Calgary's 8th homicide victim died from blunt force
CBC News | Posted: November 8, 2011 8:45 PM | Last Updated: November 9, 2011
Police visited the home 37 times in the last year
Calgary's latest murder victim died from blunt force trauma, officials confirmed on Tuesday as they released the woman’s identity.
Cherry Lotus Ledesma, 45, was found by roommates in her northeast Calgary home Friday.
The woman's 44-year-old common-law husband, Gregory Sanders Houle, was charged the next day with second-degree murder.
Neighbours have told CBC News police were often at the home on 39th Street N.E., with police confirming they visited the home 37 times in the last year.
Police went to the couple's home last Thursday, the second time in two days, to attend to an intoxicated person outside in the yard.
On that visit, police say it was likely that Ledesma was already dead inside with a head injury since early that morning.
Police say typically they would be called to the troubled home to break up a fight — mostly screaming — between friends or the couple, and before too long they would be called back.
Staff Sgt. Patty McCallum says police tried to persuade the people at the home to seek help from resources they offered, but there wasn't always co-operation.
Organizations that help victims of violence are not criticizing police.
"You can give them the resources and sometimes it's just about choices that people make," said Jean Dunbar of YWCA Calgary.
The domestic abuse unit is handling the investigation, but police also plan to review how the case was handled.
Ledesma’s death is Calgary’s eighth murder of 2011.