Prince Albert Provincial Court (file photo/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Fatal rollover

Victim in drunk driving rollover was ejected from vehicle, court hears

Dec 2, 2025 | 6:00 AM

Esther McCallum and Destiny Michel had known each other their whole lives and were good friends as young children, maintaining their friendship into adulthood.

In their early 30s, however, one friend lost her life after the vehicle Michel was driving while drunk rolled multiple times on a gravel road in the RM of Buckland, ejecting McCallum, who had been sitting in the back seat.

When RCMP officers arrived at the scene after being called just before 9 a.m. on August 4, 2024, they found Michel unconscious and still belted into the driver’s seat.

Another person was belted into the front passenger seat, but McCallum was already deceased and laying in a field. Her injuries were severe; her skull, sternum, femur, arm, hand and other bones were broken.

Analysis of the scene determined the vehicle had left the road travelling between 79-98 km/h but before that, speeds were estimated at around 130 km/h. The speed limit was 80 km/h.

Grey Cup!!!

Everything you wanted and more

Nov 21, 2025

12 Best Tips to Spend Less at Christmas

Nov 18, 2025

Cybercrime response

Prince Albert Police Service 'limited in scope' to properly investigate fraud crimes

Nov 17, 2025

The car rolled for over 51 metres and analysts counted eight depressions in the earth. The weather was good, but the gravel road had some washboards on it. Michel’s blood alcohol and THC levels combined were just over 200 mg, putting her in the moderately to severely intoxicated category. Monday was her sentencing hearing for impaired driving causing death.

McCallum’s mother revealed in her victim impact statement her daughter’s injuries were so extensive, it resulted in a closed casket for the funeral service.

“We couldn’t even see her one last time, that’s how bad she was damaged,” she wrote in the statement read into the court record by Crown Prosecutor Mary Anne Larson.

McCallum’s mother and siblings said they were upset by having to face the loss of their loved one while Michel was out on bail in the months leading up to her sentence.

“I have to take sleeping pills to sleep at night while she’s out living her best life with her family,” wrote her mother.

McCallum had two young children, with her older child now aged 10.

Esther McCallum was killed after being ejected from a rolling vehicle driven by a drunk friend. (Facebook).

While Larson pointed out that there was no evidence that Michel had shown any remorse for the impact her decision to drink and drive had on the McCallum family, her lawyer disputed that, and Michel stood in court to make her own apologies.

“Sorry for all the pain I caused the family,” she said.

Michel comes from a family with multiple alcoholics, including both of her parents, said her lawyer, William Louison. Despite that, she graduated her high school class as valedictorian and is in a stable long-term relationship.

Becoming a mother in her early 20s helped Michel herself leave behind her drinking to some degree, he said.

“She seemed to get a handle on things,” he stated.

Michel has five children and is due with her sixth which will occur during her prison sentence.

Following the release of the information that she was charged with drunk driving causing death, Michel lost her employment of three years as a youth worker with Jordan’s Principle.

In her defence, Louison said Michel has not had anything to drink since the rollover and signed up for counselling before she was charged.

“She does express remorse for her actions,” he said. “She tells me she has no interest in drinking, and she hasn’t done since August 2024.”

There was no joint submission for a fit sentence. The Crown proposed two and a half years, followed by a five-year driving ban and a 10-year firearms ban.

The defence would like to see a two-year prison sentence, followed by a one year probationary period and a two-year driving ban.

Judge Lori O’Connor declined to sentence Michel today. Instead, defence and Crown were instructed to come up with a sentencing date in the new year.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com