Calgary

Murder suspect says Calgary teacher tried to sexually assault him

The man accused of stabbing a Calgary teacher to death told a 911 operator that the victim had tried to sexually assault him, according to information in a police search warrant application.

Craig Kelloway was found stabbed to death in southeast home of accused in May

Murder suspect alleged attempted assault

11 years ago
Duration 1:43
The man accused of stabbing a Calgary teacher to death told a 911 operator that the victim had tried to sexually assault him, according to information in a police search warrant application.

The man accused of stabbing a Calgary teacher to death told a 911 operator that the victim had tried to sexually assault him, according to information in a police search warrant application.

Craig Kelloway, 31, was found stabbed multiple times in the neck, chest and stomach just before midnight on May 4 in a southeast Calgary home.

Middle school teacher Craig Kelloway was stabbed to death at a home in southeast Calgary in May. (Courtesy of Cape Breton Post)

According to the search warrant application, when police officers arrived at the house on the 100 block of Auburn Springs Close S.E. they found Nicholas Rasberry, 30, on his cellphone with 911.

He told the dispatcher his neighbour had tried to sexually assault him, so he stabbed him.

"I stabbed him multiple times," he told the dispatcher as he requested an ambulance.

Police arrested Rasberry and later charged him with second-degree murder. A bloodied 25-centimetre knife was found nearby, the search warrant application said.

Victim's girlfriend doesn't believe allegation

Investigators believe the suspect and victim, who live in the same neighbourhood, met for the first time earlier in the day at Kelloway's home.

After socializing and drinking for much of the day with their significant others, Kelloway had gone to Rasberry’s house later in the evening where the altercation took place between the two.

The details from the search warrant application have not been proven in court, but come as quite a shock to Kelloway's girlfriend at the time, who doesn't want to be identified.

She says she strongly rejects the allegations Rasberry made in the 911 call.

She says it's got to be tough on Kelloway's family. He had a young son, who is about six-months-old, from a previous relationship.

Kelloway, a popular middle school math and science teacher, had moved to Calgary about six years ago from Cape Breton, N.S.