Presumed feminicide in Pointe-aux-Trembles | “She was always screaming, ‘Go away, I don’t want to see you anymore!'”

The day after Christmas, a woman was murdered by a man who then took his own life in an apartment building in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in the east of Montreal. This is the 40^e murder to occur in the metropolis in 2022.

“It was always her who shouted: ‘Go away!’ and “I don’t want to see you anymore!” “, testifies to The Press a neighbor who preferred to remain anonymous. Living in an apartment adjacent to that of the victim, on 25^e avenue in Pointe-aux-Trembles, he heard an argument in the afternoon on Monday, before the murder.

“Initially, I felt like there was only her. [qui vivait dans ce logement], but from time to time this gentleman came, maintains the neighbor. And from time to time there were big fights, the ceiling was shaking, the walls too. »

“Yesterday morning, I was happy, because I heard him laugh [la victime], so everything was correct, he continues. And yesterday afternoon, there was a big fight. It was always her who shouted: “I don’t want to see you anymore, go away!”. It was always the same words that came back. »

In the middle of the night, when this neighbor wanted to go wash, he found the body of the victim, in the stairwell leading to the laundry room, he explains. “I saw a large dark puddle, so I looked up and saw clothes, a head, an arm, hanging…”

He called 911. He was shaking for nearly three hours. If he hadn’t just renewed his lease, he would be moving out.

“She was not tall, very small, very pretty, always well dressed, with a big smile,” he recalls.

Other neighbors told The Press not having heard anything either the day before or the evening of the murder. Two of them, who also preferred to conceal their names, claim that it is a very quiet building.

“It’s close to our house, so it sure feels weird,” also observes Claudia Acciaoli, resident of another building in the building complex met in a parking lot.

The 40^e 2022 murder in Montreal

The first observations of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) allowed it to affirm that the lady was murdered by the man who later committed suicide.

The corpses of the two people, both aged 45, were found lifeless on a staircase in the building located on 25^e Avenue, near the intersection of Notre-Dame Street, in a residential area of ​​the Pointe-aux-Trembles district. This is a 12-unit building in the Jardins St-Georges-Turret complex.

Authorities were contacted around midnight Monday night.

The woman was indeed a resident of the building, but not her alleged attacker, confirms Gabriella Youakim, media relations officer for the SPVM. He also had no criminal record.

As soon as they arrived, the police noted signs of violence on the lady’s body. She became the 40^e victim of murder since the beginning of the current year on the territory patrolled by the SPVM.

The circumstances of the tragedy are the subject of an investigation by members of the SPVM’s major crimes squad, who began their work by questioning residents of the area. In the meantime, forensic identification technicians have begun to comb through the scene of the tragedy.

Suspected femicide

It could be the 15th^e feminicide to occur in Quebec in 2022, according to Manon Monastesse, executive director of the Federation of women’s shelters in Quebec. This number is lower than the 26 women killed in 2021, but still higher than the average of the last 10 years, which was 12 feminicides, she specifies.

“Often, the problem we see is that the red flags – the criteria in terms of dangerousness [des conjoints ou ex-conjoints] – have not been taken into account, or have not been assessed at their fair value, she says. So there is a screening problem [de la violence faite aux femmes] from the [différents] stakeholders. »

With The Canadian Press