entered the same plea to charges of confinement, assault with a weapon (zip ties) and failing to provide necessities of life related to their younger brother. His trial before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice began in mid-September.
The brothers are referred to as LL and JL in CBC News’ coverage of the trial, as their identities are protected under a standard publication ban. LL was 12 years old when he died in the care of Hamber and Cooney on December 21, 2022. His brother, JL, is now 13 years old and testified at trial.
The trial has been told that paramedics found LL unconscious, soaked and lying on the basement floor of his room, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so severely malnourished and emaciated that he appeared to be six years old, although he was twice that age. He died shortly after in the hospital.
The Crown argues that Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected the Indigenous children, whom they were trying to adopt. The women’s respective attorneys say the couple went to great lengths to care for children with high needs and significant behavioral problems, with little help from the Children’s Aid Society and service providers.
Court reported search results for electronic devices
Powers also took the court through weeks of searching and searching the web history of electronic devices seized by police.
Judge Clayton Conlan said several records were of particular interest to him:
- A search for “I didn’t love my adopted son” on August 15, 2022.
- A search for “I hate my son” on December 19, 2022.
- Searches on how to define manslaughter, murder and manslaughter on January 1, 2023.
- A search for “Remove Wyze” on January 2, 2023.
- A visit to a website about rumination syndrome on January 3, 2023.
- A search for “crime scene cleanup” on January 16, 2023.
Powers also described searches related to aspirations, how to delete photos from an iPhone, financial assistance when a child dies, manslaughter and second-degree murder.
The women were first arrested on January 17, 2023 on charges related to JL, then arrested again on February 29, 2024 for the alleged murder of LL.
On Wednesday, Powers to read messages. submitted by Hamber, Cooney and their father, who lived with them, on November 20, 2022.
The adults talked about LL appearing drunk, falling and shaking. Powers said there were no records of him being called for help or taken to a hospital.
On Thursday, the officer read excerpts from text messages between Cooney and his father in the weeks following the Nov. 20 health scare. They followed a pattern of her asking him to “urinate” on the children, sending them to bed, or telling them to go upstairs.
“Can you please wake up the loser?” he texted his father on November 28. Later that day, he wrote: “Can you send that dumb brat upstairs please?” After that, he asked, “Can you put the bag on the stairs please?”
On Nov. 30, Cooney’s father told Hamber he thought there was blood or vomit on LL’s bed and asked him if he wanted to look and determine which it was. “I don’t care,” Hamber replied. “It doesn’t matter.”
The two then discussed having LL clean up the mess using a Lysol wipe.
Conlan asked Powers about Cooney’s father, Ed. The trial heard that he has Parkinson’s disease and that the women prepared his food. Powers said he spoke to Ed’s son to find out if he could testify and was told the son was looking to place Ed in a nursing or long-term care home due to his declining health.
Women talked about LL’s weight at last doctor visit
The trial previously heard that two weeks before LL died, he was weighed during a doctor’s appointment and was found to I weigh less than when I was six years old.
When the doctor Dr. Stephen Duncan, testified on Oct. 27 and 28, he said he did not call an ambulance or recommend that Hamber and Cooney take LL to the emergency department.
JL “has 20 fucking pounds in this ass,” Cooney texted Hamber, referring to LL.
He said he had a conversation with the children in which they told him they wanted to be healthy. Hamber responded that he didn’t think they really wanted to be.
Crown played 2023 statement Hamber gave to police
Assistant Crown attorney Monica MacKenzie showed the court an hour and 18 minute video of the statement Hamber gave to Halton police following his arrest in 2023.
Wearing a black T-shirt that said “Be the change,” she sat in front of a detective and told him that she and Cooney had never tied up JL.
She said he was a “good guy” but dishonest and that the detective shouldn’t believe him.
When questioned, Hamber denied giving JL mash and said he did not believe his home security cameras recorded the video.
She said it had been “truly hell” since CAS took JL and Cooney from them on December 26, 2022, and if he was in the room, “I would give him a big hug and tell him I love him.”
The single-judge trial is scheduled to continue Friday with the Crown completing its cross-examination of Powers, who MacKenzie said is the prosecution’s final witness. The trial is expected to last at least until mid-January.
