Practically Perfect
Page 23
The exact nature of Bernier’s relationship with Laurette Beaudoin was never made clear, but at the very least the two were drinking friends, and likely more intimate than that. About a week before Beaudoin went missing in April 1962, the pair were socializing. Bernier reached into his pocket for some money, and when he took his hand out a woman’s wallet fell onto the ground. Beaudoin did not make much of it at the time, even after Bernier told her that the wallet once belonged to Denise Therrien. But the more she thought about it, and drank, the more determined she was to profit from what she had learned. She began telling just about anyone who would listen that what she knew about the missing Shawinigan girl could convict someone of murder. Bernier heard about her claims, and eight months after Therrien disappeared, he met Beaudoin for drinks at a local hotel. The two then drove to Bernier’s house in the St. Michel Cemetery. There Beaudoin demanded that Bernier pay her $150, or she would go to the authorities with what she knew about Therrien. Bernier agreed to pay, but asked for time to raise the money. Beaudoin refused, and as the ensuing conversation grew heated, she threw a jug at him and tried to hit him with a shoe. Bernier went to the garage, found a piece of pipe, and returned to the house. Minutes later Beaudoin lay dead, her skull fractured in multiple places.
Bernier later claimed that the murder was not planned, that it was a spur of the moment thing. But there was more to his story than he initially let on. After killing Beaudoin he put her body in his truck and drove to a grave he dug the previous day. When he was asked whether he opened the grave for a funeral, Bernier’s one word response sealed his fate: “No.”[24] Not satisfied to merely bury the body of his victim, the killer soaked it in gasoline and then set it on fire.
For the next two and a half years the investigation into the deaths of Denise Therrien and Laurette Beaudoin went nowhere. Bernier left his job after assaulting the priest responsible for administering the affairs of the St. Michel Cemetery, and he moved to Montreal to work for a construction company. Shortly after Claude Wagner became Quebec’s new attorney-general he held a press conference to announce his priorities. He was going to overhaul the administration of justice in the province; he was going to kick off his war on criminals by taking down the leaders of organized crime; and, he said, he would be reopening the Therrien case. He told reporters that in the past few days his office received new and very precise information about what happened to the missing youth.
Within two months of Wagner’s announcement it was obvious to even casual observers that something indeed had happened to reinvigorate the search for Therrien. In a January 1965 article, the Shawinigan Standard noted that “Indications are the mystery surrounding the 1961 disappearance of Denise Therrien from her home at Shawinigan South will be solved within a matter of days. Police now believe she is dead.”[25] A day after the article appeared, another newspaper began discussing the case. According to the Montreal Gazette, a Quebec chemico-legal expert and three provincial police detectives were digging on private property in the Shawinigan area, looking for articles of clothing. “Shortly after daybreak each day since Tuesday the four men, equipped with shovels, drive from their motel accompanied by a uniformed police escort and disappear into the hilly countryside in the Shawinigan area. They return to their motel late at night, between 9 and 10 p.m. and almost immediately go to bed.”[26]
By the end of January investigators decided they would wait until spring for the ground to thaw, and then resume their digging. In early April officers took Bernier into custody, charging him with attempted murder for his 1962 assault on the parish priest. A day or two later they began another digging operation, this time in the St. Michel Cemetery. Almost immediately they hit the jackpot, albeit not the one they were searching for originally. The skeleton unearthed was not that of Therrien, but of Laurette Beaudoin. Her skull was so badly battered that officers first believed she was shot multiple times in the head. Not found in the cemetery was the body investigators were looking for. That discovery, however, was not long in coming.
With Bernier in custody, the police had all the time they needed to question the former grave digger. To ensure that they were not interrupted, they moved him from jail to jail, keeping the suspected killer away from both the press and his lawyer. Whatever one may think of the interrogation techniques employed by the Quebec Provincial Police, they worked. Three weeks after his arrest, Bernier cracked. He told officers that he killed Therrien when she rejected his advances and buried her body in a heavily wooded spot about ten miles north of Shawinigan. They would find her remains on a small hill, lying face up under about a foot and a half of dirt, her head pointing towards the St. Maurice River. If officers wanted her personal effects, they would have to look elsewhere. With that he drew a map of St. Michel Cemetery, putting an “X” on the spot where he buried Therrien’s gloves, address book, and prayer beads.
As of April 30, 1965, Denise Therrien was no longer missing. Bernier led officers directly to the spot he told them about. It was obvious that she had been brutally beaten prior to being murdered. Four days later an inquiry into her death got underway. Shortly before it did, Quebec’s chief pathologist warned reporters about what they would hear. The dead girl’s skull, he said, showed multiple fractures, likely caused by an iron bar, and, he added, “When I say multiple … I use it in the strongest sense of the word.”[27]
When the inquiry was convened it was, for the first time in Quebec history, presided over by a judge rather than a coroner. Bernier testified under protection of the Canada Evidence Act, which meant that nothing he said could be used against him in any subsequent proceeding. What he had to say made it clear that he had been a predator for years. He admitted that yes, he was the Claude Marchand registered at the Shawinigan employment agency, but he had used other names to lure young women into his clutches, always with the offer of a babysitting job. Asked specifically about Denise Therrien, he recalled that he met her just as she got off a bus. “I told her Mr. Marchand had been unable to make it and had asked me to drive her to his cottage.” There he tried to kiss her, and when she resisted, he struck her. Did he mean to kill her? “I don’t know. There was a helicopter overhead. It all happened very quickly.” When the pathologist who examined Therrien’s body was asked if the young woman had been sexually assaulted, he said there was nothing to suggest she had been. All that was left of her were bones, and what clothing remained was so badly decomposed he could not tell for sure whether it was rearranged during a rape.[28]
Bernier’s trial started on February 14, 1966, and lasted ten days. Testimony by investigating officers made it clear that while Bernier admitted knowing where Therrien’s body was buried, he actually never confessed to killing the teenager. Not to someone in uniform, that is. Bernier did confess to the murder during a series of talks he had with a bank robber lodged in the cell next to his while he was awaiting trial. Only the man was not a criminal — he was an undercover policeman. In testimony he gave at trial, the officer said Bernier not only told him he murdered Therrien, he also spelled out where he buried her. The officer asked the killer if it bothered him to talk about the murder. No, Bernier replied, not too much. Even before that conversation, Bernier confessed to being involved in Therrien’s disappearance. During a conversation with his wife and mother-in-law about five months after the Shawinigan girl went missing, he told the women that he alone knew where Therrien’s body was buried. “On my deathbed I will say where she is buried — not before.”[29]
It took jurors just forty minutes to find the former grave digger guilty of murder, and another fifteen to agree that he should be hanged, rather than have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. But the killer did not hang. When the federal Liberal party took office in 1963, it refused to allow anyone to be executed, and in January 1968, the federal government officially commuted all outstanding death sentences. So Bernier was not executed, and if we are to believe former Liberal Member of Parliament Jacques Lavoie, that was a very fortunate thing. In 1977 t
he politician started to lobby the Quebec justice department to reopen its investigations into the murders of Laurette Beaudoin and Denise Therrien. Bernier, he said, was innocent. Even though the convicted killer died in a British Columbia prison in May 1976, the MP said he deserved the right to have his name cleared, at least with regard to the murder of Therrien.
According to Lavoie, Bernier was in love with Beaudoin, who plotted the kidnapping with her boyfriend, a man whose name Bernier refused to divulge, out of concern for the safety of his children. Bernier said Therrien was drugged and kept in a house near Shawinigan. She was going to be released in due course, but one day she stumbled as she came down a staircase. As a result of the fall, she fractured her skull and died. Lavoie said Bernier was not even present when Therrien died, and only agreed to bury the young woman’s body because of his love for Beaudoin. That love, however, died with Therrien, and from that day forward Bernier grew increasingly determined to get even with Beaudoin and her boyfriend.
For better or worse, Lavoie was not able to clear Bernier of the Therrien murder.
Appendix: Timelines
1: They Got Away with It Before
Fred Stawycznyk and Pauline Yatchuk:
Babies in Boxes
1918
Wife of Fred Stawycznyk dies, leaving him with three children.
1921
Yatchuk family arrives from the U.S., settles on farm near Stawycznyk.
circa 1925
Yatchuk returns to the United States to work.
June 1927
Stawycznyk and Pauline Yatchuk begin affair.
September 1, 1929
Illegitimate child born to Stawycznyk and Yatchuk; strangled and buried.
October 1929
Nicola Yatchuk returns, leaves with couple’s three oldest children.
July 18, 1930
Birth of second illegitimate child; strangled and buried in yard.
September 1930
Yatchuk’s three oldest children move back home to live with her.
June 21, 1931
Twins born to Stawycznyk and Yatchuk; they too are strangled and buried.
June 27, 1932
Fifth baby born to Stawycnyk and Yatchuk stillborn; Yatchuk buries it.
1932
Stawycznyk accuses Yatchuk of burning down a stable on his farm.
November 1932
Justice of the peace receives anonymous letters about death of babies.
November 28, 1932
Police discover bodies of five babies buried in Yatchuk’s garden.
November 28, 1932
Stawycznyk and Yaychuk arrested and charged with murder.
December 10, 1932
Stawycznyk committed to trial for murder at end of preliminary hearing; murder charges against Yatchuk reduced to charge of concealment of birth.
December 26, 1932
Tachuk overheard admitting her allegations against Stawycnyk are untrue.
April 5, 1933
Murder trial gets underway; charge of concealment of birth added.
April 7, 1933
Stawycznyk found guilty, sentenced to hang July 12, 1933.
April 1933
Yatchuk guilty of concealing birth; sentenced to two years in jail.
June 30, 1933
Manitoba Court of Appeal turns down appeal by vote of 2–1.
July 5, 1933
Federal cabinet turns down application for clemency.
July 12, 1933
Stawycznyk executed.
William Bahrey:
The Brothers in the Haystacks
1907
William born in Rosthern, Saskatchewan; two years younger than Alex.
circa 1931
William begins affair with Dora Bahrey, wife of his brother Alex.
June 1931
Nestor Tereschuk marries Annie Bahrey, already married to a wife in Poland, few months later Annie separates from her husband, moves in with brothers.
October 31, 1932
William Bahrey murders his brother-in-law, Nestor Tereschuk.
April 10, 1933
Annie and Dora leave to visit Ambrose Bahrey, William murders Alex.
April 11, 1933
William Bahrey returns to Alex’s body, drags it to haystack, burns haystack.
April 12, 1933
Dora Bahrey returns home; William tells her he killed Alex.
April 16, 1933
Dog belonging to owner of land where Alex burned discovers his remains.
April 17, 1933
Police arrive, move body to church hall, invite people to identify it.
April 19, 1933
Horse allegedly ridden by Alex when he disappeared found tied to a tree.
April 21, 1933
Father of William and Alexander identifies Alexander’s body.
April 24, 1933
Coroner’s inquest convened; adjourned; body turned over to pathologist.
April 25, 1933
William taken into custody on a coroner’s warrant.
May 8, 1933
Bahrey confesses to both murders.
May 11, 1933
Preliminary hearing; Bahrey charged with two murders, pleads not guilty by reason of insanity.
September 1933
Skull of Teresczuk found half a kilometre from where his body discovered.
October 2, 1933
Special jury finds Bahrey mentally fit to stand trial.
October 5, 1933
Bahrey stands trial for murdering his brother
October 7, 1933
Bahrey found guilty; sentenced to hang on February 23, 1934.
October 1933
Crown decides not to proceed with a trial for Teresczhuk murder.
December 19, 1933
Saskatchewan Court of Appeal reserves judgment on Bahrey’s appeal.
February 21, 1934
Executioner arrives in Prince Albert to prepare for double hanging.
February 22, 1934
Double execution becomes single hanging when second killer reprieved.
February 23, 1934
Bahrey executed in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, at 6:00 a.m.
William Larocque and Emmanuel Lavictoire:
Murder for Insurance
October 4, 1930
Athanase Lamarche allegedly drowns, with Larocque and Lavictoire.
October 7, 1930
Larocque and Lavictoire only witnesses at coroner’s inquest; verdict of accidental death returned.
February 2, 1931
Larocque and Lavictoire defraud father of Lamarche out of $3,868.
July 1931
Larocque says Leo Bergeron asked to be insured for $2,500; Bergeron warned by his father Larocque will do him in if he takes out policy.
December 4, 1931
Bergeron increases policy to $5,000, makes Larocque beneficiary.
1931–1932
Larocque and Lavictoire ask three other young men to take out insurance.
February 1932
Larocque and Lavictoire try to get Bergeron hired out to cut ice.
March 18, 1932
Leo Bergeron allegedly trampled to death on Larocque farm; post-mortem carried out; police begin their investigation.
March 28, 1932
Police announce they are considering exhuming body of Lamarche; body eventually exhumed.
March 30, 1932
Inquest into Bergeron’s death convened by coroner, then adjourned.
April 5, 1932
Larocque and Lavictoire arrested for defrauding Felix Lamarache.
April 5, 1932
Coroner’s jury conclude Bergeron’s death caused by person or persons unknown, or by being trampled by horses.
April 12, 1932
Lacrocque and Lavictoire charged with murder; remanded to custody.
April 28, 1932
Preliminary hearing ends; accused committed to stand trial.
December 8, 1932
Murder trial of Larocque and Lavictoire gets underway.
December 15, 1932
Accused murderers convicted; sentenced to hang March 15, 1933.
March 15, 1933
First Lavictoire, and then Larocque hanged at L’Orignal jail.
July 20, 1933
Company that insured life of Bergeron refuses to pay proceeds to father.
2: Murdering Neighbours
Michael Farrell:
Fifteen Years between Murders
1860s/70s
Farrell kills his neighbour.
August 25, 1878
Farrell murders Francis Conway.
August 27, 1878
Inquest into the murder of Conway; Farrell not allowed to attend.
November 2, 1878
Murder trial gets underway.
November 5, 1878
Jury returns a verdict of guilty.
January 10, 1879
Farrell hanged in Québec Gaol.