The two teenage boys charged with murdering 18-year-old Kimberly Proctor on Vancouver Island pleaded guilty in a Victoria, B.C., courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
The details of Proctor's murder were so repulsive and appalling – some officers who worked the case have gone into counselling.
The suspects, aged 16 and 18, are charged with first-degree murder, forcible confinement, sexual assault and indignity to human remains in the death of Proctor.
The names of the teenagers are protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act but details of what they did to Proctor have now been made public.
Text messages between the boys revealed they had planned to seduce, rape and kill her.
On March 18, after declining the boys' advances, Proctor was lured to a home where her hands and ankles were duct taped. They stuffed a sock in her mouth and sexually assaulted her for hours.
A knife was used to mutilate her body and she eventually died. An autopsy revealed she couldn't breathe because of the tape over her mouth.
Proctor's body was placed in a freezer in the garage. The next day the teens carried her body in a duffel bag on a public bus to the Galloping Goose Trail where they lit her on fire.
The teen's charred body was found near a bridge on the trail.
In online chats, the boys admitted to a friend that they had picked Proctor because she was an easy target.
No reason was offered for the murder although one of the boys said he had dreamed about killing someone since he was young and neither said they felt guilty.
Cpl. Darren Lagan said that police have mixed feelings about the outcome.
"We're satisfied at the outcome but at the same time our investigators over the last seven months have come to know the Proctor family very well and this is a day of great anguish for them. The details that were learned in court today, they learned last night," he said.
Proctor's parents attended the hearing and did not comment.
Crown prosecutors are asking for the two to be sentenced as adults. The killers were shackled during their court appearance and showed no emotion or remorse.
A youth sentence for the teens would mean a minimum jail term of 10 years without parole. This jumps to life with 25 years without parole as an adult.
A 40-person team from Vancouver Island RCMP clocked more than 20,000 hours during its investigation into Proctor's death, and conducted more than 250 formal interviews.
Lagan said the crime has deeply disturbed the entire community.
"This is a crime that will haunt the community, the investigators and her family for the rest of our lives," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
