WHEN Janet Leflar met her teenage daughter’s boyfriend for the first time, her first impression was that of a polite boy.
She could never have known that Skylar Prockner would destroy her world with a sickening that took the life of her 14-year-old child, Hannah.
Janet, who lives on Prince Edward Island, , recalls: “He seemed a nice kid, tall and broad for his age, with long curly hair and a guitar slung over his back.
“Hannah had mentioned him before, and when she told me she liked him, I could only approve. It was sweet to see Hannah blossoming.”
Describing Hannah as “shy and a little nerdy”, Janet says her daughter had never been a typical teen, preferring to play Call of Duty with her stepdad, Wade or her friend Matt.
Janet says: “Around the age of 15, I’d noticed my smart and pretty daughter coming out of her shell.
“Skylar started coming round a couple of times a week, and he and Hannah would see each other at weekends too.
“Skylar was her first boyfriend, but she wasn’t your typical infatuated teen girl, and often she and Skylar would hang out with other kids at our house.
“I was always impressed with how considerate Skylar was about keeping the noise down.”
However, one day, Hannah let something slip that instantly concerned Janet.
She says: “She told me that Skylar’s last girlfriend was scared of him.”
“She tried to dismiss it as ‘stupid’, but I told her it was a red flag and that she should keep her eyes open.”
Eight months into Hannah and Prockner’s relationship, Janet began to notice her daughter becoming withdrawn, and more worrying signs emerged.
Janet told The Sun: “Skylar had told her that if she ever broke up with him, he’d kill himself.
“I recognised his threat as a classic control technique and tried to reassure her that it wouldn’t happen and that if it did, he had bigger problems than her.”
Eventually, Hannah broke things off, and Janet noticed her return to her usual, happier self and seemed relieved.
She added: “It was sad her first relationship had ended messily, but I was proud of how she’d set a boundary and refused to be controlled by a possessive boy.
‘Is Hannah alive?’
But Prockner wasn’t prepared to let sleeping dogs lie, and in May that year, things took a more sinister turn.
The 49-year-old said: “He was essentially stalking her, pestering Hannah at school, on social media and her phone.”
By summer, Prockner’s concerning behaviour came to an end, and by autumn the two teens were friends again.
“When they went to a movie together, I warned Hannah that Skylar probably wanted to get back together,” she says.
“She later found out that was the case and told him they were just friends.”
Hannah started seeing another boy, and shortly after, Prockner’s obsessive behaviour returned - becoming even more intense.
Janet recalls: “He began stalking her again and even driving past our house.
“Hannah was desperate for it to stop, so I called his mum.
“It had no effect, but shortly afterwards, he dropped out of school and their paths crossed less.”
In November 2014, as Hannah turned 16, Prockner began driving by the family home once again.
But just months later, Janet was away on a business trip working as an auditor for a weight loss group, when she received a worrying call from her partner, Wade.
I screamed. I just knew it was Skylar
Janet Leflar
Janet says: “He told me to come home, and he sounded serious.
“He wouldn’t tell me why, but I did as he said, but I felt very uneasy.
“The only thing I could come up with was that Hannah was hurt. I texted Wade asking him to reassure me that she was OK, but he didn’t respond.”
Janet was 30 minutes from home when Wade called again and told her not to go home but to come straight to the police station.
She recalls: “I was really scared, I asked him if Hannah was alive, but he just told me to get there as quickly as I could.
“I couldn’t bring myself to ask any more questions; I didn’t want to hear the answers.”
A detective met Janet at the police station. There, he informed her that Hannah had been stabbed to death by her ex, Skylar, inside their home.
Janet says: “I screamed. I just knew it was Skylar.”
Wade explained to Janet that he had found Hannah on the floor of their bedroom, surrounded by blood.
He called the emergency number, and the operator talked him through chest compressions.
But Wade spotted a large wound on her neck, realising she’d been stabbed and was already dead.
That night, police arrested Prockner at his home. The next morning, they arrested a second suspect, Hannah and Prockner’s mutual friend Matt.
“That was a huge shock,” Janet says, “He’d been in our home so many times.”
The autopsy showed Hannah had been stabbed nine times, with the fatal wound a knife blow to the back of her head.
Chilling ‘zombie’ murder plot
In May 2015, the detectives finished their investigation, and the family when then told that Skylar was not the only one who played a part in their daughter’s murder.
Disturbingly, up to seven schoolmates, most of whom had been in Janet’s home and had been friends with Hannah, had known varying details of Prockner’s plot.
He called it “Project Zombify”. Some of the kids, including her daughter’s friend, Matt, even spied on Hannah for him.
Detectives explained that Prockner had initially plotted to beat up Hannah’s new boyfriend.
He had a backpack stuffed with weapons, including a nail-studded baseball bat. Over time, the plot evolved so that if Hannah protested, she’d get hurt too.
Then Prockner escalated the chilling scheme, planning to kill Hannah.
Janet says: “He told some of the kids this and that he wanted to tamper with the brakes in her car.
“Nobody said anything to stop him.”
On January 12 2015, Prockner and Matt waited outside Janet’s home until Hannah got in from school.
Prockner charged in followed by Matt.
Hannah fled before she tripped when she got to the bedroom.
Prockner inflicted the wounds, but as an accomplice, Matt was also charged.
Janet says: “Detectives explained that the other kids couldn’t be charged.
“Their silence was abhorrent, but, in the circumstances, not against the law. But the officer said they’d be witnesses.”
Over 1000 people were present at Hannah’s funeral as her mum struggled to read out a eulogy.
She says: “We had a private family viewing before Hannah’s funeral; it was so hard.
“I was unable to believe my vibrant, funny and kind girl was gone, all I could do was tell her I loved her.
“I wrote how lucky I was to be her mum in my eulogy, but was so upset it had to be read out by someone else.”
‘Skylar is still a danger’
At first, Prockner denied the charges but in April 2016, 14 months after killing Hannah, he suddenly changed his plea to guilty of first-degree murder.
The following July there was a three-day sentence hearing, where Prockner’s lawyer described how he’d been physically and verbally abused by his own mother.
Janet says: “I sobbed in court as he [Prockner] described Hannah ‘gargling in her own blood’ when he killed her.
“He’d even boasted about it to his brother.
“The mother in me pitied Skylar for his abusive background, but I knew people who’d had a tough childhood, and none of them hurt others.”
A psychiatrist described Prockner as having psychopathic tendencies before he was given an adult sentence of life and jailed for a minimum of ten years.
The judge lifted the prohibition on naming him, but the same didn’t apply to Matt.
That September, he admitted second-degree murder.
“He claimed [Matt] never believed Skylar was actually going to kill Hannah, even as he followed him into our home,” Janet says.
“When Skylar stabbed Hannah, he said he froze.”
Matt, who was sentenced as a youth, could not be identified and got just seven years.
A year later, Janet and Wade moved hundreds of miles away to the other side of the country.
“We needed to put distance between us and the horrific death of my daughter,” Janet says.
It worries me how many teens like that are out there nowadays
Janet Leflar
“I was worried about controlling myself in public if I saw any of the Project Zombify kids.”
In November 2021, Matt was released.
Janet added: “I believe Skylar will still be a danger when he is eventually released.
“People blamed video games and social media for the wicked silence of the Project Zombify gang.
“I don’t think it was that.
“I think Skylar and his followers had too much freedom, too few responsibilities and had never faced consequences for their actions.
“It worries me how many teens like that are out there nowadays.
“Now, all I can do is warn other women, especially young girls like Hannah, in their first relationships, to pay attention to those red flags.
“That possessiveness, jealousy and controlling behaviour is easily mistaken for the usual teen drama.
“It’s not. It’s a sign something’s deeply wrong and a sign that your daughter, or son, needs to get out fast.”
