A Saskatchewan Teen Was Beaten, Tortured, and Buried in a Shallow Grave Over a $100 Drug Debt

Six people are facing jail time after a Saskatchewan teen was kidnapped by three guys wearing animals masks, tortured in a theatre basement and buried alive in a shallow grave over a $100-drug debt this past summer, according to an agreed statement of facts presented in a North Battleford provincial court earlier this month.

On June 3, the teen in question was walking from the Don Ross Community Centre North Battleford (about 135 km northwest of Saskatoon) when "a vehicle pulled up and three guys in animal masks got out," the CBC reported. In a scene that could probably make the cut in any crime show, the guys then put a bag over the teen's head, stuck him in the vehicle, then drove him to the Capitol Theatre building, where his hands and feet were bound.

The CBC notes that the teen was then taken into the basement of the theatre, where he was tied to a chair. After stuffing a sock in his mouth (presumably to muffle his screams), the guys in the animal masks proceed to beat his legs with a hammer and wrench, tried to choke him with a telephone wire, and "worked on his hands and fingers with pliers" for the next three hours. They also tried to get him to eat glass. The torture came to an end around 11:30 PM, when the men contacted the theatre manager, "Queen B," and asked her to bring her car to the back. The teen was then blindfolded, thrown into the trunk and driven out into the country. But in an oddly Canadian twist in this sordid tale, the perpetrators stopped along the way at a Tim Hortons drive-thru, where the teen "could hear them ordering smoothies and a triple triple" and "talking about whether to drop him off at the hospital or dump him in a field." They ended up pulling over in field six kilometres out of town, where two of the men got out, dug a hole and threw the still blindfolded teen in. They then beat him with their shovels, tossed some dirt over him, took the sock from his mouth and left. The group then drove back to the theatre, where surveillance video showed them gather "around the counter in the lobby, put their hands in the middle of the group and then raise them up, resembling a group cheer," the CBC reported. Hurt but not defeated, the teen managed to crawl out of the hole and then caught a ride back to a relative's house. Apparently, "he planned to contact his cousins, instead of police, to settle the score," but his revenge plot was intercepted when an RCMP officer spotting him walking along 99th Street looking hurt. The cops managed to piece together what happened with surveillance tapes, Facebook messages, and evidence from the car, and six people were arrested in connection with the kidnapping and torture. According to the CBC, last week Garth Iron, 19, pleaded guilty to kidnapping, possessing a weapon, and uttering threats, and was was sentenced to six years in prison. Queen B, real name Stephanie Sample, 37, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and was sentenced to four years in prison, while four minors also pleaded guilty to various charges. Burning your dealer is apparently a bad idea in Saskatchewan. Follow Jackie Hong on Twitter.