A woman is calling for mandatory background checks on dating sites after her sister was killed in a suspected murder-suicide by a man she’d met online.
Michaela-Ann Lingard Hanson, 39, says she is “only now starting to grieve” after her sister, Jennifer Lingard, 40, was found dead while on holiday in 2022 — with her two young children left alone in the same house.
Michaela believes Jennifer was killed by her boyfriend, Sami-Joe Daou, 33, whom she’d met through a dating website.
The couple had gone to the family’s holiday home in Lovell, Maine, USA, with Jennifer’s two little boys Liam, now 12, and Kellen, now seven.
Jennifer was found “beaten and strangled to death” in a locked room of the cabin by police who arrived to carry out a welfare check at the property.
A day later, Daou was found dead from a drug overdose – 300 miles away at his home in Rhode Island, USA, with Jennifer’s car parked outside and her phone in his possession.
Unbeknownst to Jennifer or her family, Daou had a criminal history, including the possession and distribution of child pornography and assault.
Michaela — who is now legal guardian to her nephews, and has her own son Travis, three — says she has suffered physical and mental health issues from the trauma caused by her sister’s violent murder.
The family are now calling for dating sites to carry out background checks and are urging the public to “do their own research” before getting into a relationship with someone they’ve met online.
Michaela, who has unable to work since her sister’s murder, from East Coast Massachusetts, said: “I’m doing terribly – three years on and it doesn’t get any easier.
“If anything, it’s harder now.
“I feel like I’m circling the drain.
“Life carries on for everyone else, but I have no idea how to keep going.
“I feel so alone, there are no resources out there to help me.
“I’m so broken, and my throat feels like it’s clenched all the time.
“I have to keep going for the boys, if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be here.”
Michaela “never liked” Daou after he made a bad first impression when they met in June 2021.
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Just a few months later, on 24th February 2022, Michaela woke up in the middle of the night to police at her door.
They broke the tragic news that her sister had been found dead in the family cabin.
Jennifer’s official cause of death was reported as homicide by asphyxiation due to manual strangulation.
The cabin is also the site where Michaela and Jennifer’s dad, Reginold David Lingard, tragically committed suicide in July 2010.
“I lost both my dad and sister in the same cabin,” Michaela said.
“We don’t have the cabin anymore, put it that way.
“There was bad energy there, it was a bad place.”
Michaela now cares for her nephews Kellen and Liam – and says that despite everything they have been through, they are “doing great”.
Michaela gave birth to her own son Travis, now three, just four months before her sister’s murder,
Michaela says she feels “robbed” of the early months with her son.
She explained: “I’ve been so busy with her estate and dealing with everything, as well as looking after her son’s and trying to process everything.
“I had a newborn, but I don’t remember his life.
“I have so much guilt when I look at my son.”
In the wake of her sister’s murder, Michaela has been left with severe physical and mental health problems.
She has been diagnosed with pneumonia three times and often struggles to speak or form sentences as a result of her anxiety and PTSD.
Michaela said: “The trauma has lowered my immune system.
“I’m sick constantly.
“I used to be so articulate, but now I feel scatter brained and dumbed down.
“I often can’t find the words to finish a sentence.”
Jennifer’s mother, Sheree Lingard, says she lives in constant fear and is “forever changed” after her daughter’s murder.
The 67-year-old said: “I have been cheated of my old self.
“I am forever changed in ways I never wanted.
“I’m angry that her murderer got away easily by overdosing rather than face the consequences of his actions.
“I’m angry that our family has been robbed of our future with her.”
As the Lingard family continue to come to terms with Jennifer’s murder nearly three years on, their priority remains the wellbeing of her two sons, and to raise awareness of the dangers of online dating.
Michaela said: “We talk to the boys about Jenny whenever they want.
“They call me ‘mum’ now – it’s not that they’ve forgotten Jenny, they just know that they can have multiple mums.
“We’re very honest with the boys and will answer any questions they ask us as they get older.
“Sami-Joe should never have been walking the streets.
“He was a violent felon and should never have been allowed to set up a profile on the dating sites.”
