Winnipeg murder charge stayed after sole witness dies, province says

A woman charged with second-degree murder in a 2022 killing has had that charge stayed after the only witness implicating her died, a Manitoba government spokesperson says.

Tanisha Caitlin Flett, who was 26 at the time of her arrest, was charged in connection with the death of 26-year-old Heather Marie Cheyane Beardy in early 2022.

Beardy was found dead in an apartment on Furby Street in Winnipeg on Feb. 2, 2022.

The only witness who implicated Flett in the homicide died on Aug. 7, 2022, a provincial spokesperson said, which led Crown prosecutors to stay the charge against her on Oct. 6, 2022.

"As is our ethical obligation, the case against Ms. Flett was revisited and it was determined there was no longer any likelihood of conviction against her," the spokesperson said in an email.

"The case against the other two co-accused continues as there is other available evidence against them, the trial is scheduled for next spring."

Amos Joe Kematch, 27 at the time of his arrest, and Leah Carol Clifton, 34 at the time of her arrest, were also charged with second-degree murder in Beardy's death. They are both scheduled to stand trial beginning in April 2024.

Clifton is also one of two people charged in the death of Doris Lydia Trout, a 25-year-old mother of three who was found dead in the common area of a Kennedy Street apartment complex in Winnipeg in May 2022. She's scheduled to appear in a separate trial beginning in March 2024.