CalgaryNewsConvicted killer loses appeal in murder of Kalix LangenauBy Michael FranklinPublished: April 23, 2025 at 4:16PM EDT Twitter feed ©2025 BellMedia All Rights Reserved Metrics details Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a pediatric tumor that resembles undifferentiated muscle cells; yet the extent to which cell state heterogeneity is shared with human development has not been described Using single-cell/nucleus RNA sequencing from patient tumors we identify four dominant muscle-lineage cell states: progenitor We stratify these RMS cells/nuclei along the continuum of human muscle development and show that they share expression patterns with fetal/embryonal myogenic precursors rather than postnatal satellite cells Fusion-negative RMS (FN-RMS) have a discrete stem cell hierarchy that recapitulates fetal muscle development and contain therapy-resistant FN-RMS progenitors that share transcriptomic similarity with bipotent skeletal mesenchymal cells Fusion-positive RMS have tumor-acquired cells states that are not found in myogenic development This work identifies previously underappreciated cell state heterogeneity including unique treatment-resistant and tumor-acquired cell states that differ across RMS subtypes These studies consistently identified malignant cells with expression patterns similar to developing skeletal muscle; yet each study introduced different nomenclature and classification strategies due to limited sample numbers and mapping shared developmental cell states across mouse and/or human muscle there is a need to clearly define cell states to assess developmental similarity between RMS and human muscle and to evaluate the dynamics of cell state transitions during therapy By uniformly processing and integrating these datasets we generated a comprehensive and unified annotation of RMS-specific cell subpopulations we identified four major RMS cell subpopulations—(1) progenitor cells that are largely quiescent and express characteristic mesenchymal and extracellular matrix genes; (2) differentiated cells that are post-mitotic and resemble mature skeletal muscle; (3) proliferative cells that are actively dividing but lack expression of progenitor or differentiated cell programs; and (4) ground state cells that lack expression of the other three dominant signatures While we identified shared RMS cell states with embryonal and fetal skeletal muscle development we also found subtype-specific cell states Some FP-RMS contain a unique neuronal cell state indicating that a subset of FP-RMS acquire non-myogenic gene expression programs during tumorigenesis progenitor cells in FN-RMS closely resemble bipotent SkM Mesenchymal cells found in fetal muscle development Both FN-RMS and FP-RMS failed to share similarity with postnatal satellite cells these results challenge the dogma that RMS follow rigid muscle developmental hierarchies and that RMS originate from or resemble satellite-cell derived post-natal muscle we show that our cell state signatures can be used to identify treatment-persistent cell populations progenitor and neuronal signatures were significantly enriched in treated samples in FN-RMS and FP-RMS this work presents a harmonized model of intratumoral heterogeneity within RMS and provides insights into the intersection of normal development and therapy resistance within cancer A UMAP plots of integrated tumor cells/nuclei (n = 107,523 cells) scored for the metaprograms identified in the original publications Number of genes within each metaprogram noted B Comparison of published cell state metaprograms and those defined by our Louvain clustering approach Top: Venn diagrams showing overlap of gene markers across the three original publications and our new analysis (“RMS atlas”) Bottom: UMAP plots of integrated tumor cells/nuclei (n = 107,523 cells) showing expression of the newly defined high confidence cell state gene signatures C Pearson correlation coefficients for the metaprograms identified in the three original publications and the new metaprogram signatures defined by our work our data support a model where RMS cells lie in a continuum of gene expression defined by three dominant cell states including progenitor and differentiated cell states while also containing subtype specific gene programs found within all RMS cells from a given tumor Despite overall trends in lower muscle lineage scores in FN-RMS compared with FP-RMS, we did observe considerable inter-tumoral variability of the muscle lineage scores across tumors (Fig. 3D) we identified FP-RMS with exceptionally high muscle lineage scores including 20082 and SJRHB013759_A2 and MYOD1L122R-mutant MSK74711 had exceptionally low muscle lineage scores we propose a refined nomenclature based on shared developmental similarity (or not) with human muscle development: “FN-skeletal muscle mesenchymal-like” (FN-SkM.Mes-like) for FN-RMS Progenitor cell states; and “FP-progenitor” and “FP-neuronal” for cells that represent tumor-acquired cell states in FP-RMS these findings demonstrate a treatment-induced selection for the progenitor state in FN-RMS We also observed that Progenitor and Differentiated muscle scores showed a trend of enrichment in delayed resection whereas Proliferative score was lower in two matched FP-RMS bulk RNA-sequencing these studies identify important cell states that are retained and expanded after therapy in both FN- and FP-RMS which limits the ability of any one institute to accrue a sizeable cohort of samples we combine datasets from three independent studies to define distinct tumor cell heterogeneity and malignant cell states shared with human muscle cells This consensus analysis also provides a framework for multi-investigator cooperation that we hope will be an example for future efforts to better understand rare and understudied tumors this work uncovered unexpected biology related to transitional and therapy-resistant cells states and challenge findings across our and others’ previous work which could only be accomplished with a consensus view of our data and cross-institutional cooperation Proposed model of persister cells during treatment that contribute to relapse in FN-RMS (top) and FP-RMS (bottom) Asterisks denote tumor acquired cells states It remains an open question of to what degree these engineered models mimic the heterogeneity of human RMS We anticipate that the expression signatures and lineage score generated within this study will be applicable as a future tool for comparing genetically engineered models of RMS to that of patient samples The frequency by which this tumor-acquired cell states are found in FP-RMS and defining their possible role in driving therapy resistance will clearly be a major research focus for the field future work is needed to clarify the relationship between the myogenic and neuronal cell states and the mechanism by which FP-RMS tumors adopt the neuronal state our work has defined cell state heterogeneity in RMS including identifying a continuum of progenitor and muscle differentiation gene expression two FP-RMS cell states that are not shared in muscle development therapy-persistent cell states that likely drive tumor regrowth at relapse Immunodeficient mice were housed according to IACUC standards using barrier conditions and isolation cages to minimize pathogen exposure The housing facility operates with an alternating light schedule (12 h on 12 h off) and has a dedicated isolated ventilation system All mice were fed and provided water ad libitum All datasets are available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database under the following accession numbers: GEO: GSE218974 (Danielli et al.; n = 17 samples) GEO: GSE195709 (Wei et al.; n = 18 samples) GEO: GSE174376 (Patel et al.; n = 36 samples) GEO: GSE113660 (Cheng et al.; n = 1 sample) hg38 for primary cultures) or to both the human hg19 and mouse mm10 references (for PDX samples) defined as cells with high mitochondrial ratio (>15% in Danielli et al. low expressed gene number (<200 in Danielli et al. and PDX cells potentially derived from mice (mouse reads ratio >5% in Wei et al.) were already filtered out raw sequencing FASTQ files available from GEO were aligned to the human hg19 (for patient samples) or to the combined human hg19 and mouse mm10 references (for PDX samples) using the 10X Genomics Cell Ranger pipeline (version 3.0.0) defined as cells with high mitochondrial ratio (>10%) low (<400) or high expressed gene number (>7000) both used inference of copy-number alteration analysis on the patient-derived datasets to differentiate between malignant cells (i.e. cells/nuclei harbor tumor-specific copy-number alterations) and non-malignant cells we included only single-cell/nucleus profiles that were annotated as malignant in their respective original papers defined as cells with high mitochondrial ratio (>15%) low (<200) or high expressed gene number (>8000) were filtered out To create the three subtype-specific RMS atlases [(1): FN-RMS (n = 45 samples); (2): PAX3::FOXO1 FP-RMS (n = 15 samples); (3): PAX7::FOXO1 FP-RMS (n = 11 samples)] we merged subtype-specific raw count matrices using Seurat’s merge function selected the top 2000 variable features for downstream analyses We then performed principal component analysis (PCA) and selected the top n = 15 principal components (PCs) to consider for downstream analysis we reduced the dimensionality of the datasets using Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) To remove the batch effects from different samples, we integrated the datasets following Seurat’s integration pipeline (https://satijalab.org/seurat/archive/v3.0/integration.html) which is based on the identification of anchor cells between pairs of datasets We first normalized and selected n = 2000 variable features for downstream integration from each dataset We then scaled the data and ran PCA on each object We identified anchors using reciprocal PCA (RPCA) and integrated the datasets using the IntegrateData function We then scaled and centered the gene expression we then selected the number of PCs to retain for downstream analyses used the Louvain algorithm for clustering the cells (resolution of 0.2–0.3) The number of identified clusters stabilizes at a resolution of around 0.3 we performed our analyses using a resolution of 0.3 To identify genes that were enriched within each cluster we used Seurat’s FindAllMarkers function filtering for genes with fold-change >log2(0.25) in the subtype-specific datasets and >log2(0.3) in the integrated dataset and expressed in at least 25% of cells in the cluster and were therefore collapsed into one category (‘Differentiated’); clusters 8 and 1 both expressed high levels of the collagen and extracellular matrix genes COL3A1 and were therefore collapsed into one category (‘Progenitor’) or in one of the original publications and in the integrated RMS atlas clusters We then assigned cell state-specific module scores using the AddModuleScore Seurat’s function To score each RMS cell (i) along a continuum of myogenic differentiation we defined the muscle lineage score (MLSi) We calculated the MLSi for each cell by subtracting the progenitor (Pi) score from the differentiated (Di) score cells were scored using the new consensus progenitor The scores were scaled using the ScaleData Seurat’s function to center the expression values We distinguished high cycling (S-scores or G2/M scores >0) from low cycling cells (S-scores <0 and G2/M scores <0) based on S and G2/M scores After merging the raw count matrices of the individual datasets selected the top n = 10 PCs for downstream analysis PAX3::FOXO1 FP-RMS and PAX7::FOXO1 FP-RMS single cell objects A false discovery rate of 0.05 was used as a cutoff between statistically credible and non-credible differences underwent RNA isolation using Trizol (Invitrogen) extraction Samples were manually homogenized in 800 μl Trizol within microcentrifuge tubes using a disposable plastic pestle (Fisher Scientific) An additional 200 μl of chloroform was added and mixed via inverting for 3 min at room temperature Samples were then centrifuged at 12,000 x g for 15 min at 4 °C The aqueous layer was transferred to a new microcentrifuge tube and RNA was precipitated by the addition of an equal volume (approximately 500 μl) of isopropanol and 1 μl glycogen (Thermo Scientific) Samples were incubated at room temperature for 10 min followed by centrifugation at 12,000 x g for 15 min at 4 °C Pellets were washed twice with 75% ethanol and resuspended in nuclease-free water RNA quality was estimated using RNA ScreenTape on a TapeStation automated electrophoresis instrument (Agilent) Sequencing libraries were generated using the TruSeq Total Stranded RNA Library kit (Illumina) using 250–1000 ng of input RNA Libraries underwent 100 nucleotide paired end sequencing on a NovaSeq 6000 (Illumina) For extracting RNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue of patient tumors 5 μm tissue scrolls were processed using the Maxwell RSC RNA FFPE instrument (Promega) RNA concentration and quality was determined using a TapeStation automated electrophoresis instrument (Agilent) Samples with a DV200 score (calculated as a percentage of nucleic acid fragments >200 nucleotides) above 20% were used for downstream library generation using the SMARTer Stranded Total RNA – Pico RNA-seq kit v2 (Takara) Libraries were sequenced using 100 nucleotide paired-end sequencing on a NovaSeq 6000 (Illumina) the STAR-aligned BAM file were analyzed using the ‘CollectRNASeqMetrics’ command from the Picard pipeline Duplicate reads were removed using the GATK ‘MarkDupliates’ command and then RSEM was used to generate tpm count matrices using the ‘rsem-calculate-expression’ command To score FFPE tissues and orthotopic PDX biopsies for the progenitor we first created a Seurat object using the already TPM-normalized read count matrix and log-normalized the count matrix expression values + 1 We then scored individual samples for the cell state-specific module scores using the AddModuleScore Seurat’s function We plotted the scores after scaling and centering the expression values using the ScaleData Seurat’s function Tissues were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin and mounted onto glass slides (Superfrost Plus; 12-550-15 Slides were then dried for 20 min at 60 °C and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (Richard-Allan Scientific) or used in immunohistochemistry experiments HE sections were stained and coverslipped using the HistoCore SPECTRA Workstation (Lecia Biosystems) Serial sections were immunolabeled with Synaptophysin (Abcam 1:400) using a Ventana Discovery Ultra autostainer (Roche IN) and the following conditions: Heat-induced epitope retrieval Cell Conditioning Solution ULTRA CC1 (950-224 Roche) for 32 min and visualization with DISCOVERY OmniMap anti-Rb HRP (760-4311 1:150) was performed on a Ventana Discovery Ultra autostainer (Roche IN) using the following conditions: Heat-induced epitope retrieval Cell Conditioning Solution ULTRA CC2 (950-223 Roche) for 60 min and visualization with DISCOVERY OmniMap anti-Rb HRP (760-4311 Whole slide images to a 20x scalable magnification were created using a PANNORAMIC 250 Flash III digital slide scanner (3DHISTECH Ltd Images were taken using the HALO v3.6.4134.137 software program (Indica Labs) and analyzed using HALO v3.2.1851.354 and the Area Quantification FL v2.3 algorithm to determine the area of immunoreactivity for each marker (all Indica Labs Visual interpretations of immunohistochemical staining were conducted by a board-certified veterinary pathologist and in a manner that was blinded to the experimental condition of each mouse and compared with image analysis findings The experiments in this study were not randomized All box plots in this study are reported as using the Tukey method with bars extending from the 25th to 75th percentiles and center bar denoting the statistical median Relevant statistical testing for differential expression analyses and two-way comparison are reported in the text and figure legend Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article The code used to generate the results reported in this manuscript are available through a Github repository [https://github.com/Sara-Danielli/RMS-metadata] Probing for a deeper understanding of rhabdomyosarcoma: insights from complementary model systems Identification of a PAX-FKHR gene expression signature that defines molecular classes and determines the prognosis of alveolar rhabdomyosarcomas Molecular classification of rhabdomyosarcoma-genotypic and phenotypic determinants of diagnosis: a report from the Children’s Oncology Group WHO Classification of Tumours Editorial Board. Soft tissue and bone tumors. Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. WHO classification of tumorus series, 5th ed., vol. 3. (2020) https://publications.iarc.fr/588 MYOD1 (L122R) mutations are associated with spindle cell and sclerosing rhabdomyosarcomas with aggressive clinical outcomes Genomic classification and clinical outcome in rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from an international consortium A recurrent neomorphic mutation in MYOD1 defines a clinically aggressive subset of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma associated with PI3K-AKT pathway mutations MYOD1-mutant spindle cell and sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma: an aggressive subtype irrespective of age A reappraisal for molecular classification and risk stratification A Molecular study of pediatric spindle and sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma: identification of novel and recurrent VGLL2-related fusions in infantile cases Integrative clinical and biopathology analyses to understand the clinical heterogeneity of infantile rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the French MMT committee Recurrent NCOA2 gene rearrangements in congenital/infantile spindle cell rhabdomyosarcoma Randomized phase II window trial of two schedules of irinotecan with vincristine in patients with first relapse or progression of rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the Children’s Oncology Group Survival after relapse in children and adolescents with rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group Which patients with microscopic disease and rhabdomyosarcoma experience relapse after therapy A report from the soft tissue sarcoma committee of the children’s oncology group Prognostic factors after relapse in nonmetastatic rhabdomyosarcoma: a nomogram to better define patients who can be salvaged with further therapy The landscape of genomic alterations across childhood cancers Clonality and evolutionary history of rhabdomyosarcoma Targeting oxidative stress in embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma Single-cell analysis and functional characterization uncover the stem cell hierarchies and developmental origins of rhabdomyosarcoma Single-cell profiling of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma reveals RAS pathway inhibitors as cell-fate hijackers with therapeutic relevance Single-cell transcriptomics reveals immune suppression and cell states predictive of patient outcomes in rhabdomyosarcoma Patel, A. G. et al. The myogenesis program drives clonal selection and drug resistance in rhabdomyosarcoma. Dev. Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2022.04.003 (2022) Latent cellular analysis robustly reveals subtle diversity in large-scale single-cell RNA-seq data Orthotopic patient-derived xenografts of paediatric solid tumours A single-cell and spatially resolved atlas of human breast cancers A single-cell landscape of high-grade serous ovarian cancer Integrated analysis of multimodal single-cell data scCODA is a Bayesian model for compositional single-cell data analysis Miswired enhancer logic drives a cancer of the muscle lineage A human skeletal muscle atlas identifies the trajectories of stem and progenitor cells across development and from human pluripotent stem cells Isolation of progenitors that exhibit myogenic/osteogenic bipotency in vitro by fluorescence-activated cell sorting from human fetal muscle Making muscle: skeletal myogenesis in vivo and in vitro Bentzinger, C. 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Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01815-7 (2023) G&T-seq: parallel sequencing of single-cell genomes and transcriptomes A highly scalable method for joint whole-genome sequencing and gene-expression profiling of single cells Fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma 3D organoids to predict effective drug combinations: a proof-of-concept on cell death inducers Mesenchymal tumor organoid models recapitulate rhabdomyosarcoma subtypes PAX3-FOXO1 dictates myogenic reprogramming and rhabdomyosarcoma identity in endothelial progenitors Hedgehog pathway drives fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma initiated from non-myogenic endothelial progenitors Nakahata, K. et al. K-Ras and p53 mouse model with molecular characteristics of human rhabdomyosarcoma and translational applications. Dis. Model Mech. 15 https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.049004 (2022) Credentialing a preclinical mouse model of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma Kendall, G. C. et al. PAX3-FOXO1 transgenic zebrafish models identify HES3 as a mediator of rhabdomyosarcoma tumorigenesis. Elife 7 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.33800 (2018) Visualizing engrafted human cancer and therapy responses in immunodeficient Zebrafish Soft tissue sarcoma cancer stem cells: an overview Muscling in: Uncovering the origins of rhabdomyosarcoma CD133 positive embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma stem-like cell population is enriched in rhabdospheres Distinct and overlapping sarcoma subtypes initiated from muscle stem and progenitor cells Radzikowska, J. et al. Cancer stem cell markers in rhabdomyosarcoma in children. 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High frequency of tumor propagating cells in fusion-positive rhabdomyosarcoma. Genes 12 https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12091373 (2021) Enrichr: a comprehensive gene set enrichment analysis web server 2016 update Enrichr: interactive and collaborative HTML5 gene list enrichment analysis tool Dissecting the multicellular ecosystem of metastatic melanoma by single-cell RNA-seq Download references These authors jointly supervised this work: Marco Wachtel Department of Oncology and Children’s Research Center and B.W.S supervised the study design and writing performed the analysis and generated figures provided samples for the analysis of treatment-induced expression signatures supervised immunohistochemical staining and performed analysis of histologic data The authors declare no competing interests Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50527-2 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research Sign In Register CALGARY — Convicted murderer and Airdrie resident Hunter van Mackelberg received a life sentence of 25 years with a 12 year parole ineligibility during his sentencing hearing on May 26 Earlier this year, van Mackelberg was convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Kalix Langenau, whose body was found in a field southeast of Airdrie on Feb. 17, 2020. Presiding associate chief justice, J.D. Rooke, increased his ineligibility for parole to 12 years from the minimum 10-year period that comes with second degree murder conviction. This makes van Mackelberg eligible for parole in 2034. Crown prosecution argued that van Mackelberg’s parole ineligibility should be increased to 18 years based on his character, largely formed from his previous criminal convictions and the nature of the offense, as well as the level of planning, and his lack of remorse in the killing of Langenau. While awaiting his murder trial, van Mackelberg continuously breached court orders and continued committing crimes such as break-and-enters, harassment of domestic partners, and contacting key witnesses in the trial, the crown argued. Defense attorney Stacey Purser argued 10 years for parole ineligibility is appropriate due to van Mackelberg's good character prior to 2018, his youthfulness and chance of rehabilitation, lack of evidence of planning in the murder, lack of aggravating factors, and likelihood the crime was impulsive. She argued his criminal convictions amassed since his arrest are on the lower end of the spectrum of seriousness. Rooke said van Mackelberg does not appear before him as a young man of good character, but his youthfulness and chance of rehabilitation are considered in sentencing. He stated van Mackelberg expressed a desire to kill Langenau on several occasions leading up to the murder and felt this was not a crime of passion. “His youth and mostly positive behaviour before the last few years supports a hope – albeit based on cautious optimism – that his future will be different than the last few years,” Rooke said. “This is not a case where the minimum 10-year ineligibility is fitting. However, a significantly higher period as proposed by the crown is not fitting either.” Alongside van Mackelberg's life sentence and 12 year parole ineligibility, Rooke sentenced him to a lifetime weapons prohibition and a requirement to give a DNA sample. Eighteen victim statements were read out or provided during the sentencing hearing on May 26 from Langenau's mother, father, brother, sister, cousins, aunts, and several of his friends. Speaking directly to van Mackelberg, Langenau’s mother stated she was the same age when her son was born as her son was at the time of his death. She spoke of her son’s infectious personality and the fact that he was a valued contributing member of the community. “His loss was felt by everyone who knew him,” she said. “Instead of celebrating my son's 21st birthday, we sat in this courtroom on his day, listening to how you stole him from us. That in itself is unfair. Again, it's hard to summarize all feelings and emotions I have but know that the field where you killed my son is our field now. We have replaced your evil with love.” Many of the victim statements explained how the death of Langenau changed their lives, with countless sleepless nights, panic attacks, extreme sadness, and lasting trust issues. “The thought of him being scared for only a moment is unbearable and heartbreaking, one I often think about,” said Langenau’s aunt, Kelly Henderson. “That gunshot killed more than Kalix – it killed part of me and my family and I still wait for Kalix to call or come home.” One of Langenau's friends said he suffers from recurring nightmares and is plagued by thoughts of what he could have done. “I immigrated to Canada with the idea that I lived in a safe neighbourly area and would have no fear about mine or my family's safety. I now get anxiety every time someone I love leaves by themselves. I will sit alone constantly running scenarios in my head of all the horrible stuff that could happen to them and how I would never forgive myself if I was not there to protect them, like I wasn't for Kalix,” said Langenau’s friend, Jack. Langanau’s father, John Langenau also spoke in court on May 26, sharing that ever since his son came into his life, he felt he had purpose. John shared happy memories and stories of the things they used to do together, as well as of how proud he was and his own regrets that he couldn’t protect him. “I only wish that we were closer so that he could have come to me and talked to me about the issues he was having. It kills me inside that I knew very little and was not able to help and unable to protect him,” John Langenau said. He said the loss of his son took away the joy from holidays, trips, and happy occasions, replaced by thoughts of his absence. “I feel that I failed Kalix and that will never go away,” he said “This pain and agony that I have ripping at my insides every night while I lay there sleeplessly will never go away. I have a permanent hole in my soul where my Kalix’ bright future should have been.” During the final ruling on Feb. 22, Justice Glen H. Poelman said not all questions about the case were answered as indicated by the defense, following an earlier judge-alone trial that was held in October and November 2021. After a meeting in the early morning hours of Feb. 15 in the Balzac Costco parking lot with Langenau’s ex-girlfriend, who was dating van Mackelberg at the time, Langenau was reported missing the next day. On Feb. 17, his body was located and identified near his vehicle at a secluded location southeast of Airdrie. An autopsy determined Langenau’s death was caused by a shotgun wound to the back of the head from a close range.  Van Mackelberg maintained his innocence during several extensive interviews with police, but Poelman said his story varied over the course of interviews as evidence was uncovered. Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account A teary John Langenau told a Calgary courtroom Thursday that he feels he failed his murdered son Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience Langenau said the death of 19-year-old Kalix Langenau at the hands of Hunter Van Mackelberg has torn him apart “I have a permanent hole in my soul where Kalix’s bright future should have been,” the grieving father told Van Mackelberg’s sentencing hearing “My heart and soul has a void in it since that day and it tears me apart that he’s not here.” whom he was mad at for previously dating two women the killer also dated Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of Noon News Roundup will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. John Langenau said he was close to his son but not close enough to know about his girl troubles and the fact he feared Van Mackelberg “I only wish I was closer so he could’ve come to me and talked to me about these issues and it kills me inside that I knew very little and was unable to help and unable to protect him.” The dad said his son was a caring individual who volunteered his time coaching “I’m angry and disgusted and at a loss as to why someone would hurt such a selfless Poelman agreed with Crown prosecutors Ron Simenik and Jim Sawa that a period of increased parole ineligibility for Van Mackelberg from the minimum of 10 years on his life sentence was warranted Simenik suggested there were many aggravating factors that would justify Poelman increasing Van Mackelberg’s parole ineligibility to 18 years before he can seek release from the Parole Board of Canada in ordering Van Mackelberg to serve at least 12 years said the killer’s youth weighed in his favour Van Mackelberg cannot yet be considered a hardened although he has made some troubling steps in that direction,” Poelman said Simenik had argued that although Van Mackelberg didn’t have a criminal record at the time he killed Langenau most of which he eventually pleaded guilty to “Those offences are relative to his character,” Simenik said He also noted Van Mackelberg repeatedly lied to police when interviewed by them said he wanted to kill his victim months before fatally shooting him in the back of the head in a snowy Balzac field and had elements of planning and deliberation in his crime The prosecutor added the killing was an execution-style murder But defence counsel Stacey Purser argued there was nothing to establish Van Mackelberg had planned the murder and suggested Langenau provoked his assailant by exchanging texts with the killer’s girlfriend This was “a classic crime of passion done directly in response to provocation,” Purser said in arguing the minimum 10 years parole ineligibility period was warranted KMartin@postmedia.com transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account Airdrie RCMP say a body found in a rural area north of Calgary on Monday is believed to be that of a teenager who was reported missing two days earlier was last seen in northeast Calgary early Saturday morning The RCMP on Sunday asked for public assistance in locating the teen saying it was believed he was in the area of Airdrie and that there was concern for his well-being with our worst fears being confirmed that my nephew Kalix Langenau has been found,” wrote Johnson “Our hearts are crushed as our worlds are spinning right now as we try (to) process everything “Thank you to everyone who shared our posts The RCMP major crimes unit is assisting with the investigation They say no further details will be released until an autopsy jherring@postmedia.com The Alberta Children’s Hospital announced its 2015/16 Champion Child Friday — Payton Langenau, 5. Pictured here with her mother Betina Fillion, Payton was named the Champion Child, a Children’s Miracle Network program that honours remarkable children who have triumphed despite severe medical challenges. Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Payton almost lost her life after she was diagnosed with a dangerous bacterial infection — invasive strep toxic shock syndrome. After all other medical intervention failed, Payton’s life was saved when she was put on Extracorporeal Life Support — a form of heart and lung bypass — that allowed her organs to rest and recover. This life support system had only become available at the hospital six months earlier, thanks to the support of a generous donor. Organizers of the program say Payton exudes a special kind of compassion. She loves giving back to the hospital through her own personal fundraising and donating toys and blankets to other sick kids. “We never expected to need to use the Alberta Children’s Hospital, but we soon found out it was the best place we could have been for our kids,” said Fillion. “We should all feel so fortunate to have a world-class facility right in our own backyard.” As the Champion Child, Payton will be an ambassador for the 90,000 kids and families helped by the hospital each year. CalgaryNews'Execution-style murder': Killer of 19-year-old Calgary hockey coach sentenced to life in jailBy Stephanie ThomasPublished: May 26, 2022 at 7:03PM EDT A winter’s walk in a snowy farmer’s field led to an Airdrie man’s discovery of murder victim Kalix Langenau’s abandoned vehicle Jayden Labas said he and his then-girlfriend had taken his dogs for a walk the afternoon of Feb when he found tire tracks in the snow and ultimately Langenau’s father’s Dodge Journey “The van was near the east side of the property,” Labas told Crown prosecutor Jim Sawa of the discovery the day after it’s alleged Langenau was fatally shot in the area by Hunter Van Mackelberg Labas said he had taken his canines for a walk on an oil lease road on the property northeast of Balzac when the animals bolted for a nearby forested area On the way to the trees he said he found a wide set of tire tracks which they had to walk on “because the snow was too deep.” They walked “maybe a half kilometre to a kilometre from the road to the treed area where the Dodge was,” he said Labas said the Dodge wasn’t visible from the area where the wider tire tracks began “I didn’t see it until I was mid-way into the tree area,” he said “We went into the trees following the tracks and then I noticed the black Dodge.” The Airdrie mechanic said the tire tracks leading into the area were too wide to have been made by the ones he found on the abandoned van He said initially he thought the Journey had gotten stuck Labas said he also found what appeared to be two sets of footprints near the Dodge but only one set which he followed to where the wider tire tracks stopped about 500 metres away angry at Langenau for dating the accused’s ex-girlfriend forced the deceased to the area at gunpoint before killing him with a shotgun blast to the back of his head co-prosecutor Ron Simenik said Van Mackelberg left the area when his father came to pick him up face down in the snow in the same section of land where Labas found the vehicle The trial of Airdrie man Hunter Van Mackelberg did not answer all the questions about the death of former Calgary teen Kalix Langenau But one thing it did establish is that Van Mackelberg fatally shot Langenau in the back of the head on remote rural property near Balzac in finding the accused guilty of second-degree murder “Not all the questions about the case have been answered which the defence properly points out,” the Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench judge said many criminal cases cannot answer questions on every detail and the Crown is not obliged to do so to meet its burden of proof I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Hunter met Kalix at the secluded property and murdered him by firing his shotgun at the back of his head.” Poelman said the evidence clearly established Van Mackelberg had animosity toward Langenau related to two girls both had dated to the point of fleeing Calgary to live in Vancouver to get away from him was back in Calgary for a visit and exchanged a series of about 50 text messages with his former girlfriend who was now dating and living with Van Mackelberg in Airdrie Poelman noted that prior to the events leading up to Langenau’s murder Van Mackelberg and Kot had discussions about her ex-boyfriend “Hunter said he did not like him,” the judge said “He made it clear he was not a fan and had aggression and anger toward him.” following the texts and a 15-minute phone call Kot and Langenau agreed to meet in the parking lot of the Balzac Costco Along with Van Mackelberg’s hatred of the deceased the judge noted he confessed to the killing to Kot and a friend Holte said Van Mackelberg displayed an “evil” smirk and told him “my grin says it all.” Defence counsel Andre Ouellette argued Holte’s evidence was questionable and Kot may have learned the detail of Langenau’s killing “There is no evidence that social media communications contained any information about the cause of Kalix’s death or that there were leaks from the police or the medical examiner’s office,” the judge said in agreeing with Crown prosecutors Ron Simenik and Jim Sawa the “hold back” evidence was conclusive will face an automatic life sentence with parole ineligibility set at between 10 and 25 years A date for submissions on parole eligibility will be set March 4 Trials involving allegations that the father of a convicted murderer attempted to interfere with witnesses will likely be delayed by his search for a new lawyer Duty counsel Jim Edgett told the Calgary Court of Justice on Thursday that Randal Van Mackelberg is awaiting confirmation that his lawyer of choice Edgett told Justice Bruce Fraser that Van Mackelberg’s two trials Edgett asked the case be adjourned by a week while Froese works to confirm she has Legal Aid certification to represent the Balzac resident adding it would be difficult for her to get up to speed in that short a time period faces two sets of charges alleging he interfered with witnesses against his son four involving alleged breaches of his bail release and three who gave evidence at his son’s murder trial The latter set includes allegations he uttered threats to Madaline Kot and attempted to interfere with her duties as a justice system participant by threatening her The younger Van Mackelberg is serving a life sentence without parole for a minimum 12 years for second-degree murder in the Feb Justice Glen Poelman ruled Hunter Van Mackelberg fired a single shotgun blast into the back of Langenau’s head in a snowy Balzac field in the early morning hours of that day The convicted killer was mad at Langenau for previously dating Kot and another female they both had been involved with following about 50 texts between the victim and Kot and a 15-minute phone call they agreed to meet in the parking lot of the Balzac Costco Along with the convicted killer’s hatred of Langenau Poelman noted he confessed to the killing to Kot and a friend of his who is also alleged to have been threatened by the father Randal Van Mackelberg remains free on bail pending the outcome of his two cases Getting in touch with his old girlfriend during a Family Day visit home ended in violent tragedy for a former Calgary man Crown prosecutor Ron Simenik told Justice Glenn Poelman that Kalix Langenau’s early-morning rendezvous with Madeline Kot after a set of Valentine’s Day exchanges ended with him taking a shotgun blast to the back of his head at the hands of her boyfriend in an opening address outlining the case he expects the Crown to establish against Hunter Van Mackelberg said the shooting was the culmination of months of animosity directed at Langenau by the accused had moved to Vancouver but was home for the holiday long weekend in February 2020 While he was due to return to the coast on Feb he was found by Mounties the next day after his father’s Dodge Journey was reported abandoned in a farmer’s field east of Balzac “Kalix Langenau was found face down in a rural field suffering from a gunshot wound to the back of the head,” Simenik said He said Langenau and Van Mackelberg were connected by two different women Langenau dated Kot and Van Mackelberg had a relationship with Boyle Langenau dated Boyle for a period that ended in September 2019 and Van Mackelberg had a relationship with Kot which eventually led to them moving in together Langenau exchanged a series of texts and a phone call which ended in them agreeing to meet in the early-morning hours of Feb “seconds” after Kot left the Airdrie home she shared with the accused enters Kalix’s vehicle and directs that he drive,” the prosecutor said “Kalix then drives a short distance to a remote property … that I think the evidence clearly establishes is very familiar to the accused.” “And it’s our theory the accused then walks Kalix into a grassy bog in a field where he shot him in the back of the head at close range with a .12-gauge shotgun,” Simenik said The judge-alone trial is scheduled for three weeks The teddy bear’s name is Brave but really it’s the six-year-old girl clutching him who could be called that Critically ill from a bacterial infection which caused organ failure Payton Langenau spent 10 weeks in both Alberta children’s hospitals and has undergone seven operations Standing in the garden of the Calgary hospital that helped save her life munching on fistfuls of Teddy Grahams and playing with her brother Easton She has a few residual problems as a result of the trauma she endured but nothing they can’t overcome “We said to the doctors ‘just give her back to us; we’ll deal with whatever comes.’ ” Payton was only two in 2012 when she developed toxic shock syndrome. Twelve hours after going into Alberta Children’s Hospital, the toddler had only one chance. She needed to go on a high-risk heart and lung bypass machine called Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS). “You don’t recognize your child. She was swollen, she was orange, in a coma. You don’t see any of that vibrant personality coming out,” said Fillion. “She went from happy and healthy to critically sick in 46 hours.” Fillion, her husband John Langenau and their children were back at Alberta Children’s Hospital Monday to illustrate the critical need for high-tech equipment at both children’s hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton and to celebrate the fundraising campaign that benefits both. This year’s annual ATB Financial Teddy for a Toonie campaign in May raised $804,000 through teddy bear purchases, raffles, dunk tanks and other events organized by the bank’s branches. About $500,000 raised in northern Alberta will go to the Stollery Children’s Hospital to buy equipment there. The $300,000 raised for the Alberta’s Children’s Hospital will buy more ECLS equipment, cardio-respiratory monitors and help fund the human simulation program, KidSIM, which helps train specialists for emergencies, said Saifa Koonar, Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation president and CEO. “Payton is just one of 27 children who have been saved by ECLS equipment at Alberta Children’s Hospital since 2011. We’re talking about the tiniest of babies. The equipment has to be nothing but the best and they’re not cheap,” she said.  “Both hospitals are great. But to make them truly outstanding we need community support.” ATB Financial has organized the Teddy for a Toonie campaign for 17 years, raising $8.6 million in total. Despite Alberta’s poor economy and the fact many fundraising dollars were already going to victims of the Fort McMurray fire, ATB Financial vice-president Wellington Holbrook was thrilled with the amount raised this spring. “This is one of our best years ever. It’s pretty humbling.” “It was a devastating time for our family but because of the generosity of the community, this hospital was equipped with ECLS equipment. These tools saved her life and it’s humbling to think (they) were funded by generous strangers. We’ll always be so thankful for the gift they have given us.” Within hours of allegedly firing a single shotgun blast into the head of a former Calgary man murder suspect Hunter VanMackelberg was ridding himself of two firearms Andrew Leger-Wagner testified he had sold VanMackelberg two guns to VanMackelberg months earlier for $750 a gun VanMackelberg returned the weapons to Leger-Wagner’s southeast Calgary home “He asked for zero money,” Leger-Wagner said of the exchange which was captured on his home’s security video and made an exhibit at VanMackelberg’s Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench trial The exchange occurred just hours after the prosecution alleges the accused forced Kalix Langenau at gunpoint to a snowy farmer’s field near Balzac in the early morning hours of Feb before killing him with a single shotgun blast to the head VanMackelberg is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of Langenau whom other witnesses testified the accused disliked because the deceased had dated his ex-girlfriend Leger-Wagner told court VanMackelberg returned the guns without asking for a refund “He didn’t want anything of them,” he told Simenik “He just said keep them safe … don’t let the police get ahold of them Leger-Wagner said he decided to turn the firearms over to the RCMP on Feb 21 after discussing the case with his friend whom the defence has hinted may have been involved in circumstances surrounding Langenau’s killing “We put together that it was probably my guns that were used and him that did it,” the witness said of his discussions with Abercrombie Under cross-examination by defence counsel Sadaf Raja Leger-Wagner denied he was a “gun trader.” “I only sold a few guns because I needed money and I thought that they were registered gun owners,” he said