WESTLOCK – A 59-year-old grandmother, Marilyn Badduik, charged in a head-on collision that resulted in the death of her five-year-old granddaughter Lexah Lydia Makey, sat in the front row of the court gallery, dressed in black, quietly crying. Tissue in hand, she wiped her nose and eyes throughout the proceedings. Her daughter and son-in-law sat at the very back of the courtroom, seated far from her.
Megan Makey, Lexah’s mother, read an emotional victim impact statement in Westlock Court of Justice on March 12, as Baddiuk pleaded guilty to driving left of the centre line. An adult male died in hospital about two weeks later as a result of the collision.
An agreed statement of facts were read into the court. Crown prosecutor Eric Mosley and defence lawyer Ashlee Kirby entered a joint sentencing submission.
Through tears, Megan addressed her mother, who survived the crash.
“I love you. I will always love you, however, I cannot look at you without being torn apart all over again,” she said. “I carry this pain every moment, every day. The weight of my grief and the guilt of allowing her in your car is unbearable.”
Lexah’s father, Alex Makey, described the loss of his daughter as “every parent’s worst nightmare.” He recounted the agonizing moments at the hospital, where he and his wife, Megan, held their daughter’s lifeless body, still dressed in her soccer clothes.
“Lexah was only 12 days away from her sixth birthday,” he said. “Her last words to me were, ‘See you at home, Dad.’ But she will never make it home again.”
Megan said at first when she couldn’t reach her mother who was driving her daughter home, she was annoyed. But as time continued to pass, the annoyance turned to panic.
“I sent Alex to look for you and when he called hysterical about a big accident my heart dropped, everything went numb. I called the hospital where I work and I spoke to a nurse I have known for over 10 years. I made the longest, most agonizing drive to town with children crying and scared, not knowing where their sister was, not knowing if she was alive. I prayed with everything I had that she was OK. Deep down I knew she was gone, just from the tone of the emergency room nurse’s voice.”
Alex also recounted the night of the accident saying it, “just keeps replaying in my head over and over; getting told by a police officer in the hospital parking lot, my wife screaming and falling to her knees.”
Megan, a registered nurse who gave up her licence after the crash, said the damage from the loss of her daughter is irreparable.
“I am a broken person, barely surviving. The other children deserve better than the hollow shell I have become.”
Megan said she has been unable to return to her nursing career due to severe PTSD and has struggled with suicidal thoughts since the accident.
“I can’t even drive past the hospital let alone enter it.”
Alex said he has had to leave his job due to PTSD.
“Our life is in shambles. There hasn’t been a day go by that I haven’t thought of suicide. Both my wife and I attempted but luckily we are still here for our children.”
He said there is a hole in their family that will never be filled. They will never see Alexah grow up, graduate or get married.
“I bring flowers every Friday to her grave. That’s the only interaction I get with my daughter, a cold hard tombstone in a graveyard.
“We had her funeral the day before her birthday,” said Alex. “We built her casket with teddy bears just like she had her bed filled. Her brothers and sister decorated her casket with stickers to make it more Lexah.”
According to an RCMP forensic collision re-constructionist, at about 8 p.m. on May 14, 2024, the grandmother was driving a 2018 Jeep Compass northbound on Highway 2 near Clyde when her vehicle drifted into the oncoming lane. As the vehicles neared each other, the Ford Fusion driven by Christopher Thompson, swerved into the accused's lane just as she attempted to return to her lane, resulting in a head-on collision. Both vehicles were travelling at speeds of approximately 100 km/h. No drugs or alcohol were involved.
The grandmother’s granddaughter, Lexah Makey, who was seated in a booster seat in the back of the Jeep, was pronounced dead upon arrival at Westlock Hospital. Thompson was airlifted to the University of Alberta Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries on May 29, 2024. Thompson's common-law partner, Susan Webster, sustained severe injuries, including fractures to her hip, leg, and foot, requiring multiple surgeries and extensive rehabilitation. She now walks with a cane and continues to experience chronic pain.
Crown prosecutor Eric Mosley said that the grandmother has no prior substance abuse issues and is a 2022 cancer survivor who worked in healthcare for most of her life, mostly with brain injury patients. She had also provided regular childcare for Lexah, with whom she shared a close bond, he said.
Defence lawyer Ashlee Kirby said the grandmother has physical, emotional, and cognitive struggles following the collision, and still hasn't been cleared by her doctor to return to work.
“She has been through a lot to say the least,” said Kirby. “She not only lost her granddaughter but also her relationship with her daughter, which has been fractured beyond repair.”
In a tearful statement to the court, the grandmother expressed her profound grief, saying, “The only thing I want to say is I wish I could trade places with Lexah. I wish it were me and not her.”
Badduik pleaded guilty to driving left of the centre line and was fined $2,000 and prohibited from driving for three months.
Kirby told the court that the grandmother hasn’t driven since the crash.
Mosley said neither the grandmother, nor the surviving passenger of the Ford Fusion, remember the collision.
“This was a tragic accident with tragic consequences, plain and simple,” said Justice Carrie-Ann Downey.
