Tears, a timeline and family dirty laundry: Greg Fertuck's first interview with RCMP after wife went missing

An RCMP investigator noted that Greg Fertuck had tears in his eyes and looked worried when he was interviewed two days after his wife Sheree Fertuck had gone missing.

Officers Chad Clark and William Groenen met with Greg at his home in Saskatoon on Dec. 9, 2015.

Police had originally asked that Greg come to the detachment for the interview, but he said that he had stomach issues from overeating perogies the previous weekend. He invited the officers to his home. They arrived late in the afternoon and stayed for a little more than two hours.

The full interview was played at Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon on Thursday, day eight of Greg's first-degree murder trial. On the stand Friday, Groenen recalled Greg as "sober, coherent" during the interview.

The officers covered a lot of ground as they sat with Greg at his kitchen table, urging him to openly air "dirty laundry" about relationships in his immediate and extended family.

He complied, talking about everything from how his eldest daughter's first pregnancy drove a wedge between her and Sheree, to how his mother-in-law ran her gravel crushing and hauling business, to his characterization of his brother-in-law as being "sort of slow" and having a drinking problem.

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Greg admitted that his own drinking was the cause of his marriage collapsing. He said that he'd been sober for almost four years — until that afternoon, when he drank brandy because he was depressed over Sheree disappearing.

He also said that he did not go to the gravel pit the day that Sheree disappeared and that he had no idea where she might be.

Under cross examination by defence lawyer Mike Nolin, Groenen said that Greg was not considered a suspect in Sheree's disappearance when they interviewed him. The matter was still seen as a missing person case.

The 51-year-old mother of three had disappeared on Dec. 7, 2015. She was last seen leaving her mother's farm near Kenaston just after 1 p.m. CST that day, on route to a gravel pit where she worked.

Her truck was discovered in the pit the next day with the keys in the ignition and her jacket and cellphone in the cab.

Greg offered the two RCMP officers a timeline of where he was the day Sheree disappeared.

The Crown's theory is that Greg went out to the gravel pit on the afternoon of Dec. 7, got into a confrontation with Sheree, shot her twice, then he loaded her body in his truck and dumped her in a rural area.

The theory is based on disclosures Greg made to undercover police posing as criminals in a sting run years after Sheree disappeared.

In the Dec. 9 interview, Greg told RCMP that he'd had lunch and then taken his dog for a run in the country south of Saskatoon that afternoon two days earlier, returning to barbeque steaks for supper.

He said that his landlady, who lived upstairs, was home that day and could vouch for his movements in the afternoon.

An earlier witness has testified that the landlady was also, in fact, Greg's lover.

On Friday, Justice Richard Danyliuk ruled that Greg gave the Dec. 9 statement to RCMP voluntarily and that it could be entered as a full exhibit in the voir dire now underway.

The trial resumes Monday.