Barbara Kentner

Kentner was born on August 21, 1982,[1] in Dryden, Ontario, the eldest[2] of four sisters to truck driver[2] father Roy Boucher and mother Mildred (née Maude) Kentner.[3] She grew up in Thunder Bay and had four half-siblings.[3] Kentner was Anishinaabe[4] and from Wabigoon Lake First Nation.[5] She had had two sisters[6] and a daughter, Serena Jane Kentner, who was 16 years old in January 2017.[3] Her daughter had acute myeloid leukaemia and had a bone marrow transplant in 2020.[3] Kentner's father died of a heart attack in 2002 and her mother died of cancer in 2004.[2]

Kentner lived with liver disease and lived in a palliative care facility.[7]

At approximately 1am[2] on 29 January 2017, 18-year-old Brayden Bushby was in the passenger seat of a vehicle driving on McKenzie Street in the south side area of Thunder Bay.[5] Three other friends were in the vehicle,[8] and Bushby was intoxicated with alcohol,[5] after spending the day drinking straight whisky.[1] Bushby is white.[8]

Kentner, and her three-years-younger[2] sister Melissa, were walking down McKenzie Street towards a relative's home[2] when Bushby threw a metal trailer hitch, which struck Kentner in the abdomen.[5] Bushby exclaimed "got one" after the hitch struck Kentner.[5] Kentner was 34 years old at the time of the attack.[8] The incident ruptured her small intestine.[8]

Kentner died on July 4, 2017, at St. Joseph's Hospice[2] in Thunder Bay as she received surgery to tackle an infection from the injury.[5] Kentner's lawyers stated that the infection that was caused by the blunt force trauma of the attack.[8]

Bushby was initially charged with second-degree murder, but that charge was later downgraded.[8] Bushby admitted to throwing the hitch and pled guilty to aggravated assault, before being found guilty of manslaughter.[5] In February 2021,[1] he was sentenced to eight years in jail.[5]

The attack on Kentner is discussed in the Thunder Bay podcast.[9]