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Marilyn Elaine Badger, 52, was found dead on December 24th, 2006.

Badger was Edmonton's 36th and last murder victim of the year.

Curtis George McCallum, 32, was charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

A 911 call received after a woman fled a house led officers to a residence at 16526 106 Avenue at about 8:30 a.m. on December 24th, 2006.

Inside, police found Marilyn Badger lying dead on a couch in the living room.

Lying on the floor was her common-law husband, Roland Welz (reported variously as being 36 or 38), in serious condition with a broken jaw and serious stab wounds to his lungs and head and possibly a broken neck. He was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

The two were discovered by Marilyn's daughter, 18-year-old Devonlee Badger, who ran from the home and called police from a neighbour's house.

Curtis George McCallum, Marilyn's nephew, was arrested at the scene.

He was charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with Edmonton's 36th homicide of 2006.

Despite earlier reports of being stabbed to death, Edmonton police announced on December 27th, 2006 the exact cause of Badger's death won't be known until after toxicology tests have been completed.

Police did confirm that Badger's body showed signs of an assault but they wouldn't elaborate on their nature.

McCallum made his first court appearance on January 5th, 2007.

He was remanded in custody and is expected to enter a plea later in January.

In interviews with the Edmonton Journal, the Edmonton Sun and CTV Edmonton, family, friends and neighbours painted a conflicting picture of domestic violence and drug abuse that came to a deadly end.

Marilyn Badger was originally from an aboriginal family rasied in Molanosa, Saskatchewan, a small town northeast of Prince Albert.

She had two daughters and two sons with her first two husbands, as well as six grandchildren. Badger and Roland Welz, her third husband, didn't have any children together.

Marilyn lost two brothers in a drowning incident and eventually left Saskatchewan.

Living together for the last 16 to 18 years, Badger and Welz moved between Fort McMurray, Calgary and Edmonton, following Welz's heavy duty lift operator jobs in Alberta's oilpatch.

A recent leg injury kept him from working further, and neither Badger nor Welz had been employed for the past few years.

The couple moved into their current home in the Britannia Youngstown neighbourhood after Welz's father bought it about five years ago.

Badger's daughter Devonlee moved in around June, 2006 followed by Curits McCallum and another man who rented a room for the past month.

After the events of December 24th, Devonlee Badger went to her sister's home in Frog Lake, about 240 km east of Edmonton.

"I'm going through hell right now," she told the media.

"I've been in group care for 12 years and this was supposed to be my first Christmas with my mom."

"I saw her [dead], but I'm still in denial. You have no idea how it feels to wake up and find your mom on the couch like that."

Devonlee hoped her mother is "in a happier place and doesn't have to suffer anymore."

Another of Marilyn's daughters, Janine Badger, described her mother as a "caring, loving person. My mom would offer any of her friends a place to stay for the night – even the clothes off her back."

Marilyn Badger's sister, Ivy Bell, wished other native women would learn a lesson from the tragic end of her sister's alcoholic lifestyle.

Contacted at her home in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Bell said, "It's horrible, but I just hope she doesn't die in vain."

Bell said her family was still coming to terms with Badger's death while acknowledging that her sister's lifestyle likely played a role.

"When she was sober, she was the nicest person, but the people she associated with were kind of rough," she said.

Roland Welz's brother, Robert, said his family wasn't surprised when hearing of events.

"We were all kind of afraid that something like this might happen," he said.

Robert said the family was aware of Welz's and Badger's drinking and violence problems, adding he was often frustrated that his pleas for Welz to leave Badger went unheeded.

"They always wound up together because they had some kind of connection ... that he always called love."

"I don't know if it was some kind of dependency but certainly they always wound up together again."

"It's going to leave a vacuum in his life – a void that's going to be really hard to fill with something positive."

Robert and his family had little contact with Roland in recent years, but his mother said the relationship between her son and Badger was a volatile one.

"It wasn't a happy thing, but for some reason he loved her. She would get drunk, and she would be violent. But they must have had some good moments, because he kept going back to her."

"I'm glad Roland is still alive. He has another chance. But I feel horrible about Marilyn," said the woman who didn't want her name published.

Welz's mother said she doesn't believe her son, who has a university degree in computer engineering, ever physically abused Marilyn.

Devonlee agreed, "Roland's harmless." Welz wasn’t able to defend himself or Badger during the assault because he had an injured leg and couldn’t walk.

However, Devonlee didn't want to speak of Curtis McCallum but did say there was drinking going on the night of the slaying.

Neighbour Archie Crouse said he heard glass being smashed early in the morning.

"The fighting started at about four – four-thirty in the morning. I heard the windows getting broke and I thought it was ordinary routine around there."

Four hours later, Devonlee was at his back door.

"She came over crying," Crouse said. "She said, 'I gotta call the cops, I gotta call the cops.' "

"The funny part is when the fighting started, like I said, it was about four-thirty. How come she never came over to get the cops, to call the cops from my house, until about 8:45?"

Crouse said Badger was a good person and that Roland Welz was a smart man, but their drinking habits often brought out violent behaviour.

"I knew something like this was going to happen eventually. I didn't think it would be so early. It was at times pretty abusive over there."

The neighbour said Marilyn "didn't have an easy go. She had a hard life."

"There were several nights when she'd come over here all beat up. I'd just let her sit on the couch and cry. The cops were always going over there, but nothing ever got done about it."

The man spent several nights a week with Badger and Welz at their home, often sharing beers with the couple.

Crouse said a man named Curtis lived part-time at the one-storey bungalow and was a "well-known crack addict."

Frustrated by the ongoing problems inside the home, he had told both Badger and Welz to kick McCallum out of the house.

"He'll explode at the drop of a hat over nothing. And when he's on drugs he's really bad."

Crouse added that Marilyn's death would be hard on her former partner.

"He's going to be really broken hearted for quite a while. In his own kind of way Roland really loved Marilyn."

Another neighbour said the couple have been arguing more physically in the last five months because the mother's daughter and McCallum had both recently moved in.

"They've kicked [McCallum] out a few times already but he just keeps coming back," said Terry Bone, who lived two doors down the street from the home.

"I wasn't surprised. It's too bad because she was a good person. He was an alright guy too."

Other area residents said the home was a "crack house," and that late-night partying often brought police to the home.

One neighbour who lived across the street said Badger and Welz would often have arguments.

"All of them have always been nice to me but they yell and fight with each other all the time," said Edna McFetridge.

On December 27th, 2006 the Edmonton Sun reported that Marilyn Badger would be laid to rest on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation in northern Saskatchewan.

Speaking with Marilyn's ex-husband, Howard Badger, the Sun reported the funeral would take place December 30th.

“She was a good friend. We’d been married and separated but she was still a good friend of mine,” said Howard.

“We tried to help her as much as we could, but she chose her own way of life out there [in Edmonton].”

Howard couldn’t say whether Roland Welz would be able to make it to Badger’s funeral.

On September 29th, 2008 the second-degree murder trial of Curtis George McCallum began in an Edmonton courtroom.

But almost as soon as the trial began, the matter was put under voir dire, a trial within a trial, to determine the admissibility of evidence.

Details revealed during the voir dire, conducted with jurors excluded, are protected by a publication ban.

McCallum had pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder in the matter of his aunt, Marilyn Badger, and attempted murder in the case of Badger's common-law husband, Roland Welz.

Jurors heard that if Welz had not received immediate medical attention, he too might have died from his injuries.

On October 23rd, 2008, after deliberating for a day, a jury convicted Curtis George McCallum of the manslaughter of Marilyn Badger and aggravated assault in the matter of the attack on her husband, Roland Welz.

Justice Myra Bielby ordered a pre-sentence report as well as a psychiatric assessment to be completed prior to McCallum's sentencing hearing, set for December 5th, 2008.

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deadmonton 2006 - marilyn elaine badger