‘After the Wawa, he proceeded home. He crossed the street and that’s where he encountered Maureen Kanka. Maureen is out, distraught, looking for her missing little girl.’
The sight that was to greet police, said the prosecutor, would for ever haunt them.
‘A little blue shirt was all that she wore, on her side, plastic bags over her head, covered in insects. It was a sight so tragic and perverse that every person who saw it will be haunted for ever. And we will be haunted as well. Just the photograph of her body outlined in the weeds was so deeply disturbing for each and every one of you, because this wasn’t TV, this wasn’t a movie. This wasn’t an actress who would get up when the scene was done. This had been a real, live, breathing child. And this was a real death at his hands.
‘We can’t say how long it was until Megan became unconscious. It could have been two minutes, three minutes, longer, shorter. But the defendant in his statement said the struggle in the door with the belt around her neck lasted five minutes. Five minutes, Megan in pain, in terror, the belt being wrapped around her neck. You can almost hear her gasping for air.
‘We will never know how long her conscious terror persisted. We will never know how long it took until the darkness overtook her. We will only know that the last face she saw on this earth was the face of the man committed to her destruction. However long it was, it was an eternity for Megan. We may not know the exact sequence of events, but we do know that, whatever the sequence, it was so repulsive, so disturbing, so unsettling, so horrific, that it permeates your very soul.’
The jury were not spared as Kathryn Flicker drew together all the strands of the killing into a final reproach to the man who sat staring into mid-distance, as though he were not playing any part in the proceedings.
‘Before this trial, I am sure that the image of a toy box was something that brought great joy. It conjured up childhood happiness, laughter, all of the treasures that would be found inside. Instead you will see in your mind’s eye Megan. It is no longer a toy box. It was a coffin, Megan’s crumpled battered body inside.
‘Before this case, you would think of a park as a place that was bucolic, idyllic, peaceful. A place where families would go to enjoy life, where children could run and play. Now it will invoke images of death. It was a place where the defendant chose to dump Megan’s body, a place now defiled by his despicable acts. Megan, cast aside like so much garbage.’
She concluded, ‘No one on Earth deserves to die as Megan did. In pain, in terror, in anguish. Megan died at the hands of a man who knew no mercy, who knew no decency, who showed no humanity. There are not words to express the outrage. There are no words that can express the disdain.’
On 30 May, the jury unanimously found Timmendequas guilty of Megan’s murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault. Polled individually to see if each agreed with the verdict, some shouted an emphatic ‘Yes’ as they stared angrily into Timmendequas’s eyes.
Richard Kanka was called to give a victim impact statement. Shortly after Megan’s body had been found, he’d screamed in the direction of Timmendequas’s house: ‘They should burn that house down.’ Now he had the chance to address directly the man who’d taken Megan’s life, to try in some way to make him face the sheer magnitude of what he had stolen from their family.
Megan. Just moments old when I realised how special Megan was. This little girl battled to start her life, overcoming a difficult time during birth. As time marched on, Megan’s personality and strong will would bless our family.
Her ability to adapt to so many different situations around her was just amazing. She could be a real peacemaker during a brother-and-sister battle and a marriage counsellor when Mom and Dad had an argument. Her bubbly personality would make you forget your problems and make you just laugh.
Megan was gentle enough to have tea parties with her dolls and rugged enough to play in the mud with her brother’s Tonka trucks. Megan adapted and adjusted to the situation that presented itself.
As she matured, ever so gracefully, she not only blessed our family with her traits, she blessed our small community with her love for animals and children. When a neighbour’s child was in need of comfort, Megan was there. When several women in the neighbourhood were pregnant, Megan was there to see if she could help.
Megan was our little community newsletter with live broadcasts nearly every day at dinner time. Megan’s concern for her family was truly amazing. She not only considered herself, Mom, Dad, brother and sister her family, but the entire neighbourhood was hers to love.
Megan’s love for her mother was extra special. That special bond was not apparent with Jessica or Jeremy. But with Mom something special existed. Megan was Mom’s little homemaker, a little Mom at just seven years old.
Megan was a very popular little girl in school and at after-school activities. Megan was a leader at baton. Her personality blossomed everywhere. Named Miss Congeniality in baton two years in a row made me so proud. She was a focused little girl when it came to helping people, friend or foe. It did not matter to Megan when people were mean to her, she always gave a second chance to be friends. That was Megan.
During a Mom-and-Dad confrontation on some domestic issue, Dad didn’t stand a chance with Mom and Megan on the same side. She would tilt her little head to one side and smile and say, ‘You don’t have a chance, Dad.’ That little girl knew the right buttons to push with Dad. That smile will be sorely missed.
The moments that will be missed will be the constant interfering in our lives, the fifth place setting at the dinner table, the little head popping up and down in the rear-view mirror in the car, the constant love and affection for Abby, the family dog, the constant updating of community affairs, a true mediator between Mom and Dad, brother and sister, the bald-headed dolls that were everywhere around the house, the giving and sharing of love we all took for granted. These are a few things I observed as her Dad.
I noticed the bond immediately with Mom and watched it grow ever so strong. Megan was Mom’s little girl. Megan’s bond with Dad was there, but not like Mom, and I accepted that. Keeping an eye out on that future boyfriend, driving her on her first date, watching her prepare for her first prom, teaching her how to drive a car, walking her down the aisle on her wedding day, confronting her fears or anything that would arise – these are the things I will never be able to do with Megan.
Megan was the baby of our family. She was a little over four feet tall, deep-blue eyes and hair that had a mind of its own. She smiled most of the time and never hesitated to help out where she could.
Her favourite colour was pink, her favourite ice cream was mint chocolate-chip. Her favourite book was Good Night Moon. She loved to swim, ride bikes and play with her brother and sister.
Her sister Jessica has an emptiness inside that will always be there for the love she has for her little sister. She will never be able to grow up with Megan, share secrets and be there to offer advice as she thought she would always do as her big sister.
Megan and her brother Jeremy were eighteen months apart. Jeremy lost not only his sister, but his best friend as well. He will always remember how they used to rock on our rocking chairs for hours listening to music on the stereo, and how Megan would call him Joe when they would play, he would call her Sis. He always felt that he was her protector and now feels that he has let her down. His emptiness is great and he doesn’t understand why this had to happen.
It has been necessary for Jeremy and Jessica to undergo therapy sessions to deal with the loss of their little sister Megan. Jeremy still has nightmares and has been found screaming in his closet in the middle of the night.
Jessica, Jeremy and Megan had to share a bedroom because of ongoing construction in the house. After Megan’s death, they could not bear to return to the room they shared with her, so they slept out in the den. We realised