An uncle and nephew are going to jail for murdering 64-year-old Edward Geddes in 2011 after which burying his physique on a farm near Baldwinton, Sask., about 200 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
Robert Pich, 61, pleaded accountable to second-degree murder. His uncle, 73-year-old John Gregoire, pleaded accountable to burying the sufferer’s physique on his farm.
Justice Richard Danyliuk accepted a joint sentencing submission from prosecutor Cory Bliss and defence authorized professionals Brian Pfefferle and Jonathan Bodvarson.
Pich was sentenced to life in jail with no chance of parole for 15 years. With credit score rating for time on remand, he can apply for parole in 12 years. Gregoire, who was out on bail, was sentenced to five years.
In a sufferer assertion be taught in courtroom, Geddes’s youthful sister acknowledged her brother had points in his life, “but he was never a mean man.”
Danyliuk moreover well-known that, although the sufferer would possibly had non-public factors, “his life was not yours to take.”
Police think about they’ve found the physique of Edward Geddes, who had been missing since Feb. 2011. (Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police)
Bliss be taught an agreed assertion of information into the doc.
In late 2010, Gregoire employed Geddes, 64, as a mechanic and supervisor at a enterprise he owned in Neilburg, Sask., Coupar acknowledged.
Gregoire received right here to suspect Geddes was stealing from him. On April 11, 2011, Gregoire known as Pich and instructed him to get Geddes to the farm.
Pich instructed Geddes he wished help getting a filter off a front-end loader and Geddes received right here.
“Mr. Pich clubbed Mr. Geddes in the head with a four-by-four piece of wood when Mr. Geddes was changing the filter,” Bliss acknowledged.
Pich then tied up Geddes with zip ties and waited for Gregoire. While he waited, he drank alcohol and questioned Geddes, capturing a pistol near him. After Gregoire arrived, they moved Geddes to an empty residence and continued questioning him and capturing the pistol.
At some degree afterward, Gregoire instructed Pich to get rid of Geddes and take him to Saskatoon or Battleford. Pich put Geddes, who was nonetheless alive, inside the trunk of a vehicle.
“Mr. Pich was driving to Saskatoon when due to his intoxication and the freezing rain, he lost control of the vehicle and hit the ditch on Highway 40 outside Battleford, Saskatchewan,” Coupar acknowledged.
Police have no idea when exactly Geddes died. Police impounded the car after a passersby reported the crash at 12:34 a.m. on April 12, 2011, nonetheless they didn’t search the trunk.
From jail, Pich known as Gregoire to get the car. Even though Gregoire picked up the car that exact same day, he didn’t look inside the trunk until just a few week later, when the foul odour from the trunk was unmistakable.
Geddes was ineffective. That night, Gregoire dug a spot in a brush pile on his property inside the RM of Hillside, near Baldwinton, Sask., about 200 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon. Gregoire used a front-end loader to carry Geddes’s stays to the outlet, the place he piled brush and ineffective cows over excessive of Geddes’s physique.
Danyliuk well-known that RCMP investigated and chased down leads for better than a decade. The break inside the case received right here when undercover officers befriended Pich and he made admissions that led to the restoration of the physique.
