Bathtub Girls murder

On January 18, 2003, in Mississauga, Ontario, two teenage sisters murdered their mother, referred to by the pseudonym Linda Andersen, by drowning her in the bathtub of their family home. Because the sisters were minors at the time of the crime, their identities and that of their mother are protected under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act; the names used in coverage — Linda, Sandra, Elizabeth (Beth), and Bobby Andersen — are aliases created by journalist Bob Mitchell.

According to reporting, Andersen raised her children largely on her own after her husband abandoned the family, and she struggled with depression and alcohol dependency. A second marriage ended after her husband was convicted of drunk driving and domestic abuse in 2001, after which her drinking reportedly worsened. The daughters, resentful of household deprivation and money spent on alcohol, researched methods to kill their mother and settled on drowning because they believed it would be "fast and unspectacular." They anticipated receiving approximately $133,000 in insurance proceeds.

On the day of the murder, the sisters gave their mother alcohol and six Tylenol 3 tablets to impair her, then drowned her in the bathtub during what was staged as a back massage. They later met friends to create an alibi before returning home and calling 9-1-1, reporting that their mother had been drunk and preparing to bathe when they left. The death was initially ruled an accidental drowning linked to alcohol intoxication; toxicology later showed high levels of alcohol and codeine in her system.

The case remained unresolved for about eleven months until a young man contacted police after one of the sisters described the killing to him. Police wired him for audio and video recordings of subsequent conversations with the sisters, and investigators also examined computer chat logs and internet search histories. The sisters were arrested on January 21, 2004. Both made taped confessions that were used as evidence at trial.

Trial proceedings began in November 2005, and the sisters were convicted of first degree murder. In June 2006, they were each sentenced to ten years under the Youth Criminal Justice Act — the maximum youth sentence — consisting of six years in custody and four years of community supervision. The presiding judge, Justice Bruce Duncan, described the case against them as overwhelming. A young man connected to the case, identified as Beth's boyfriend, was separately convicted in December 2006 of conspiring to murder Andersen and of covering up the crime, ultimately receiving eight months in prison followed by four months of supervision.

Both sisters completed their sentences and were released — the elder in 2009 and the younger in 2010. By 2020, reporting indicated one had become a scientist after graduating from university, while the other had married, had a child, and graduated from law school.