The primary defence witness known as throughout the Greg Fertuck homicide trial has given testimony which will alter the timeline of Sheree Fertuck’s disappearance.
Courtroom heard that after Sheree went lacking, Mary Ellen Lowdermilk advised Saskatchewan RCMP she was sitting on a sofa in her residence, about 200 to 250 toes from Freeway 15 someday after 5 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2015.
“I advised them that I’d seen Sheree’s truck go by after we’d completed work,” Lowdermilk testified Thursday in Saskatoon’s Courtroom of Queen’s Bench.
She knew it was after 5 p.m. as a result of her household usually works in a store adjoining to the house throughout the day, protecting common work hours of 8 a.m. to five p.m.
Sheree Fertuck was final seen on Dec. 7, 2015. Her estranged husband, Greg Fertuck, was arrested and charged in June 2019.
Fb / Saskatchewan RCMP
If it was Sheree’s truck, then the sighting would forged some doubt on the sequence of occasions court docket has heard thus far. Household final noticed Sheree leaving their farmhouse round 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2015.
Throughout his admission to a fictitious crime boss, Greg Fertuck mentioned he shot and killed Sheree round 3 p.m. on the gravel pit.
Simply earlier than 5 p.m. on the date of the disappearance, Greg Fertuck was seen on surveillance video at Vern’s Automobile Wash on eleventh Avenue West in Saskatoon. The Crown has characterised the go to to the automobile wash as an try to clean blood out of the truck mattress.
Household discovered the semi-truck on the pit on Dec. 8, 2015 with Sheree’s keys nonetheless within the ignition. Her jacket and mobile phone have been additionally contained in the automobile.
Lowdermilk was unable to determine who was driving the semi-truck, court docket heard. The automobile was headed away from the world of a gravel pit, hauling an end-dump gravel trailer towards Kenaston, she mentioned.
A view of Mary Ellen Lowdermilk’s property from Freeway 15, east of Kenaston.
Courtroom Exhibit
The Lowdermilk house is about seven kilometres east of Kenaston, which is situated about 85 kilometres south of Saskatoon.
The witness mentioned she acknowledged the semi-truck as Sheree’s as a result of her household had performed mechanical work on the automobile. She estimated it drove by at the very least 3 times per day, relying on the time of 12 months.
“We’d seen it very often go by,” Lowdermilk testified.
She additionally advised the court docket she’d seemed up an image of Sheree’s semi-truck on the web earlier than she testified. Lowdermilk mentioned she didn’t take a look at another information articles in preparation for her court docket look.
A court docket exhibit picture reveals the gravel pit the place Sheree Fertuck would use a front-end loader to fill the trailer hooked up to her semi-truck.
Courtroom Exhibit
Throughout cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss, Lowdermilk acknowledged she solely noticed the semi-truck for about one second. She noticed extra of the end-dump trailer than the truck’s cab, court docket heard.
It was additionally darkish exterior and there was a single mild on inside her residence on the time of the sighting, Lowdermilk testified.
All the Crown’s proof over the course of eight weeks was entered in a voir dire, or admissibility listening to. Following arguments from prosecutors and the defence, Justice Richard Danyliuk will rule on what parts of the Crown’s proof may be utilized to the trial itself.
Crown prosecutors closed their case on the voir dire portion of the trial Thursday. Courtroom is adjourned till Nov. 22, when the defence may name one other witness or there might be admissibility arguments.
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