Police find 'I hate my child' search made on couple's device 2 days before boy, 12, died

WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.

Two days before a boy in their care died, someone in Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney’s home used an iPad to Google “I hate my child,” the women’s first-degree murder trial was told Thursday.

In the weeks after he died, searches on devices belonging to the couple included how to define homicide, how to delete footage from a Wyze security camera system and how to clean up a crime scene. 

Sgt. Julie Powers, the Halton police officer who investigated Cooney and Hamber, has testified all week about evidence police found on their electronic devices — including photos, surveillance video, audio recordings and text messages from 2019 through 2022. The sergeant said many text messages were deleted on Dec. 25, 2022, but were recovered. 

The Milton, Ont., courtroom listened to recordings of the women berating the boy who died and his brother, and was read numerous messages in which Hamber and Cooney discussed restraining the children while calling them vulgar and demeaning names.

The women, from Burlington, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the boy's death and entered the same plea on charges of confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life related to his younger brother. Their trial in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice began in mid-September.

The brothers are referred to as L.L. and J.L. in CBC News' coverage of the trial since their identities are protected under a standard publication ban. L.L. was 12 when he died in Hamber and Cooney’s care on Dec. 21, 2022. His brother, J.L., is now 13 and testified at the trial.

The trial has been told that paramedics found L.L. unresponsive, soaking wet and lying on the basement floor of his bedroom, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so severely malnourished and emaciated that he looked as if he could be six years old, even though he was twice that age. He died shortly after in hospital.

The Crown argues Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected the Indigenous children, whom they were trying to adopt. The women’s respective lawyers say the couple did their best to care for boys with high needs and significant behavioural problems, with little help from the Children's Aid Society and service providers.

Powers also took the court through weeks of search and web history records on the electronic devices seized by police. 

Justice Clayton Conlan said several records were of particular interest to him: 

Powers also outlined searches related to aspiration, how to delete photos from an iPhone, financial assistance when a child dies, culpable homicide and second-degree murder.

The women were first arrested on Jan. 17, 2023, on the charges related to J.L., then arrested again on Feb. 29, 2024, for L.L.’s alleged murder.

On Wednesday, Powers read messages sent by Hamber, Cooney and her father, who lived with them, on Nov. 20, 2022.