'It was all made up': Greg Fertuck says confession to undercover police was a lie

SASKATOON -

A man who told undercover police officers that he killed his wife says the confession was a lie.

In an RCMP interview room, during a four-hour warned statement, Greg Fertuck watched a recording of himself from a few days prior.

In the video, secretly recorded June 21, 2019, Fertuck told an undercover officer he shot his wife, Sheree Fertuck.

“It was all made up,” Fertuck said, after watching a portion of the video.

Fertuck believed the undercover officer to whom he confessed was the boss of a criminal organization for which he worked.

But it was all fake.

The undercover tactic is called a Mr. Big sting.

Fertuck was offered work for a criminal group and was told to be honest about any issues that could affect the organization.

After months of building trust and loyalty, Fertuck told the boss he shot Sheree twice — once in the shoulder, once in the head.

“I just said it to impress them. I didn’t even know I was being taped,” Fertuck said in the police interview room.

“I didn’t want to get fired, so I made up this story.”

Fertuck was getting paid for his work for the fake organization.

He told the undercover officers, whom he believed were his coworkers, that he wrapped Sheree’s body in a tarp and dumped the remains in a rural area near Kenaston, Sask.

“I guess it was a pretty stupid thing to make up a story like that … I know it doesn’t look good,” Fertuck said, during the warned statement.

Fertuck showed officers to the alleged location of where he disposed of Sheree’s body, but Fertuck was never able to find it.

RCMP Sgt. Charles Lerat flat out asked Fertuck, “Did you kill Sheree?”

“No, I still loved her,” Fertuck responded.

Fertuck told undercover officers he used a rifle to shoot Sheree and gave the men the gun clip. The men told Fertuck they were helping him “clean up” his mess.

When Lerat showed him the clip, Fertuck said the members must have stolen it from him.

“I can’t believe they actually took that from my place. I trusted those guys,” Fertuck told Lerat.

In the undercover police video, Fertuck said the shooting happened after Sheree threatened to take all his money.

“That’s when I sort of lost it,” Fertuck told the crime boss, in a room at the James Hotel.

During the warned statement, Fertuck was unaware the men were undercover officers.

Fertuck said he believed police were following him, and had wired the hotel room where he confessed, but didn’t know the boss was an undercover officer.

On the stand, Lerat said he decided not to tell Fertuck the boss was an RCMP officer “because in my opinion it would lead to more lies.”

Lerat described Fertuck as “a logical offender” with the ability to quickly “think of a response that was believable.”

The defence argues the Mr. Big sting can make “anyone confess to anything.”