Nearly three years ago, 20-year-old Cariboo Hill graduate Branson Sanders was brutally murdered in the basement of a Surrey home.
His badly burned remains were found less than a week later in bushes off of Fareham Avenue and Elwell Street in Burnaby.
Since that day in 2011, Branson’s mother, Hannele Sairanen, has endured hearing after hearing, as the Crown and defence counsel went over every detail of the morbid events of Nov. 27, 2011.
After two years of proceedings, the men accused of murdering Branson – 21-year-old Shakib Shakib and 20-year-old Brandon Nandan – pled guilty to charges of manslaughter.
Last Friday, Sairanen, along with friends and family, packed into a small courtroom in Surrey expecting to hear how long Shakib and Nandan would spend in prison – but that decision wasn’t made.
At the sentencing hearing, the Crown and defence made a joint submission, stating both Shakib and Nandan should serve six years in jail, minus time served, for manslaughter.
But after listening to both the Crown and defence’s submission – which included victim impact statements from Branson’s mother, his aunt and a neighbour, as well as statements from friends and family of Nandan – Judge Michael Hicks told the courtroom he required more time to make an “informed” decision.
“At the end of the day the final decision rests with me,” he said.
And so, after nearly three years of proceedings, the question of how long Shakib and Nandan will spend behind bars is put on hold, and Sairanen is once again left waiting for closure she says will never come.
In a recent interview with the Burnaby NOW, Sairanen talked about the joy her son brought her and the numbing pain she experiences now that he is gone.
“He was just everything, everything in my world. That was my reason to wake up in the morning, that was my reason to live, that was my reason to keep the house here because I thought my son would inherit everything that I work hard for, so a lot of things in my world have changed,” she said from her home in Courtenay.
Branson was Sairanen’s only child. She remembers the day the police told her Branson was dead. She remembers calling the coroner asking to see her son and being told it would be best if she didn’t come.
For Sairanen, Branson was her world.
Branson was just an average kid, she says, with dreams and aspirations similar to other young people his age – he wanted to get married, have kids, settle down and build a home for his family.
“I think he wanted to have the same kind of life everyone has,” Sairanen said.
Branson was a caring son, according to Sairanen. He would call his mother every other day to check up on her.
“Whenever I was with him, it was all good. I know that he had some issues and, yeah, he was trying to find work, and he didn’t want to go to school,” she said.
But those were just normal things kids deal with after graduating high school, and Sairanen wasn’t concerned, she knew he would choose something to do eventually.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
After a difficult few years of court dates, Sairanen has been left feeling numb and out of touch. She says the trial has been exhausting and fears the victim, her son, has been forgotten.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had to have any dealings with anything in the Canadian judicial system, and I just think it really sucks. It sucks big time, and I just think nothing has been done,” she said. “Through the whole time, I’ve gone to every proceeding that has happened on the Mainland. I’ve been to every bail hearing, all that, and it’s like nobody there ever wanted to speak with me. Nobody ever even asked me what happened with your son. … It’s all about the criminals, it’s all about the Nandan family and the Shakib Shakib clan.”
Sairanen was in court again on March 28 for Shakib and Nandan’s sentencing hearing. Surrounded by family and friends, Sairanen was obviously distraught when the judge announced he needed more time to make his decision.
Sairanen will now wait until April 10, when she will once again make the trip from Courtenay to Surrey for the second part of Shakib and Nandan’s sentencing. No matter the ruling, however, Sairanen says she’ll never get closure – how can she, she adds.
“A lot of mornings I wake up and I go, ‘Why should I bother even waking up?’” Sairanen said. “When you have a child, and you lose a child, there’s no comparison.”
Shakib and Nandon will be back in court on April 10 in Surrey for Judge Hicks’ sentencing ruling.
