The Bathtub Sisters
Tags: True Crime, Canada, Crime, Murder, History

Linda Anderson was a single mother of two teenaged daughters; sixteen-year-old Sandra and fifteen-year-old Beth. These names, of course, are aliases engineered to protect their identities under Canadian law.

Simply put, Linda had a chaotic life. She was hopelessly addicted to alcohol, involved in a tumultuous and abusive relationship with her live-in boyfriend Doug and she worked two jobs.

The girls were constantly dreaming of normal home life; they would envy their girlfriends who would boast of family vacations and home-cooked meals. In their household, family dinners were a rare and special occasion. More often than not, the girls were left to fend for themselves and their little brother as well.

The three were often left without basic necessities as Linda used her two incomes to feed her alcohol addiction.

Initially, the girls were relieved when Doug left after being convicted of domestic violence and drunk driving in 2001. They thought that perhaps, without his constant physical and emotional abuse of Linda, she would stop drinking and they could finally have the mother they always wanted.

When Linda’s drinking increased after Doug left, it left the girls utterly confused; Why is she drinking more? Shouldn’t she be happier now? Cured? Aren’t we good enough?

Due to Linda’s dependence on alcohol, her children grew up in a life of poverty, one which should not been the case considering Linda worked two well-paying jobs.

It’s easy to understand why the girls did not feel loved or appreciated by their mother — they could not compete with alcohol. Where they should have been placed as a top priority, alcohol consistently stole the spotlight.

Sandra and Beth decided they could no longer continuing living with an erratic mother who constantly chose alcohol over them — they began researching ways to kill their mother on the internet.

Soon, they formulated a plan.

They would kill their mother and use the insurance money to take a European vacation with their friends. Of course, when the girls spoke of their hatred towards their mother and their subsequent plans to end her life, none of their friends took the threat seriously.

After all, how many teenagers say they hate their parents on a regular basis? Unfortunate, but a true component of puberty and teenagehood.

The Murder

On January 18, 2003, Sandra and Beth plied their mother with alcohol — which with her addiction, was fairly easy. Afterwards, they had her swallow six Tylenol 3 tablets. The mixture of codeine and alcohol, a fatal concoction, would slow down her heartbeat and allow the girls to complete their horrid quest.

The girls filled the bathtub and escorted their mother inside. They then put gloves on and began bathing their mother, before telling her to lie on her stomach, so they could scrub her back. When she did as told, the girls held Linda’s head down in the water for four minutes.

They called the murder, “fast and unspectacular.”

The girls then went to eat at a local diner where they celebrated killing their own mother. After dinner, the girls went home and cried hysterically to a 911 operator that their mother had drowned.

With the concoction of drugs and alcohol in her system, and Linda’s history with alcohol dependence, investigators quickly categorized the death as an ‘accidental drowning’ and the case was closed.

The girls were ecstatic, but they wouldn’t be for long.

Drunken words are sober confessions

Sandra and Beth spent the next year boasting of their mother’s murder at several parties. Sandra specifically became fond of alcohol and would drunkenly confess her crime to friends, strangers and anyone who would listen.

The move proved to be unwise when a male friend of Sandra and Beth’s reported to the authorities the sisters had confessed the crime to him at one of the aforementioned parties.

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Investigators provided the male with a vehicle which was covered with audio and video recording, and the girls, unbeknownst to them, provided detailed confessions of their specific roles in the murder.

Sandra and Beth were arrested on January 21, 2004, a little over a year after they drowned their mother in the bathtub of their Mississauga family home. Both girls were charged with first-degree murder and were sentenced as young offenders in 2006.

Justice Duncan, who was the presiding judge for the case stated, “They suffered a level of poverty that was not in keeping with their mom’s relatively good income. The home atmosphere was depressing and degrading” before sentencing both girls to ten years; six years in custody and four years under community supervision.

Can violent youth offenders truly be rehabilitated?

Sandra was released in 2009, Beth a year later. Beth went on to become a lawyer and Sandra, a scientist. Both are in their early-thirties and mothers to young children.

Sandra recently participated in an interview for Global News where she expressed regret for her crime and shared it was the years of physical and sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her mother’s live-in boyfriend Doug that truly broke the camel’s back. She confessed that she also considered killing her abuser, but she quickly realized she was not a serial killer.

The girls were abused and vulnerable children, wishing and pleading for change, who, unfortunately, chose the wrong paths.

The girls repeatedly pleaded for help, even reporting the abuse to a priest, but nothing ever came of it. It was the feeling of helplessness and suffering which brought Sandra and Beth a feeling of rage that surmounted any feelings of love and compassion at that dreadful moment.

Sandra stated she now understands the struggles her mother went through, that they were not easy things to overcome.

Sandra went off to university where she received a $2,000 scholarship and became a scientist. Beth has proved to be quite successful as well, graduating from law school and becoming a lawyer, her mentor, a criminal lawyer of twenty years stated:

“She should absolutely deserve a second chance, as everyone does. While many people would go in a different direction and fall into a well of despair, she has finished law school. The murder is in her past and it remains in her past.”

Of course, we cannot travel back in time and undo wrongs, the best we can do is hope for growth, change and understanding. With this story, age-old questions come to mind; Can violent youth offenders truly be rehabilitated? Are they capable of change? Can those who have killed feel genuine remorse for their crimes?

Sandra certainly believes she has: