A Saskatoon jury has found Chantal Lee McLaren guilty of possessing a benzodiazepine for the purpose of trafficking, a verdict that has also allowed previously restricted details surrounding the 2024 killing of 25-year-old Lee Perkins to become public.
McLaren, 35, was convicted Wednesday after a 12-person jury deliberated for about three hours at Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench. Her drug-trafficking trial began Oct. 5 and centred on brown glass bottles containing a liquid that police seized from a Saskatoon home on Feb. 1, 2024—two days before Perkins was found dead at the same residence.
The case has involved three people who were initially accused of first-degree murder in connection with Perkins's death. The legal proceedings have unfolded separately, with publication restrictions limiting what could be reported while the accused faced different trials.
The new verdict has lifted some of those restrictions and provided a clearer picture of what happened in the days leading up to Perkins's death.
Three people originally charged in Perkins's death
Perkins was killed in a home on Lisgar Avenue in Saskatoon's Pacific Heights neighbourhood in February 2024. Three people were originally charged with first-degree murder: Edin Dion Vrazalica, Dillon Singler and McLaren.
Vrazalica continues to face a first-degree murder charge. His judge-alone trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 9. Singler pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The Crown is seeking to have him designated a dangerous offender, with a related hearing scheduled for January.
McLaren's murder charge was later discontinued. She instead faced charges of being an accessory after the fact to murder and offering an indignity to human remains.
She pleaded guilty to the accessory-after-the-fact charge and admitted that she purchased supplies that were subsequently used in an attempt to clean up or conceal the murder scene. She was not present when Perkins was murdered and did not admit to cleaning the scene herself.
The charge alleging an indignity to human remains is expected to be withdrawn when the judge delivers a decision on her sentence.
What happened to Lee Perkins
According to an agreed statement of facts filed in court, McLaren was an unwilling witness to a brutal assault on Perkins sometime between Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, 2024.
The agreed facts state that Perkins was beaten and that four of his fingers were cut off. Vrazalica and Singler were identified in those facts as the men who assaulted him.
The same statement says Perkins was subsequently murdered in circumstances in which McLaren was not a party or witness.
Because Vrazalica has not pleaded guilty to the murder charge and remains before the courts, allegations concerning his role in Perkins's death have not been proven in court.
Police eventually found Perkins's remains inside a large plastic storage tote when officers returned to the Lisgar Avenue residence with a search warrant on Feb. 3, 2024. The discovery followed an earlier police response to the same home two days before.
Police had previously seized bottles from the home
On Feb. 1, officers responded to a series of 911 calls involving the residence. Police did not find the emergency described by some of the calls, but officers located numerous brown bottles containing liquid in the home.
One man was found sleeping on a couch upstairs. Police did not charge him at that time. Officers seized the bottles but did not conduct the type of extensive search that would later take place under a warrant.
Laboratory testing conducted in May 2024 determined that the liquid contained remimazolam, a benzodiazepine. Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs that can be legally prescribed for medical purposes.
A police drug expert testified that the authorities had not previously encountered remimazolam in Saskatchewan in liquid form.
Police seized 43 full bottles, along with hundreds of empty bottles in the residence. Investigators believed the quantity indicated that the drug was being trafficked.
Vrazalica later pleaded guilty to possession of benzodiazepine for the purpose of trafficking and is serving a two-year sentence. McLaren pleaded not guilty to the same drug-trafficking allegation and proceeded to trial.
The evidence against McLaren
The Crown's case against McLaren was circumstantial. Prosecutors argued that she had knowledge of and control over the drugs because they were found in the home she rented.
Police officers testified that bottles were found on a bed in a downstairs bedroom. They also described seeing women's clothing, school books and binders associated with McLaren elsewhere in the home.
Investigators later photographed items including an expired passport belonging to McLaren and a letter addressed to her from eHealth.
The defence, however, argued that the evidence did not establish that McLaren knew about or controlled the drugs. A video was also introduced showing two masked men placing brown bottles on what appeared to be the same bed where police had found bottles.
Defence lawyer Zachary Carter argued that the video provided another possible explanation for how the drugs came to be in the residence and emphasized that Perkins was the only person police found inside the home when the drugs were initially seized.
The Crown argued that the evidence supported a finding of “constructive possession”—a legal concept under which a person can be found to possess an item without physically holding it if the evidence establishes knowledge, access and control. After approximately three hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously found McLaren guilty.
McLaren's account of the police search
McLaren did not testify during the drug-trafficking trial. However, during proceedings connected with her accessory-after-the-fact conviction, she provided a prepared statement describing her circumstances at the time.
She said she had been away at a dental appointment when police attended her residence and removed drugs she said she did not know were there.
She said the experience contributed to her fear and confusion and reinforced her belief that she could not safely turn to police for help. Those circumstances became important in the later sentencing proceedings concerning her role after Perkins's death.
Alleged abuse in McLaren's relationship
The court has also heard extensive evidence about McLaren's relationship with Vrazalica. An agreed statement of facts described the relationship as involving escalating and repeated physical, emotional and coercive abuse.
The facts included allegations that McLaren was punched, strangled, tied up and threatened. Two incidents occurred in the months before Perkins's death. On Dec. 21, 2023, McLaren went to hospital with injuries described as consistent with strangulation, as well as bruising to her face and arm.
On Jan. 7, 2024, she returned to hospital and reported that Vrazalica had tied her wrists with duct tape, punched her and choked her. She escaped after he fell asleep.
Medical records described injuries including lacerations and abrasions, a broken front tooth, extensive bruising and a nasal bone fracture. The Crown acknowledged that McLaren had experienced serious intimate-partner violence and that the circumstances reduced her moral blameworthiness.
McLaren bought cleaning supplies
The agreed facts state that McLaren made two shopping trips on Feb. 2, 2024, while fearful of Vrazalica. During the first trip, around 9:30 a.m., she went to Canadian Tire and purchased items including disinfecting wipes, a scrub brush, cleaning gloves, bleach and garbage bags.
At about 12:45 p.m., she went to Home Depot and purchased a large Husky storage tote with wheels. The items were later used by others in attempts to conceal the murder.
McLaren pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder. She was not present when Perkins was killed, and the agreed facts do not say that she personally cleaned the murder scene.
Police shooting on the day Perkins was discovered
When police returned to the neighbourhood shortly after midnight on Feb. 3 with a search warrant, officers established a perimeter around the residence.
Two women left the house and were pursued by police. A man then emerged from the residence carrying a long cylindrical object and ran toward officers.
According to the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team investigation, the man—identified through court records as Vrazalica—ran toward officers before stopping and raising the object toward his shoulder.
An officer fired two shots, striking him once. Vrazalica was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound. The object was later described as a rolling cover consistent with an SUV cargo cover.
Police then searched the residence and discovered Perkins's remains inside the large black plastic tote. Vrazalica subsequently appeared in court by telephone from hospital.
Perkins's family continues to seek justice
Perkins's death has devastated his family. During McLaren's sentencing hearing in September, his father, Cam Perkins, described the pain of losing his son and having to receive his remains after cremation.
His mother, Nannette Perkins, spoke about losing her son and witnessing the suffering experienced by his older brother, Austin.
Perkins's sister-in-law, Natasha, told the court that Lee had become involved with people connected to illegal activities after experiencing addiction and homelessness.
The family has continued to emphasize that Perkins did not deserve the violence inflicted upon him or the loss of dignity following his death.
McLaren awaits sentencing
McLaren's conviction on the drug-trafficking charge is separate from her earlier guilty plea to being an accessory after the fact to Perkins's murder.
Her sentencing hearing for the accessory charge has focused heavily on the abuse she says she experienced.
The Crown has argued that she should receive a sentence of two years less a day in custody, while her lawyer has argued for a community-based sentence of the same length, taking into account the time she has already spent in custody and the circumstances surrounding her relationship with Vrazalica.
McLaren has sole custody of her six-year-old daughter. Her lawyer has asked the court to consider the consequences imprisonment could have on the child.
Justice Daryl Labach is scheduled to deliver his decision on the accessory-after-the-fact sentence on Dec. 9. McLaren's sentencing for the drug-trafficking conviction is scheduled for March 1, 2027.
Murder case against Vrazalica remains before the court
Despite the new information emerging from McLaren's proceedings, the central question of who is legally responsible for Perkins's murder remains before the courts.
Vrazalica continues to face a first-degree murder charge and has not admitted responsibility for Perkins's killing. His trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 9.
Singler, meanwhile, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and awaits further proceedings concerning the Crown's dangerous-offender application.
The latest developments have therefore provided new information about the circumstances surrounding Perkins's final days, but the full legal determination of responsibility for his death remains incomplete.
For Perkins's family, however, the court proceedings have already brought years of waiting, grief and unanswered questions into public view. The upcoming trials and sentencing decisions will determine the next chapters in a case that began with a police call to a Saskatoon home in February 2024 and ultimately uncovered the death of a young man whose family continues to demand justice.