The Jonathan Madden Tragedy: When Family Becomes Fatal

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kevin Madden, 16, was a habitual school truant.
He typically skipped schoolwith his best friend,
15-year-old Timothy Fairman.
The two boys lived in Toronto,canada, where Timothy was
nicknamed Vampire Boy due to hispenchant for claiming he drank
human blood.
Despite his evident issues,kevin's 12-year-old brother,
jonathan Madden, completelyidolized him.

(00:21):
Jonathan loved Beethoven,especially when his uncle Luke
played the tune on his flute.
He enjoyed watching basketballgames and playing video games
with his brother.
Among his circle of friends, hewas known as the Joker and
could always be seen with a grinon his face.
Welcome to this episode of HumanWreckage.
What drives a family member tokill another family member?

(00:42):
Today's story is one of loveloss and the unthinkable.
Kevin Madden was just 16 whenhe made a choice that shattered
his family forever.
His brother Jonathan, hisvictim, is gone.
What happened that day isn'tjust a headline or a court case.
It's a human story, raw andheartbreaking.
Two lives forever changed, onelost entirely.

(01:03):
In this episode, we try tounderstand the pain behind the
tragedy, the silence that camebefore it and the echoes that
remain.
Let's get into it.

(01:46):
On the 25th of November 2003,kevin Timothy and another
unnamed friend skipped schooland went to Kevin's home on
Dawes Road in the East End.
Here they drank alcohol andsmoked before completely
trashing the house with baseballbats.
At the time, kevin andJonathan's mother, joanne
Champagny, and their stepfatherRalston Champagny, were at work

(02:07):
and Jonathan was at school thatafternoon.
Kevin told his friends that heplanned on killing his family.
When they returned, timothysubsequently called his
girlfriend to brag about what heand his friends intended on
doing.
His girlfriend became worriedand called back and recorded a
conversation between the threeteenagers boasting about their
murderous plan.
Afterwards she called thepolice, but it was already too

(02:29):
late.
Shortly after the phone call,Jonathan had arrived home.
He had been intending ongetting some money and going to
a nearby cyber cafe to playcomputer games.
Almost as soon as he enteredthe home, he was assaulted by
the teenagers and shoved downthe stairs into the darkened
basement.
In the basement they assaultedJonathan.
Timothy then handed Kevin abutcher knife and he

(02:51):
subsequently stabbed and slashedhis little brother to death.
Jonathan sustained 71 stabwounds.
His voice box and carotidartery were slashed.
Following the murder, theteenagers waited for Kevin's
stepfather to come home and theythen attacked him with a
baseball bat and knife.
Thankfully, he managed toescape.
The three boys were arrestedwithin 24 hours and ordered to

(03:13):
stand trial.
During his trial, kevin statedthat people who did not know
Jonathan should not be concernedabout what happened to him.
He declared that he had neverloved anybody and never felt
love from somebody.
According to Kevin's lawyer,robert Nuttall, kevin was
mentally ill and had sufferedtremendously following the
breakup of his parents' marriage.
He resented his mother andRalston and felt as though

(03:36):
Jonathan received preferentialtreatment.
By 2002, kevin had becomeincreasingly violent.
He had assaulted his girlfriendand threatened to kill several
of his classmates.
Violent, he had assaulted hisgirlfriend and threatened to
kill several of his classmates.
According to his lawyer, hisfeelings of anger, obsession
with violence, grandiose notionsof his own abilities and place
in the world had escalated.
Kevin admitted to killing hisbrother, but he minimized his

(03:58):
moral responsibility for themurder.
He claimed he hadn't planned tokill Jonathan but blamed his
actions on an anger surge.
He passed the blame onto hismother, stating that she never
loved him, despite the fact thatevidence showed that Joanne and
Ralston had tried their verybest to communicate with Kevin
and get through to him.
Several experts examined Kevinand all of them had determined

(04:20):
that he was deeply disturbed,but they all differed on what
caused this disturbance.
The court-appointedpsychiatrist, dr Ian Sway, said
that Kevin was a psychopath witha personality disorder.
He also said that Kevin washighly dangerous and very likely
to re-offend.
It was determined that Timothyhad not physically participated
in the murder, but had handedKevin the knife.

(04:41):
His words and actions had theeffect of encouraging Kevin
Madden to carry it out saidJustice David McCombs.
According to McCombs, timothyhad shown tremendous remorse and
shame for his participation inthe murder.
Following his arrest, kevin wasfound guilty of first-degree
murder, while Timothy was foundguilty of manslaughter.
The third teenager wasacquitted of all charges.

(05:04):
During the sentencing phase,kevin's defense lawyer fought
for him to be sentenced as ajuvenile and be sent to a youth
facility.
My client desperately needstreatment and unfortunately he's
not going to get it in afederal penitentiary, he said.
Kevin was instead sentenced asan adult and sentenced to life
in prison without thepossibility of parole for 10
years.
He was credited for three yearsserved in custody.

(05:27):
If he had been sentenced as ayouth, he could have been
released into four years ofcommunity supervision in just
over three years.
Timothy was sentenced to twoyears in a youth facility,
followed by three years ofprobation.
Jonathan's brother stabbed andslashed the helpless child to
death.
It was a frenzied attack,announced Justice David McCombs
while handing down the sentence.

(05:47):
He said that, despite the factthat Kevin was a teenager when
he killed his brother, thesentence was justified because
of the brutality and because heshowed no remorse.
After being handed down hissentence, joanne Champagny
silently wept.
Justice David McCombs conveyedhis deep sorrow to the family
and urged them to hold theirlives together despite their

(06:08):
terrible loss not only of theiryoungest son, but now also their
oldest son.
Initially, neither teenager northe victim were identified due
to the fact that both killerswere juveniles when they
committed the murder.
However, since they weresentenced as adults, they could
be legally named.
Joanne was pleased thatJonathan could be properly
mourned and remembered now thathis name was out in the public.

(06:30):
Outside court, joanne refusedto speak, but her sister, wendy
Eberhardt, read out a familystatement.
It read we are pleased thatKevin and Tim are going to get
help with their problems.
We're relieved to haveJonathan's full name released so
we can properly memorialize him.
Timothy's father, timothyFairman Hussarney, provided a

(06:50):
statement to Justice DavidMcCombs which read my son and I
will never forget this tragedy.
I will be sorry for the rest ofmy life.
What happened between Kevin andJonathan Madden is something we
may never fully understand.
In the silence left behind,there are only questions about
anger, about mental health,about missed signs and second
chances that never came.

(07:11):
A family is broken, a communitystill grieving and a young man
sits in a cell with the weightof an irreversible moment on his
shoulders.
Kevin was not a monster.
Jonathan was not just a victim.
They were brothers tied bychildhood memories, family
dinners, fights and laughter.
That bond makes this tragedyall the more haunting, because

(07:32):
when violence comes from withinthe home, it wounds more deeply,
cuts more sharply.
As we close this episode, we'rereminded that behind every
headline is a human story.
It's easy to ask how could thishappen?
But harder to ask what couldhave stopped it?
That's the question we all needto keep asking.
Thank you for listening toHuman Wreckage.
If you like what I do, pleaselike and subscribe.

(07:54):
If you or someone you know isstruggling with anger, mental
health or family conflict,please reach out.
There is help, there is hopeand sometimes that can make all
the difference.
Thanks for watching.