'I'll gut you like a fish': Daughter testifies Greg Fertuck had history of threats against her mom

Lauren Fertuck says her mom, Sheree, confided the dark details of her collapsing marriage as the pair shared the cab of Sheree's semi-truck while hauling gravel through rural Saskatchewan.

These intimate mother-daughter conversations took place in the two years before Sheree disappeared on Dec. 7, 2015.

"On the semi rides we'd talk about my dad and the shit he was doing, how he was abusive to her and me and my sister," Lauren testified on Wednesday at her father's trial for first-degree murder.

"She told me that she was scared that my dad would do something. She said, 'If anything happens to me, look at your dad. And take care of my dog.'"

Greg Fertuck is now on trial at Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon, accused in Sheree's death. Her body has never been found, but her semi-truck was found abandoned in a gravel pit near Kenaston, Sask., on Dec. 8, 2015.

He has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge.

Lauren Fertuck was 14 years old in 2010, when Greg and Sheree's marriage began falling apart because of his drinking and gambling, she testified by video.

Over the following five years, police were called to the couple's home because of threats and alleged assaults. Court records show that Greg pleaded guilty to charges of uttering death threats and inappropriate storage of weapons in 2010.

Lauren testified that, although she personally never saw Greg physically attacking her mother, Sheree would show her bruises from alleged assaults.

Lauren did say that she heard him threatening Sheree.

"When he was drunk he was mean to me, my mom, my sister, my brother," she said.

"I heard comments like, 'I'll gut you like a fish,' and 'I'll kill you.' He sounded super angry and like he meant it."

She also said that Greg referred to Sheree as a "bipolar witch and a snake."

Lauren said that she was close to Sheree, and texted and spoke with her daily as she grew older and started her own family.

She testified that she also maintained a relationship with Greg, texting and calling, until Sheree went missing.

"I believe he was the reason my mom went missing — I thought that from Day 1 because of all the nasty things he'd say about her," she said.

"I heard him threaten her life."

Never told that uncle was suspect

Defence lawyer Mike Nolin cross-examined Lauren Fertuck about a number of points.

She confirmed that one of Sheree's friends had also been told by her mom that, should anything happen to her, police should look at Greg as a suspect.

She said that she first learned that police suspected Greg of Sheree's disappearance when they arrested him in October 2017 in connection with Sheree's death. 

He was interrogated for six hours but never charged.

Earlier witnesses testified that Sheree had blocked Greg from accessing his $427,000 CN Rail pension shortly before she disappeared, because she wanted the terms of the legal separation settled first.

Nolin asked whether Lauren knew that Greg couldn't get the money because of the type of account — not because Sheree blocked it — and that he wanted to access it so he could move the money to another institution.

She said she did not know that.

Lauren also said that police had never told her that her uncle, Darren Sorotski, was a suspect, or that Greg had consented to give police his DNA, fingerprints and cellphone records two days after Sheree disappeared.

The judge-only trial, presided over by Justice Richard Danyliuk, continues on Thursday. 

The trial, scheduled for eight weeks, began on Sept. 7.