Sask. Court of Appeal upholds 1st-degree murder conviction for gang leader in Tiki Laverdiere death

WARNING: this story contains distressing details.

A gang leader at the centre of the murder of Tiki Laverdiere is staying in prison.

Soaring Eagle Whitstone had appealed her first-degree murder conviction in the death of the 25-year-old from Edmonton in 2019.

Whitstone had tried to minimize her role in the North Battleford murder, which saw nine others also convicted of offences that ranged from first-degree murder to kidnapping.

"The evidence of the conduct engaged in by Soaring Eagle — including her level of control of the scenes and the participants … her direct actions in relation to the confinement, beatings, and torture of Tiki … and her congratulatory words and actions after Tiki died — provided overwhelming evidence from which to infer that Soaring Eagle meant to cause Tiki's death," Justice Jerome Tholl wrote in a decision earlier this month.

The decision noted that Whitstone was "queen" of a North Battleford gang called the Westside Outlawz, and a relative of of Tristen Cook-Buckle.

Laverdiere was in an Edmonton gang with Cook-Buckle and had travelled to North Battleford in the spring of 2019 for his funeral.

Her family reported her missing after the funeral and, in July of that year, her remains were found in a stand of woods outside North Battleford. It triggered five years of investigations, charges and trials.

The investigation covered two provinces, nine crime scenes and featured interviews with more than 120 witnesses.

Following Tiki Laverdiere's death, it took almost five years for the cases to wind through the courts. (RCMP)

Laverdiere, who was also friends with Cook-Buckle's mother, Nicole Cook, met with her and other family members after the funeral. They were drinking and doing drugs for two days, as Laverdiere tried unsuccessfully to catch a ride home to Edmonton.

At some point, Nicole Cook believed that Laverdiere had some knowledge about who killed her son.

A collection of Cook's family, friends and local gang members then held Laverdiere hostage and tortured her for information.

Laverdiere was beaten, burned and, at two different times when the sounds of the torture were attracting too much attention, forced to march through North Battleford while tied up.

Her assailants also tried to force her to write a narrative of what she knew about Cook-Buckle's murder.

They eventually slit Laverdiere's throat and then took her remains out to the countryside.

Nicole Cook was also convicted of first-degree murder.