Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

Myles Sanderson had a list of grievances and was ready to kill anyone who got in his way, a coroner's inquest into a Saskatchewan mass stabbing heard Friday. 

Experts testified there was likely a reason the killer chose each of his targets. 

"His mission was to attack, injure and murder those who he had a grievance against," said Staff Sgt. Carl Sesely, an RCMP criminal profiler.

"Simple as that." 

The common-law partner of the man responsible for a massacre on a Saskatchewan First Nation wept as she talked about years of emotional and physical abuse that would culminate in the death of her father during the stabbing rampage.

"I wish I left sooner," Vanessa Burns said Thursday while wiping tears from her eyes on the fourth day of a coroner's inquest. 

Burns met Myles Sanderson when she was 21 and he was 17. They would go on to have five children. 

Some family members say they don't have faith in a coroner's inquest as Mounties who responded to a stabbing rampage on a Saskatchewan First Nation testified they found people bleeding and others dead. 

"The justice system has never, ever been kind to us native people," said Darryl Burns, whose sister, Gloria Burns, was among those killed during a massacre on the James Smith Cree Nation on Sept. 4, 2022. 

"So do we have faith in this justice system? Do we have faith in this (inquest)? I don't think we do."

Myles Sanderson and his brother were driving around a Saskatchewan First Nation causing havoc, assaulting people and selling drugs in the days and hours before a mass killing in the community.

The first day of a coroner's inquest into the stabbing rampage saw text messages that Damien Sanderson sent his wife, Skye Sanderson, as the brothers caused chaos in the community.

"I'm done ready to die," Damien Sanderson said in one message on the afternoon before the attacks.

RCMP have said Damien Sanderson was the first to be killed by his brother. 

A coroner’s inquest into the mass killing on a Saskatchewan First Nation is set to begin today.

Myles Sanderson killed 11 people and injured 17 others on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon on Sept. 4, 2022. 

Sanderson, who was 32, died in police custody a few days later. 

The inquest is to establish the events leading up to the killings, who died, and when and where each person was killed. 

A jury can also make recommendations to prevent similar deaths.

Brett Herman thinks back fondly on his childhood, running outside his grandfather’s house in northern Saskatchewan with his younger brother chasing behind. 

He describes his brother, Braden Herman, as a gentle giant who would never hurt a fly.

Brett Herman says he never would have imagined that years later, his younger brother would be killed and the accused would be a veteran police officer. 

“I really don't know how to deal with this,” Brett Herman says. 

A woman accused of faking her death and that of her child before they crossed the border into the United States has been given a one-year conditional sentence that she can serve in the community.

Dawn Walker was also given 18 months probation and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service. She cannot have contact with her child without supervision and must stay in Saskatchewan.

A specialized RCMP team that deals with high-risk situations was not immediately available to respond to a stabbing rampage and hunt for a mass killer in Saskatchewan because of contract negotiations, internal emails show.

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show Ottawa’s Emergency Response Team-Special Activities Group, also known as ERT-SAG, was initially offered to help as Mounties responded the stabbing attacks on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon on Sept. 4, 2022.

Eddie Head felt a deep pull toward his Saskatchewan First Nation as it was enveloped in devastation. 

He had been a community leader for decades for James Smith Cree Nation and served a term as chief. But as he learned about the horrors of a stabbing rampage over the Labour Day weekend last year, an even more difficult connection became clear — the killer was his nephew. 

"I felt obligated to come back home," Head says from the band office in the community northeast of Saskatoon.

A chief in Saskatchewan says her heart is broken after ground-penetrating radar located 93 areas of interest at the site of a former residential school.

English River First Nation Chief Jenny Wolverine said it’s believed 79 of the areas of interest at the Beauval Indian Residential School could be the size of possible children’s graves and 14 could be the size of ones for infants.

"It breaks my heart that there's likely more, or even that there's even one," Wolverine said Tuesday in Saskatoon. 

"The experience of residential school is horrific."