Man accused of killing wife appears to alter alibi in videotaped RCMP interview played in Saskatoon trial
It’s a small room at the Saskatoon RCMP detachment.
Inside, there’s a wooden desk and two chairs. Greg Fertuck sits on one chair. Staff Sgt. Charles Lerat sits across.
A video of the encounter played in court on the eleventh day of Fertuck’s first-degree murder trial.
He's accused of killing his estranged wife Sheree Fertuck.
Lerat grills Fertuck about what he was doing two years ago, on Dec. 7, 2015, the day his Sheree went missing. Her body has never been found.
She was last seen leaving her family farm, near Kenaston, Sask., to go haul gravel nearby.
In the video, Fertuck sticks to his story: he went to a physio appointment, went home and walked the dog.
But Lerat tells Fertuck his cell phone pinged off a tower in Kenaston at 1:20 p.m.
A Workers Compensation Board (WCB) employee has confirmed she had a conversation with Fertuck at that time.
“I’m trying to understand this Greg,” Lerat says, questioning why his cell phone would ping in Kenaston.
After hours of Fertuck denying he was in Kenaston, he changes his story.
He tells Lerat he was actually in Kenaston on Dec. 7, 2015 at the gravel pit where Sheree’s semi-truck was last seen.
Fertuck says he went to the pit to get five pails of gravel for his yard, but never saw Sheree there.
The RCMP sergeant asks Fertuck why he didn’t say this earlier.
“If I had been there, it would be another nail on the coffin … everyone thinks I did something to Sheree,” Fertuck says.
Fertuck says he made the WCB call after leaving the pit.
Surveillance footage shows Fertuck at Vern’s Car Wash at around 5 p.m.
Fertuck adjusts his original account. He says he dumped the gravel at home and then went to the car wash.
Lerat questions a 130 mile round-trip for five pails of gravel.
“I don’t buy it. It doesn’t make any sense,” Lerat says.
Fertuck says gravel is expensive. He also wanted to speak to Sheree while he was at the pit, but didn’t see her.
“I didn’t harm her at all because I didn’t see her … I would never harm the mother of my children. I don’t care what you think,” Fertuck says.
Lerat informs Fertuck that Sheree’s blood was detected in his truck.
Fertuck says maybe Sheree borrowed his truck, but is “not sure how that got there.”
Lerat plays videos from Fertuck and Sheree’s children, urging him to confess.
“Just tell the truth, dad,” Lauren Fertuck says over a screen on the table.
During this warned statement to police, Fertuck is arrested, but not formally charged.
He asks to go to the bathroom several times and requests his lawyer.
It’s up a judge to decide if the statement can be used as evidence in the trial.
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