A young woman serving a life sentence for sexually blackmailing her boyfriend into killing a 14-year-old girl has been granted unescorted temporary absences from prison.
Melissa Todorovic was 15 when her boyfriend, David Bagshaw, stabbed Stefanie Rengel six times and left her to die in a snowbank outside her house on New Year's Day, 2008.
The two girls had never met but Todorovic grew intensely jealous of Rengel, who had briefly dated Bagshaw two years earlier. She also believed the younger girl was spreading rumours about her.
Todorovic was convicted in 2009 for masterminding Rengel's murder and was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years - the maximum adult sentence for someone her age.
She later sought to have a new trial ordered on appeal, arguing that self-incriminating statements she made to police should not have been admitted as evidence at her trial. But the appeal court upheld her conviction and sentence.
The Parole Board of Canada held a hearing in Kitchener, Ont., today to weigh Todorovic's application for unescorted temporary absences from prison and granted her request.