Greg Fertuck trial hears of search efforts for Sheree Fertuck’s body with ground-penetrating radar
The Greg Fertuck homicide trial has heard of the RCMP’s quite a few makes an attempt to seek out Sheree Fertuck’s physique, together with utilizing ground-penetrating radar.
In Might 2020, Greg Fertuck’s former common-law associate instructed police that Greg Fertuck claimed to have used a “machine” to bury his estranged spouse’s physique at a gravel pit.
The RCMP contacted a forensic anthropologist who advisable utilizing ground-penetrating radar on the website. Officers had been instructed the expertise might be used to scan flat areas round piles of gravel in line with testimony from Const. Robert Head.
“If even when the bottom was put again over (a physique), utilizing the ground-penetrating radar, they’d see the excavation marks within the filth,” Head stated.
Sheree Fertuck was final seen on Dec. 7, 2015. Her estranged husband, Greg Fertuck, was arrested and charged in June 2019.
Fb / Saskatchewan RCMP
Court docket heard the piles of gravel had been moved round since Sheree’s disappearance on Dec. 7,2015, from the world east of Kenaston, Sask., which is about 85 km south of Saskatoon.
A seven-hour search effort revealed six “anomalies” on the pit, together with one space of curiosity that would have been a burial website. Crews introduced in a tractor to dig into the earth.
“They searched down roughly 5 toes and they didn’t uncover something of relevance with regard to this investigation,” Head stated.
The officer stated rocks, boulders and different insignificant gadgets may be liable for anomalies.
A map exhibits the three areas the place crews used ground-penetrating radar to seek for Sheree Fertuck’s physique. The crimson circle marks an space of curiosity that was excavated.
Court docket Exhibit
Cpl. Ronald Degooijer, the RCMP’s search coordinator following the undercover investigation, additionally testified, saying he concluded Greg Fertuck couldn’t have dug a gap in an open space of the pit resulting from frost within the floor.
Within the spring of 2016, officers carried out a shoulder-to-shoulder search of the gravel pit. Their examination revealed two .22 calibre shell casings, which the Crown contends had been from the Ruger 10/22 rifle used to shoot Sheree.
Whereas Head was on the stand, Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss operated GPS software program to plot the casing places on a map. He then confirmed the tracked actions of the automobile Greg Fertuck rode in on the day he led undercover officers to the pit.
Greg Fertuck led RCMP officers to a location close to the world the place police beforehand discovered the 2 casings. On the time, he didn’t know police discovered any casings.
An RCMP forensics report decided the 2 casings had been shot from the identical rifle, however was inconclusive as to whether or not they matched casings taken from Greg Fertuck’s dwelling.
Considered one of two shell casings discovered on the gravel pit within the spring of 2016.
Court docket Exhibit
His journey to the pit got here on June 21, 2019 – the identical day he instructed an undercover officer posing as against the law boss that he shot Sheree twice, loaded her physique into the again of his pickup truck and drove it from the pit to a close-by bluff of poplar timber. He stated he coated Sheree’s physique with some logs within the wooded space.
Greg Fertuck was arrested on June 24, 2019, and charged with first-degree homicide and providing an indignity to a physique.
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Inside days of Greg Fertuck’s arrest, officers used a police canine to seek for Sheree’s physique, starting with the world the accused recognized. The next month, officers walked by the encircling space.
In Might 2020, police used eight quads to go looking an expanded space for the physique.
Sheree’s physique remains to be lacking, together with the rifle police imagine Greg Fertuck used.
Court docket additionally heard testimony of a bit of denim present in gravel crushing gear in August 2019. A father and son had been crushing gravel on the pit the place Sheree is believed to have gone lacking.
Throughout cross-examination by defence lawyer Mike Nolin, Head stated the denim didn’t match what Sheree was carrying on the day she went lacking. Nolin steered that Sheree’s brother, Darren Sorotski, stated she was carrying a denim shirt that day.
Nolin requested if there was a stain on the denim, and the witness stated he solely remembered it being “previous and tattered.”
All the Crown’s proof over the course of practically eight weeks has been entered in a voir dire. Justice Richard Danyliuk has not but dominated on how a lot of the Crown’s case will likely be admissible on the judge-alone trial.
The Crown is anticipated to shut its case on Thursday.
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