A jealous Steven Bacon pushed 16-year-old Makayla Chang, then strangled the unconscious teenager with his bare hands for about 10 minutes until he was sure she was dead.
That information was revealed for the first time Friday at Bacon’s sentencing hearing for the murder of the petite teenager who disappeared in March 2017. Makayla’s body was found two months later in a shallow grave covered with branches and rock in a forested area of south Nanaimo.
Bacon, who was initially charged with first-degree murder of the teen he called his “Dearest Baby Bird” and “the most precious person he has ever known,” reported her disappearance to Nanaimo RCMP five days later. He pleaded not guilty to the crime in October 2020 but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in August 2022.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird accepted a joint submission from Crown and defence and sentenced Bacon, 60, to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 20 years.
“Mr. Bacon, you have committed an appalling crime, a cowardly crime, a vicious crime. You have robbed a 16-year-old child of all the remaining years of her life. You have cast a permanent pall of sorrow and grief over her family and friends. You have caused serious and enduring damage to this community’s sense of safety, peace and tranquility,” said Baird.
Bacon, who is bald with a bushy white moustache and long goatee, stared straight ahead throughout the proceedings. As he was led away in handcuffs, Makayla’s family and friends in the full gallery cheered and clapped.
In the summer of 2016, 15-year-old Makayla was living with her grandmother and legal guardian, Dolly Chang, said prosecutor Nicholas Barber, reading from an agreed statement of facts. Makayla had a large circle of friends and spent a lot of time at the Tim Hortons on Wallace Street where she frequently posted on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
Makayla met Bacon, now 60, in the summer of 2016 at the restaurant. They eventually established a father-daughter relationship. However, Bacon lied and told people his daughter had committed suicide and that he saw his relationship with Makayla as a second chance, said Barber. Bacon bought gifts for her including high-heeled shoes, a dress and alcohol.
Bacon spoke with staff at the Ministry of Children and Family Development about the process of legally adopting Makayla. He wrote to her grandmother about adopting Makayla and “expressed his love for her as if she was his own daughter,” the prosecutor said. Chang, who died in 2021, did not like Bacon and thought his intrusion into Makayla’s life was creepy.
By the spring of 2017, Makayla had stopped going to school and was spending more and more time away from her grandmother’s residence.
By February 2017, she was lying to Chang telling her she was staying with girlfriends when she was actually staying with Bacon. Before her 16th birthday on March 1, 2017, Bacon told Makayla he would buy her a puppy. But around that time, they got into an argument and she told him she no longer wanted him to adopt her, said Barber
On March 16, 2017, Makayla went to the Tim Hortons to hang out with her friends and Kyle McKinnon, whom she was starting to date.
During the early morning hours of March 17, Makayla and Bacon had an argument over the phone about her staying out too late. Bacon sent text messages to Isaac Yates, a friend of Makayla’s, who was with her at the Tim Hortons. Bacon found out McKinnon was with her.
McKinnon dropped Makayla off at Bacon’s residence on Bruce Avenue around 12:30 a.m. and gave her a hug.
“That was the last time anyone other than Steven Bacon saw her alive,” said Barber.
After his arrest in New Brunswick in September 2019, Bacon made a statement to a Nanaimo RCMP officer. He said that during an argument after she was dropped off, he pushed Chang and she fell and struck her head.
“He put her on the couch and after about 15 minutes he made the decision to strangle her with his bare hands to avoid any criminal ramifications from the push. He strangled her for about 10 minutes until he was sure she was dead,” said Barber.
A little later, Bacon received a text from Kenneth Postman, his landlord and friend.
“Was my suspicion correct?” asked Postman.
“Yes, I’ve lost my soul. It’s being fixed,” Bacon replied.
Two hours later, Bacon — pretending to be Makayla — sent a message to McKinnon on Makayla’s phone asking about the status of their relationship.
In the early morning hours of March 18, Bacon asked Postman, who was a taxi driver and had a wheelchair accessible van, to help him dispose of Makayla’s body. Postman and Bacon loaded her body into the taxi and drove to a rural area where her body was carried a short distance into the forest. Bacon buried her in a shallow grave in the Nanaimo Lakes Road area, said Barber.
After her body was buried, Bacon again using her phone and pretending to be her, exchanged text messages with her grandmother.
“He was trying to deflect suspicion on why no one had seen Makayla Chang since March 17,” said Barber.
At 5:33 p.m. on March 20, Bacon posed as Makayla on a Facebook chat used by her friends, posting: “Anyone at Tim’s?”
On March 22, he went to the Tim Hortons and asked if anyone had seen her. He then went to the Nanaimo RCMP and reported her missing. Bacon told police he and Makayla had argued about her new boyfriend. In front of a police officer, he told her grandmother that he would get hold of her instantly if he heard from Makayla, said Barber.
After reporting her missing, Bacon withdrew all the money in his bank account. The next day, Bacon fled on the first ferry from Departure Bay and hitchhiked and bused across Canada.
When Makayla’s grave was exhumed, investigators found a package of Pall Mall cigarettes, the type of cigarette smoked by Bacon. She was buried on her left side in a fetal position, wearing only a sweatshirt. At an autopsy, Bacon’s DNA was found in Makayla’s vagina, said Barber.
Bacon said he had sexual intercourse with her on the day of her death but claimed it was consensual, said the prosecutor. A small amount of illicit drugs were found in her system.
Barber said an aggravating factor in considering sentencing was that Makayla was a vulnerable child victim who was incapacitated at the time of her murder. Bacon had an opportunity to reconsider before committing this “completely unnecessary” murder.
“Perhaps she would be alive today if instead of choking her to death, he called 911,” said the prosecutor.
Makayla’s parents sobbed through their victim impact statements, calling Bacon a monster, a sexual predator and a child killer.
