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“It definitely could have been,” she said. “Keira did not have to die.”

Viater, a family lawyer, had been saying this from the minute Halton Regional Police broke the news that after an extensive search, officers had found the bodies of his stepdaughter and Brown.

“There was no reason for him to be hiking at Rattlesnake Point with our four-year-old daughter at all. This is not an activity they did together,” said Viater. “We suspect that he took her and jumped off the cliff to kill both her and himself.”

Viater said they have been battling Brown in court for many years.

“The system is fundamentally flawed,” he said. “We told everybody of the problems with this guy and nobody would listen. We have been fighting him over visitation rights and custody issues for a long time.”

Viater said he’s been fearful of this man harming Keira for a long time.

“I said for three years he would end up kidnapping her, kill or at the very least, leave her psychologically scarred,” said Viater. “Now my worst fear has happened.”

As of Monday night, Halton police had not confirmed this was a murder-suicide as alleged by Kagan and Viater. Homicide detectives are working on the case.

“This is an absolutely horrendous and tragic situation and incident,” Chief Steve Tanner said.

Const. Ryan Anderson said autopsy results had not yet been received but said officers will conduct a full and thorough probe.

But the mom and stepdad were not waiting.

“We all know what this is,” insisted Viater. “We have been courtrooms dozens of times about this but no one would listen.”

Kagan said they were in court Jan. 28 looking for an “emergency order” to prevent any future unsupervised visits.

“That’s why we are speaking today about this,” said Kagan. “I don’t want my daughter’s death to be in vain.”

Viater said he is sure Brown feared he may lose his visitation rights.

“He could feel the walls closing in. I think he believed this could be his last visit with her,” said Viater. “I believe his attitude was, ‘if he couldn’t be with her, no one could be.’”

And now Keira is gone forever.

WHO WAS ROBIN BROWN?

An engineer with a degree from MIT?

Or was it a PhD from the University of Southhampton?

Robin Brown is said to have claimed both.

“He had many stories,” said Viater.

When it comes to his education, Vaiter said there was one common truth he did discover.