Murders of Jasmine Lovett and Aliyah Sanderson

Jasmine Lovett, 25, and her 22-month-old daughter, Aliyah Sanderson, were last seen in Calgary's Cranston neighbourhood on April 16, 2019. When neither appeared for a family dinner, they were reported missing on April 23. Calgary police found no subsequent evidence that either was alive and, two days later, began treating the disappearance as a potential double homicide. [Calgary Police Service](https://newsroom.calgary.ca/disappearance-of-mother-and-child-now-suspected-homicides/)

On May 6, investigators located the bodies of a woman and child in a wooded area near Grizzly Creek in Kananaskis Country, west of Calgary. Police later confirmed the victims' identities. Court evidence established that Lovett and Sanderson had been buried in shallow graves and that Robert Leeming led undercover officers to the location during a police operation. Medical evidence attributed Lovett's death to gunshot and blunt-force injuries and Sanderson's death to blunt-force trauma. [Global News](https://globalnews.ca/news/8246084/calgary-robert-leeming-trial-begins/)

Leeming was charged with two counts of second-degree murder. At the start of his judge-alone trial in October 2021, he pleaded guilty to murdering Lovett but not guilty to murdering Sanderson. He acknowledged striking Lovett and shooting her. He maintained that Sanderson had fallen down stairs, but the trial judge rejected that account and concluded that her injuries were not accidental. In January 2022, Leeming was found guilty of Sanderson's second-degree murder as well. [CityNews Calgary](https://calgary.citynews.ca/2022/01/24/calgary-man-verdict-murder-trial/)

In November 2022, Leeming received automatic life sentences for both convictions, with no eligibility to apply for parole for 22 years. The sentencing judge characterized Lovett's killing as domestic violence and found that Leeming had also breached the trust of the toddler in his care. Alberta's Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Leeming's challenge to the Sanderson conviction in July 2024, finding no reversible error in the trial judge's assessment. [CityNews Calgary](https://calgary.citynews.ca/2024/07/23/calgary-robert-leeming-appeal/)

The case is classified as solved because Leeming's responsibility for both killings is established by convictions, sentence, and the unsuccessful appeal. This account distinguishes his guilty plea in Lovett's death from the contested trial and conviction in Sanderson's death and avoids assigning a motive beyond the court's findings.