A Sask. man who did time for manslaughter is now accused of murder. The victim's daughter wants justice

trust Hagen says anyone who kills another mortal should feature to continue slow bars. 

"They shouldn't be given a second chance," she said.

"My mom wasn't given a second chance. She's just dead."

Tiffani Ellert, 42, was killed late last year at a home in Moose Jaw, Sask. She was living with a man who had just finished serving a prison sentence 10 months earlier. Todd Donaldson received an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter for the killing of Logan Ring near Swift Current, Sask., in 2016.

Hagen, 24, sat on a couch in her grandmother's living room with tears in her eyes as she tried to piece together the days leading up to her mother's death.

"She was my best friend," Hagen said.

Hagen had moved to Nova Scotia five months before her mother was killed. She said the pair would text each other every day about "everything and anything."

Those texts suddenly stopped one morning last December.

"I knew something was wrong," Hagen said.

"I called her and I called her and I called her and she didn't answer."

Friends and family reported Ellert missing to the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) after she was last seen on the evening of Dec. 9, 2025.

Hagen said she told investigators they needed to check the house in South Hill where her mother had been living with Donaldson.

Police told her they went to the house, but did not have reasonable grounds to look inside, Hagen said.

Hagen said she believes the police did not take the concerns seriously because her mother had lived what police consider a "high-risk lifestyle." She said they didn't look hard enough.

Ellert had struggled with addictions at points in her life.

"There were 100 per cent assumptions here," Hagen said.

"Because any other mother of three that went missing, there would be headlines about it. Somebody would be writing about this, people would be talking about it."

They declined to respond at this time, citing the ongoing investigation.

MJPS put out a missing persons report to the public on Dec. 14.

Ellert's lifeless body was discovered on the property four days later, but not by police.

Hagen said the discovery came after a neighbour across the street decided to look in the garage.

"She found my mom curled up in the fetal position behind an oil drum in the cold," Hagen said.

"My mom hated the cold."

That neighbour then called the police to report it, Hagen said.

Police said Ellert's death was immediately deemed suspicious and further investigation led to Donaldson's arrest.

Hagen said her mother's injuries were so severe she was unrecognizable.

Learning who had been charged only deepened Hagen's heartbreak. She said she thought Ellert and Donaldson were new friends, helping each other through a hard time.

Hagen said her mother believed people could change.

"She always looked for the good in people," she said.

"She thought the same of Todd." 

Hagen drove four days, through a snowstorm, from Nova Scotia back to Saskatchewan as soon as she got the news.

She went to the house where her mother was killed. Hagen said she walked inside to find her mother's room had been destroyed. She desperately searched for whatever was left of her mother's belongings.

"We had to pick through broken glass just to get a little bit of my mom back," Hagen said.

She was not prepared for what she saw next.

"It looked like a normal house. Until you went downstairs."

Hagen described a bloody, gruesome scene — something she said police couldn't have missed if they checked.

Donaldson has since been charged with second-degree murder in Ellert's death. He first appeared in Moose Jaw Provincial Court on Dec. 19, 2025, and was remanded into custody.

Donaldson's case has been adjourned multiple times since then. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for November.

It isn't the first time Donaldson has been charged with second-degree murder.

Donaldson faced the same charge in the death of Logan Ring. The body of 21-year-old Ring was found in Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park in November 2016. Donaldson was one of five people charged in the case.

Donaldson pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in February 2019 and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

On Feb. 5, 2019, he was granted two years of credit for time served and ordered to serve six more years.

Donaldson also received a lifetime ban on prohibited or restricted weapons and ammo, and a 10-year ban on other weapons and ammo.

He reached his statutory release date in February 2023, after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

The Parole Board of Canada imposed conditions on his release, according to a decision dated Nov. 15, 2022, including not to consume alcohol or drugs. He completed his sentence in February 2025.

Donaldson was deemed unlikely to reoffend. He scored 15 on a recidivism scale. That score indicates a 1 out of 5 chance that an offender would commit an indictable offense after release.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) said it's aware of the charges laid in Donaldson's case, but cannot comment as the matter is before the courts.

In a written statement, the CSC said it provides programs to offenders that work to reduce recidivism and enhance public safety.

It said the percentage of federal offenders not returning to federal custody within five years of completing their sentence increased over 10 years, to 89.9 per cent in 2023-24 from 83.3 per cent in 2014-15.

"While no correctional system can eliminate all risk, CSC remains committed to evidence-based interventions that support rehabilitation, successful reintegration and safer communities," said the statement.

Hagan said she believes he should have never been let out of prison.

"You should have to stay there for the rest of your life, because you took what was the rest of theirs," she said.

Hagen is grappling with the fact Donaldson is accused of murdering her mom less than a year after he was released from prison for manslaughter.

"Can you imagine that? I don't want to, but I have to every day."

Hagen wants her mother to be remembered as the fierce, pretty woman she was.

Their last conversation was about rehabilitation.

Hagen said her mother was ready to take the leap, but had been worried about leaving her youngest daughter behind.

"She loved her kids. That was her biggest priority," she said.

"That's what kills me."

Hagen said she is sharing her mother's story now because "it matters and can't happen again."

"Everybody deserves to have their mom."

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