A year marked by domestic murders

Portrait of Sûreté du Québec investigations into homicides in 2023

A child who kills his parent, a father who kills his children, a woman who murders her sister, a man who kills his partner: intra-family murders marked 2023 for Crimes against the Person investigators of the Sûreté du Québec, who been very busy again this year.

The Press recently met with the heads of the Western region service, Lieutenant Jessie Houle and Sergeant Mathieu Boulianne, to take stock of the year.

As of December 20, 48 murder files had been opened throughout the territory covered by SQ investigators. This is a little less than last year’s 54, but significantly more than the average of the previous four years (from 2018 to 2021), which stands at 41.

Of these 48 cases, 18 were intra-family murders, or more than a third.

For the SQ, femicide is the murder of a woman by her partner in a marital context. There were fewer this year: six compared to nine in 2022 and 2021. Three of these femicides occurred in northern Quebec.

On the other hand, there were seven cases of murder within a family and four cases of murder of children by their parents.

Among these cases of murder of children by their parents which left a total of 9 dead, children and adolescents combined, let us recall the tragedy that occurred on March 15 in Saint-Frédéric, in Beauce, where a man driving a van with his family on board deliberately drove into a truck, killing two of their children, aged 4 and 13.

Let us also highlight the case of this father who killed his 3-year-old twins on August 26 in Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, in Lanaudière, and this 3-year-old boy who died after receiving a gun projectile fired by a member of his family on November 6 in Bois-des-Filion.

“Our primary mission is to work for families and ensure that they are able to grieve. I know it sounds like a cliché, but that’s what we’re here for and that’s what we want,” says Lieutenant Houle.

Woolley’s movements spied on

Murders committed with firearms were fewer this year: 13 compared to 18 last year, a drop of 27%.

As of December 20, six of these 13 files were linked to organized crime, compared to 10 in 2022.

Among these six murders, we highlight those of Tinel Timu, businessman and real estate developer killed in Laval on April 20, and of gang leader Gregory Woolley, shot dead in the parking lot of a CLSC in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on November 17.

Woolley was considered by the police as a major player in Montreal organized crime and as the armed wing of the Sicilian mafia clan.

It appears that a GPS beacon was placed under his Lamborghini SUV by his murderers, a practice often used by organized crime hitmen.

The Land Rover vehicle used by the killer and abandoned in flames in the southwest of Montreal had been declared stolen, according to our information.

Investigators are not yet favoring a hypothesis to explain this crime, but are sparing no effort to arrest the culprits.

“These are crimes that are committed in front of people, whether in the parking lot of a CLSC or in a peaceful residential neighborhood. We are not safe from a stray bullet fired by a suspect who misses and kills the neighbor who was clearing snow from his driveway. It’s always a concern for us,” adds Sergeant Mathieu Boulianne.

“With the phenomenon of armed violence that exists at the moment, we are putting pressure on our players. I tell myself that if we arrest them and send them to prison for at least 25 years, that will be 25 years during which they will not be dangerous to society,” adds his superior, Jessie Houle.

A major event

The two police officers affirm that for investigators, each file is important. On the other hand, some have been more notable this year, notably the murders of three people mowed down by a man driving a ram truck, in Amqui, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, on March 13.

“It was a scene that was huge, a kilometer long. We put at least thirty investigators on the case and we stayed on site for about a week. We also had to manage the entire impact on the population. This is not the kind of event that happens often. Several victims [il y a eu aussi des blessés] in a small community. The mitigation measures were as important as the investigation itself,” describes Lieutenant Houle.

“In the Montreal region, people perhaps expect more to experience events like this, whereas there, there was a big impact. The deputy was there. People told us that they would never have thought that this could happen to them,” adds Mathieu Boulianne.

A growing phenomenon

The year was also marked by several Net operations; This is what we call interventions with a barricaded and armed individual, who constitutes a threat to others or to himself.

As of December 20, Crimes against the Person investigators had intervened in 22 Filet operations, and in two cases, they encountered, without being hit, firearm projectiles fired by individuals in Richmond and Cacouna, and even a crossbow bolt on another occasion, in Saguenay.

On the same date, the SQ had intervened in 101 Net watches – situations defused before the intervention of the Tactical Intervention Group was necessary – compared to 67 for all of last year.

“And the month of December is not over. This is a good increase from last year. The number was believed to have increased in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that’s not it, and it continues. More than 100 watches, that’s a lot of events which are often serious,” concludes Lieutenant Houle.

To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.