22 Murders by Paul Palango
Paul Palango
As
news broke of a killer rampaging across the tiny community of
Portapique, Nova Scotia, late on April 18, 2020, details were oddly hard
to come by. Who was the killer? Why was he not apprehended? What were
police doing? How many were dead? And why was the gunman still on the
loose the next morning and killing again? The RCMP was largely silent
then, and continued to obscure the actions of denturist Gabriel Wortman
after an officer shot and killed him at a gas station during a chance
encounter.
Though retired as an investigative journalist and
author, Paul Palango spent much of his career reporting on Canada's
troubled national police force. Watching the RCMP stumble through the
Portapique massacre, only a few hours from his Nova Scotia home, Palango
knew the story behind the headlines was more complicated and damning
than anyone was willing to admit. With the COVID-19 lockdown sealing off
the Maritimes, no journalist in the province knew the RCMP better than
Palango did. Within a month, he was back in print and on the radio,
peeling away the layers of this murderous episode as only he could, and
unearthing the collision of failure and malfeasance that cost a quiet
community 22 innocent lives. (From Random House Canada)
Paul Palango is a Canadian investigative journalist. He started his career at the Hamilton Spectator, his hometown newspaper. In 1977, he joined the Globe and Mail as
a reporter, and between 1983 and his resignation in 1990, he served
successively as its sports editor, Metro editor, and, eventually,
national editor. During his tenure at the Globe, Palango's reporters swept the Centre for Investigative Reporting Awards in five consecutive years.
Paul Palango
Photo: © Sharon McNamara
About the Author
What happened to Night Time podcast?
Hi everyone. It looks like Jordan Bonaparte has deleted all Paul Palango / “Canadian Crime Weekly” podcasts from his Patreon feed.
Does anyone have any colour as to what happened ?
Strange. I always felt Paul was kind of off. Maybe Jordan will comment on Facebook soon.
Have been a subscriber but even the premium feed has had that content removed.
Jordan or someone has now changed the name of the FB group as well. Someone there asked if this was the end of the show & the response was "no! there just hasn't been one for ages and probably won't be for a while so I figured the group so get a refresh for anyone who stumbles upon it. For whatever reason a lot of people have been joining lately probably searching for Canadian Crime, etc."
He must have had a parting of the ways with Paul & Adam.
I noticed this too, I think that you have to subscribe to the premium feed to get the episodes… I’m not sure if he still does it with Paul?
Glad it’s not just me. I’m a paying subscriber to Jordan’s podcast and not happy. Obviously something happened.
Paul’s second book on Portapique is soon to be published, as well. Wonder what happened.
I just heard Paul on the new Rodger’s Report episode and he said that he and Jordan were going in different directions because Jordan wanted to cover different issues than he and Adam. I do hope they can occasionally reconnect on the podcast though. I enjoyed the dynamic.
Saw Paul and Adam have a new podcast on YouTube called “dispersing the fog”. I watched last night and it was good. Jordans boneheaded comments are not missed.
You can still find the Lindsey Souvannarath interviews if you look hard enough. The internet never forgets. The Wayback Machine is your friend.
That’s interesting, thanks. I’m presuming Jordan didn’t actually cheat on his wife with an imprisoned psycho .. 😂
You can hear some of the Souvannarath interviews on a episode of Morbid where Jordan discusses his interviews with Souvannarath.
On their 8/10/25 podcast (Dispersing the Fog), Adam Rodgers & Paul Palango discuss the abrupt end of their Night TIme podcast collaboration with Jordan.
They didn't know it at the time, but Jordan got caught up in the parole proceedings for Lindsey Souvannarath. He had interviewed her for the podcast but she claimed that they had also been in a relationship for years.
During her time in custody, the board noted, she has given interviews with a Halifax-based podcaster and exchanged messages with an American neo-Nazi the Canadian government classifies as a terrorist.
The board said Souvannarath had a relationship with the podcaster spanning four years and when she gave him an ultimatum to choose her or his wife and children, he chose his wife.
She did not take that well, the board said, and she voiced anger toward married women with children.
As part of the fallout, Jordan removed or deleted his podcast content, including the NS mass killings materials.
Woman convicted in Valentine's Day Halifax mall plot denied parole
Lindsay Souvannarath was sentenced to life for her part in plot to stage February 2015 shooting
An American woman who planned to take part in a mass shooting at the Halifax Shopping Centre 10 years ago has been denied full parole.
Lindsay Souvannarath, 33, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life for her part in a plot to stage a Valentine's Day massacre in the food court of the mall in 2015.
Souvannarath has been in custody since the day before the planned attack. She was arrested at Halifax Stanfield International Airport when she arrived on a flight from her home in Illinois.
An anonymous tip to Facebook the day before had alerted Canadian border officials to the plan and even provided a description of Souvannarath.
She had been in online correspondence with a 19-year-old Halifax man, James Gamble, in the weeks leading up to the planned attack.
According to the Parole Board of Canada, the plan was for Gamble to kill his parents in their suburban Halifax home, then he and Souvannarath would spend the night there before heading to the mall the next day: Feb. 14, or Valentine's Day.
But police, acting on the anonymous tip, surrounded the Gamble home and reached out to James Gamble by phone. He talked to police, but then killed himself as police moved in. His parents were not harmed.
While their plan was thwarted before they could carry it out, Souvannarath and Gamble intended to sow panic and confusion by throwing Molotov cocktails around the mall, then shoot people trying to flee, according to authorities.
They planned to use a rifle and shotgun belonging to Gamble's father and they would save ammunition to kill themselves at the end of the shooting spree. The Parole Board found that the pair also planned to post online media updates on Feb. 15, the day after the massacre.
There was a third conspirator, Randall Shepherd, who was a friend of Gamble's. He refused to take part in the actual shooting, but he bought supplies and was arrested along with Souvannarath at the airport. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 10 years.
A third conspirator, Randall Shepherd, was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 10 years. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
While Souvannarath has taken part in programs while an inmate, the Parole Board questioned whether she has learned anything and was willing to apply it.
"The board is not satisfied that you have internalized the skills that you were taught in programming to mitigate your risk," the board wrote in its decision to deny her parole.
"You have made conscious decisions to deceive people about your thoughts that support radicalized violence."
During her time in custody, the board noted, she has given interviews with a Halifax-based podcaster and exchanged messages with an American neo-Nazi the Canadian government classifies as a terrorist.
The board said Souvannarath had a relationship with the podcaster spanning four years and when she gave him an ultimatum to choose her or his wife and children, he chose his wife.
She did not take that well, the board said, and she voiced anger toward married women with children.
"I am not looking for love … I'd much rather look for married men so I can destroy the lives of as many mommies as I possibly can. It feels good to have a new enemy," the board quoted Souvannarath as writing.
As recently as March of last year, a search of her cell revealed notebooks and drawings depicting violent scenes and Nazi symbols.
Souvannarath was proposing that she be released to her parents who still live in Illinois. She has been under a deportation order since 2018 that remains active.
If she is released, she is to be immediately sent back to the United States. But at the conclusion of a parole hearing last month, the board felt that release shouldn't happen now.
"[Correctional Service of Canada] is recommending the board deny full parole," the decision reads.
"Given your low reintegration potential, your lack of plan adequate to manage your risk for violent recidivism, your assessed risk, institutional behaviour, and ongoing indicators of risk related to attitude, poor emotions management and associates, CSC does not believe your risk is manageable on conditional release."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Apr 24, 2022
I attended the launch event for Paul Palango’s book on the NS Mass Shooting, entitled ’22 Murders’. The launch was held at the Old Triangle in downtown Halifax, the pub to which the statue of Joseph Howe points from it’s perch at Province House. Any journalist would be proud to be associated with Mr. Howe, and Palango is just such a fearless journalist that would have fit Howe’s hopes for the future. There was a good crowd for the launch, including many people who were previously known to me more by their usernames. Jordan Bonaparte, from Nighttime Podcast was there, as was Andrew Douglas from Frank Magazine. Many from the Portapique and Onslow-Belmont areas were on hand as well. Palango did not read extensively from the book, instead choosing to highlight a certain passage and then invite the subject of the note to come up to speak. This was my first opportunity to meet Palango in person. I have had a few chances to talk with him on the phone, and before that had taken in several of his podcast appearances on The Nighttime Podcast with Jordan Bonaparte. I have also kept up on his journalism since the early days after Gabriel Wortman’s killing spree. His reporting has been invaluable for me as an analyst, being detailed and specific about what he has been able to discover, and being unafraid to venture into potentially sensitive material. Knowing that I was going to be attending the launch, I finished the book itself a few days ahead of time, so I would have a chance to digest and reflect on what it contained, and of course so as to be able to converse about it at the event. Palango’s writing style is very engaging, drawing you into the story from a first-person narrative perspective. It follows the author’s own discovery journey to the facts, and also the perspectives of those he has interviewed, all of which helps give the reader a sense of how difficult it is to get straight answers from the RCMP. In that sense, it is also a good guide for those interested in pursuing journalism as a potential career option..
Saturday, 30 March 2024
The Sunday Night Show - March 30th, 2024
the Sunday Night Show - March 30th, 2024
Dispersing the Fog - Adam Rodgers and Paul Palango
13 Comments
Dispersing the Fog Episode 3 RCMP Border Helicopters, Taser Deaths, Targeted Neighborhood Policing
Dispersing The Fog - Episode 4 - Analyzing Trudeau's "White Paper" on the Future of the RCMP
Dispersing the Fog – Episode 5 – Federal Election , Adolescence, Media Landscape with Andrew Douglas
17 Comments
Gayle MacDonald
Published October 21, 2003
Dispersing the Fog - Episode 6 - Signal App Revelations, Rumeysa Ozturk, OPP Targeting Their Own
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 7 - US Lawyers Cowed, Paul Chiang, NB Mountie Cleared, Ontario Cocaine Case
Dispersing the Fog – Ep 8 – Justice Platforms, “Don’t be Canada” Excerpt, Spyware on Police Phones
Dispersing the Fog - Episode 9 - 5th Anniversary of the NS Mass Shooting, With Guest Scott MacLeod
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 10 - Election Aftermath, Lapu Lapu Killings, Junior Hockey Sex Assault Trial
This week, Paul is joining the show from Raratonga, in the South Pacific. The guys discuss how justice issues may have affected the federal election results, and what comes next for the Conservatives after losing a 25 point lead.
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 11 - NS Missing Children Investigation; 2nd Jury Dismissed in Hockey Trial
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 12 - World Junior Trial Update, Two Calgary Homicides , Kelowna RCMP Review
Live chat
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 13 - Hart Testifies, Strip Search Appeal, Officer Steals Seized Drugs
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 14 - Anatomy of a Coverup, Audio Book Excerpts and Commentary
13 Comments
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Federal and provincial governments to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass shootings
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 15 - Anatomy of a Coverup Book Launch, Discussion of Corrie Ellison Chapter
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 16 - Comparing Two Bestsellers, Anatomy of a Coverup & Mark Carney's Values
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 17 - Deloitte's NS Policing Review, Cst. Heidi Stevenson w. Guest Chad Jones
10 Comments
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 7, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Subject: Dispersing the Fog - Ep 18
To: <curtis.allen@sympatico.ca>
Contact: Curt Allen: (416) 705-3632, or "curtis.allen@sympatico.ca"
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 18 - Order of Canada to MCC Chair, Special Guest Ret'd Dep Comm Curt Allen
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 18 - Order of Canada to MCC Chair, Special Guest Ret'd Dep Comm Curt Allen
8 Comments
From: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 11:19 AM
Subject: Attn Justice Michael MacDonald I just called and left a voicemail
To: <jmmacdonald@stewartmckelvey.
Cc: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
https://davidraymondamos3.
https://stewartmckelvey.com/
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 19 - Corrie Ellison Forensics w Tom Juby, RCMP Legal Advice Disclosure Order
14 Comments
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 20 - Forensics Expert/Author Tom Juby On DNA, Campbell Police Update
4 Comments
"Constable Nick Dorrington was an interesting witness. Constable Dorrington joined the RCMP in 2015, after having served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 17 years. He struck me as a highly competent officer, who was not utilized properly during the events of the mass casualty. He gave the impression certainly that he was not holding anything back. Cst. Dorrington was getting ready for bed after completing a 13 hour shift the day of April 18, 2020 when he received a phone call that there was an active shooter situation. He immediately sprung into action and drove to the scene, at over 200 km/h.
Constable Dorrington was critical of the command decision not to send a second team of officers into Portapique immediately. He was assigned containment duties instead. He was also critical of the equipment possessed by the officers in this rural detachment. He recommended that each detachment should have night vision goggles and handheld infrared heat sensors. He was critical of there being too many commanders giving orders.
Two months prior to the events of the mass casualty, Constable Dorrington had given the killer a speeding ticket. At that time, the killer was driving one of the decommissioned RCMP vehicles. In what Cst. Dorrington described as very unusual behavior, Wortman immediately got out of his vehicle when he was pulled over, looking infuriated. Constable Dorrington ordered him back into his vehicle and then was able to go deal with him. Wortman said he felt he was being targeted because he had dealt with the Halifax police earlier that same day.
One result from that traffic stop was that Constable Dorrington had a photo of the killer, which he was able to distribute to other officers as the active shooter situation unfolded.
On the morning of the 19th, Cst. Dorrington was again frustrated with command decisions as he was being assigned to drive around the community and check the various homes and other areas for anything unusual. He felt that with his military skill set, and the fact that he was driving an unmarked vehicle would have given him an advantage against the killer, who would have been on the lookout for fully marked RCMP cruisers.
In addition, Constable Dorrington had provided information over the radio that the killer’s vehicle was in Brookfield (information which he obtained from his wife, who had been speaking with a friend just as the vehicle passed by her home), and he felt that the information was not given sufficient priority. The radio communications that were played today seem to support his contention.
The testimony from Constable Dorrington seems to support some of the theories that the command decisions were hampered by having an unclear chain of command, too many commanders, communications issues, and an overly cautious approach in the initial minutes and hours."
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 21 - Undercover Visitors, Crichton Conflict Questions, Waiting for Curt
7 Comments
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 22 - Junior Hockey Verdict, Latest From Supreme Court, Dept Comm Allen
4 Comments
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 23 - Prof. Wayne MacKay on Police Review, Forrest Ban, Gov't Transparency
Adam Rodgers - Nova Scotia Lawyer 16 Comments
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 24 - CBA v Houston, Immigration Consequences of Sentences, Guest Chad Jones
Adam Rodgers - Nova Scotia Lawyer Dispersing the Fog -Ep 25- Sullivan Update, Amy Hamm Fine, Homeowner Charged, Guest Claude Chapados
Adam Rodgers - Nova Scotia Lawyer 13 Comments
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 26 - Forensics Expert Tom Juby on Swiss Air 111 Crash and Coverup Part 1/2
Adam Rodgers - Nova Scotia Lawyer 16 Comments
5 Comments
Five years later, the families of the victims of Canada’s worst murder spree are still looking for answers
Anatomy of a Cover-Up
By Paul Palango
Paul Palango
Intro
Paul Palango
Intro
Night of Hell: here’s what happened in Portapique on April 18, 2020
This article includes graphic descriptions of intimate partner violence, multiple murders, and trauma to children.
The public inquiry into the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020 today looked at events in Portapique on Saturday night (April 18). Thirteen residents of the community of about 30 houses were murdered that night.
The summary cited below was produced by lawyers working for the Mass Casualty Commission, reflected thousands of pages of documents, most made public for the first time today. Much of the information has been previously reported, but the summary’s detailed timeline of events includes new disclosures from witnesses and poignant descriptions of how people reacted to the crisis.
The commission’s summary of events on that tragic night also raises questions about how police responded, why they delayed protecting children, and how they seem to have ignored information from Portapique residents about who the killer was, that he was driving a replica police car, and could have easily escaped the community; as a result of not responding to that information, the murderer was able to continue his murderous spree on Sunday morning.
Along with other media organizations, the Halifax Examiner was given advance access to the (mostly) un-redacted documents. In return, we agreed not to report directly from those documents, but rather from the (further) redacted documents placed on the commission’s website today.
Some documents we reviewed will not be made public. Those include 911 transcripts and police interviews with children, and the medical examiner’s reports on murder victims. We have, however, reviewed those documents, and they are consistent with the commission’s summary.
There is more to the summary than is reported below, but we wanted to concentrate on the timeline of events and the most compelling human stories.
1. Before 10:00 — Perpetrator in warehouse with Lisa Banfield
2. Before 10:00 — Perpetrator assaults Lisa Banfield at the cottage
3. Before 10:00 — Perpetrator sets fire to warehouse
4. 10:00 — Murder of Greg Blair
10:04 — Murder of Jamie Blair
5, 6, or 7. Between 10:05 and 10:13 OR Between 10:16 and 10:20 — Murders of Joy and Peter Bond
5, 6, or 7. Between 10:05 and 10:13 OR Between 10:16 and 10:20 — Murders of Jolene Oliver, Aaron Tuck, and Emily Tuck
5 or 7. Approximately 10:13-10:16 — Murder of Lisa McCully (before or after perpetrator attends Cobequid Court)
8. Between 10:20 and 10:25 — Murders of Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn
9. 10:26 — GW shoots Andrew MacDonald
10. Approximately 10:27: Perpetrator at intersection of Portapique Beach Rd. and Orchard Beach Dr.
11. 10:29-10:38 — Murders of Joanne Thomas and John Zahl
12. 10:38-10:39 — Perpetrator travels through trail on Lot 287
13. 10:40 — Murder of Corrie Ellison
14. Approximately 10:41 — Perpetrator proceeds to ‘blueberry field road’ via Cobequid Court
15. Approximately 10:41-10:45 — Perpetrator exits onto Brown Loop
Lisa Banfield
The Halifax Examiner has previously reported on Lisa Banfield’s accounts of April 18 found in court documents obtained by the consortium of media organizations. Those court documents were based on two interviews police had with Banfield — on April 20 and April 28 — and transcripts of those interviews are included in material collected by the Mass Casualty Commission.
Additionally, the commission’s documents include an earlier police interview with Banfield, from the morning of April 19 as she was being treated by paramedics in an ambulance and was being transferred from the Great Village Fire Hall to hospital in Truro; a police interview with a resident of Houlton, Maine; a statement from Portapique resident Leon Joudrey; a transcript of Joudrey’s 911 call; and Banfield’s medical records.
There is no inconsistency between the various documents; Banfield’s account of April 18 is credible.
That doesn’t mean, however, that she shouldn’t be called as a witness at the inquiry. Banfield’s involvement in the events is pivotal, and she has detailed knowledge of the killer and his actions for years before the event. She, and she alone, can likely answer outstanding questions about events leading up to and including the mass murders. It would be irresponsible not to call her as a witness.
In the commission documents, Banfield described a chaotic 19-year relationship with the killer.
“The first couple of years it was really good and he was loving and kind and generous,” Banfield told a police investigator. But about two and half years into the relation the killer (who the Examiner identifies as GW) began cheating on her with various other women — with a “tom-boyish” woman in Eastern Passage, a patient, and one night with two women who lived in a “crack house” next door to the denturist clinic GW owned on Portland Street in Dartmouth.
Banfield said GW first struck her while they attended a party together on Folly Mountain. She ran into the woods, and eventually an older man agreed to drive her to Portapique to pick up her car. When they arrive, GW had taken the wheels of her car so she wouldn’t be able to drive it. Banfield moved in with her sister, who took photos of Banfield’s injuries and wanted to go to the police, but Banfield declined to do so.
Banfield describes another incident when GW hired two men to work on the Portapique cottage. GW had a couple of drinks “and was being a jerk again,” and then took her into the bedroom and started beating her. “I was screaming so bad and they [the two men] wouldn’t do anything,” she said. “And one of them was yelling ‘just leave her alone’… I ran out of the bedroom through the window and he chased me… around a car in the driveway and the two guys are sitting there just watching, doing nothing.”
After such incidents she’d eventually get back together with GW, but she’d be “on eggshells.” She noted that for about the last 10 years of their relationship he hadn’t beaten her, but he would get “ugly” about minor things.
Banfield was aware that GW was purchasing guns. He would go to gun shows in the United States, or by guns online and have them shipped to Sean Conlogue’s house in Houlton, Maine. Periodically, GW would pick up the packages and hide the guns by placing them on the tonneau cover on his pickup truck, rolling the cover up, and then drive across the Canadian border. “Why would they undo that?” GW said.
GW told Banfield that he had so many guns for “safety.” But conversations about guns included a dark warning. “He used to always say, like, ‘when I go out I’m going out with a bang. It’ll be in the news.’”
Banfield faces charges for procuring ammunition for GW’s illegal weapons.
The documents released so far don’t shed much light on GW’s finances.
Banfield was aware that in his youth GW smuggled tobacco across the border, but she mentions no other recent source of illicit income.
She told investigators that GW obtained a loan from his father to purchase a property in Portapique; GW paid the loan off in a year, but his father refused to take his name off the property deed, which caused GW to attempt to kill his father. The father’s brothers (one an active RCMP officer, the other a retired RCMP officer) intervened, and GW was prevented from carrying out his plan. But no one formally notified the police of this attempted murder.
Neither was it explained how GW was able to reverse his financial circumstances so quickly to pay off the loan. And consider that by 2020, GW owned a veritable fleet of vehicles: a Jeep, a Ford F150, four Ford Tauruses, (including one fully decked out as an RCMP cruiser), lots and lots of motorbikes (one of the neighbouring kids counted 16), some side-by-sides, and a backhoe. Lisa Banfield owned a Mercedes. Additionally, GW owned two adjacent properties on Portland Street in Dartmouth (he bought the crack house after it burned down), three properties in Portapique, and had $705,000 in cash. Not to mention a lot of expensive weapons.
It appears that GW inherited some property from New Brunswick lawyer Tom Evans, and sold them for about $300,000 in 2010, but even that revenue doesn’t appear to explain his considerable holdings in 2020.
As for April 18, the commission’s documents reflect the story the Examiner has previously recounted:
[After driving around in the country] The couple returned to Portapique, where GW owned buildings referred to as a cottage and a warehouse. The couple went to the warehouse to have drinks. They called friends in the US, and Banfield told those friends that she and GW were planning a commitment party on their 20th anniversary [which would have been April 19, 2021]. The woman in the US said “don’t do it,” which angered Banfield, as she considered the woman a friend, so she “ended the conversation.”
According to Banfield, this short conversation created a misunderstanding that soon exploded with violence.
GW “got mad and accused Lisa of ruining their anniversary,” reads the document. “Lisa left the warehouse and was headed to the cottage but got half way and went back to the warehouse to apologize. Lisa Banfield explained [to GW] that she was mad at [the woman in the US] and not [GW] but [GW] was getting mad so she left the warehouse again and went to the cottage and went to bed, naked.”
GW soon went to the cottage and assaulted Banfield, pulling her out of the bed, pulling her hair and kicking her while she was on the ground. GW then told her to get up and tied her hands together with what she thought was the belt of a bathrobe.
GW poured gasoline around the cottage and then dragged her into a spare room, where he picked up a gun he had stored there. She could feel the wetness of the gasoline on the floor, and GW told her “to be careful” as he marched her out of the cottage. He told her not to look back, and he lit the cottage on fire.
GW marched her back towards the warehouse, and Banfield started screaming and trying to kick him. GW told her they were going to go to Dartmouth, and she presumed he intended to burn down their Portland Street residence and business. He also said they were going to the house of a couple who lived in the Dartmouth area, and “she believed it was to kill [them].”
During the march back to the warehouse, Banfield managed to escape and run, but she tripped and fell. GW caught up with her and “took Lisa’s shoes and threw them in opposite directions and said, ‘now you can’t run, bitch.’”
Banfield told GW “it didn’t have to be this way and [GW] said it was too late and put a handcuff on one hand on Lisa and she dropped to the floor when he tried to put on the other handcuff. [GW] pulled Lisa’s hair to make her stand up and she heard a shot on one side of her and then another on the other side.” She placed her hands over her face, expecting she would be shot, but instead GW put her in the back of the replica police car, then went to collect more guns.
While GW was collecting the guns, Banfield managed to escape the car and run out into the woods. She found a truck and thought to hide in it, but when she opened the door the overhead light came on and she feared that GW would see it and learn where she was, so she kept running. “She believed that she had a puffy jacket on and threw it in the woods hoping that police would find it.”
The narrative continues: “Lisa Banfield heard shots and thought that [GW] might blow up the truck and she left that hiding spot [?] and eventually came across a tree with an exposed root system and hid inside the cavity.”
Banfield said she heard shots through the night and someone on a speaker calling “this is the police,” but feared it was GW. She stayed in the tree until daylight, and then went to Leon Joudrey’s house.
GW then set fire to the warehouse and several vehicles outside it, before leaving in the replica police car. He went across the road, to the Blair residence.
There are new details about Banfield’s account contained in the commission’s documents:
• the woman in the US was named Angel Patterson, She had met Lisa Banfield and GW after Sean Conlogue brought GW into the Elk’s Lodge in Houlton. Conlogue, Patterson, and Patterson’s fiancé had once travelled to Nova Scotia to visit with Banfield and GW. Patterson gave an account of the April 18 phone call that matched Banfield’s account of the call.
• It’s a tiny detail, but the newly released documents show that Lisa managed to get the one handcuff off her wrist while she was locked in the back of the fake police car, and suffered injuries to her wrist as a result.
• While Banfield emerged from the woods at 6:28am on Sunday, she didn’t tell police about the look-alike police cruiser until she was in the ambulance, at 7:22am. That shouldn’t have made a difference — as reported below, multiple people had told police about the look-alike police cruiser throughout the night. But it’s worth noting that in the RCMP press conferences after the murders, police said they first learned of the fake car from Banfield, at about 6:30am. That discrepancy should be an issue during the commission’s review of police actions.
• Banfield showed deep concern for the victims, and expressed that if she had not run into the woods, perhaps they would not have been killed. She thought GW was looking for her in the various houses where he killed people — a notion a police investigator later tried to convince her wasn’t the case.
Murder of Greg and Jamie Blair
At 10:01, Jamie Blair placed a call to 911. She told the operator her neighbour had just shot her husband on the front deck of their home at 123 Orchard Beach Drive.
In the two minutes before the perpetrator entered her house, killing the family pets and then firing multiple shots through the bedroom door where she was standing, Jamie Blair told her boys to hide on the floor behind the bed. That quick thinking saved their lives because the killer never saw them.
Before suffering a fatal gunshot wound, she also managed to identify the killer as “Gabriel” and tell the 911 operator “there’s a police car in the fucking driveway.” The 911 transcript says, “there is a police car…but he drives…he’s a denturist…it’s decked and labeled RCMP …but it is not a police officer.”
According to the commission’s summary, the perpetrator then placed things on the Blairs’ propane stove and scattered logs from the wood stove in an attempt to burn down their house.
The Blair boys, aged 11 and 9, had heard all the shots including their mother’s screams as she fell. They also heard and recognized the voice of their neighbour in their house. It’s difficult to imagine anything more tragic.
Increasing smoke inside the house forced the boys outside. They ran next door to the home of Lisa McCully, an elementary school teacher. There they encountered the two McCully children, a girl aged 12 and her 10 year old brother, who were worried about their mother.
Lisa McCully had gone outside after noticing a fire that began shortly after 10pm across the road at 136 Orchard Beach Drive — the the warehouse where the killer kept his motorcycles and replica police cars.
Murder of Joy and Peter Bond
There are two possibilities for what happened next. The first is that GW killed Lisa McCully, then travelled south to Cobequid Court and killed the Bonds and the Tucks, then drove back north on Orchard Beach Drive to kill the Gulenchyns. The second is that he initially drove south to Cobequid Court, then turned north again and killed Lisa McCully on his way the Gulenchyns. The commission’s summary adopts the second scenario, but admits either scenario could fit the evidence.
It’s also not known if GW killed the Bonds or the Tucks first. The two houses are about 60 metres apart; neither was set on fire, and shell casings were found at both. Each set of murders seem to have involved the killer simply barging in the house and shooting everyone he saw.
“Peter Bond’s body was located in the front doorway of the residence,” reads the commission’s summary. “The front door accessed the living room, where Joy Bond’s body was located. The television in the residence was on.”
Joy Bond’s DNA was found “on the top left of the left boot worn by the perpetrator, suggesting that the perpetrator was in close proximity to Ms. Bond and may have crossed the threshold of the front door of the Bond residence.”
Murder of Jolene Oliver, Aaron Tuck, and Emily Tuck
“Aaron Tuck’s body was located in the doorway on the north side of the residence,” reads the commission’s summary. “The bodies of Jolene Oliver and Emily Tuck were located in the hallway to the south of his body. The television in the residence was on.”
The summary contains an heart-rendering account of a group of teenagers becoming aware of the unfolding tragedy.
That night, a 15-year-old boy referred to as AH was texting back and forth with 17-year-old Emily Tuck. The last text Emily sent was at 10:03pm.
At about 10:30, a boy (age unstated) referred to as AI was out walking his dogs on East Montrose Road, which is just north of Highway 2 from Portapique. He saw flames rising above Portapique and returned home to tell his mother, Megan Netzke. Netzke called 911 at 10:37, and then she and her son jumped in the family car and drove to Portapique. They were stopped at the police roadblock on Portapique Beach Road, where they saw “a man in a vehicle who was bleeding” — Andrew MacDonald. Police told them to return home.
Still in the car, at 10:47, Netzke called Lisa McCully; there was no answer. AI texted 17-year-old Emily; she did not respond. AI also contacted his friend AH to tell him about events in Portapique, and AH sent “a concerned text” to Emily; she did not respond.
See more about the remarkable life story of Aaron Tuck, Emily Tuck, and Jolene Oliver: “‘There’s some fiddle for ya’: A Portapique love story.”
Murder of Lisa McCully
When Lisa McCully left her house to inspect the fire across the road, she instructed her children not to leave the house for any reason. The commission’s timeline states McCully was killed at the edge of her property sometime after 10:15.
The Blair boys and the McCully children went into the kitchen where the oldest Blair boy called 911 at 10:16, according to records. Despite the horror he had just experienced, he managed to stay calm and offer police important information as events unfolded. He described the police car he had seen in his parents’ driveway and said the man had “a massive gun.”
At 10:19 he said he “could hear gunshots every 30 seconds.” He also told the operator he and the McCully girl didn’t know where their younger brothers were because they had just gone outside to watch the fires.
At 10:21, the eldest Blair boy reports the boys had returned and told them “he’s shooting everybody.” In a heart-stopping line, the summary reveals the two youngest kids “hid in a deep ditch” and “we watched him go back and forth…Gabriel in his car.”
At 10:30, the operator is told the children saw a car go by “but it’s not Gabriel’s.’” The kids observed (correctly) that the killer’s car would blend in with the police because “he has a cop car.”
At 10:39, Lisa McCully’s daughter reported a car was moving out of a driveway and somebody exclaimed, “It’s Gabriel!” The children again reported they could hear gunshots at which point the dispatcher told them to get away from the window and turn off all lights.
The summary of events is heart-breaking. Reporters have signed confidentiality agreements which prevent us from revealing the contents of the entire 911 transcript with the children unless and until it is entered as an exhibit at the public hearing.
As they listened to gunfire that killed 13 people in less than 45 minutes, the children must have worried they might die as well. The Blair kids knew their parents were dead, the McCully children must have been increasingly anxious as their mother did not return home.
There is nothing in the summary document that indicates if the children asked the operator when police would come to their rescue, but it seems a reasonable assumption. There is no reference in the summary document to any feelings of fear or horror the children may have expressed.
From 11pm to 12:22am, the four children were directed to remain in the basement, in the dark, hiding in a closet. Three times during the evening, at 10:53 and 11:09 and 11:27, a couple of police officers came to the back door to speak with them. On the third visit, the kids were told to lock the back door and not open to anyone unless they heard the word “pineapple.”
Finally, almost two and half hours after their ordeal began, RCMP officers Grund and Neil arrived to take the children to safety. The children were taken in Lisa McCully’s car to the Great Village Fire Hall where they were checked by paramedics before being taken to hospital in Truro.
The question of why it took RCMP so long to rescue them will undoubtedly be raised at a later point in the public process.
Murder of Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn
“The perpetrator arrived at 71 Orchard Beach Drive, the residence of Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn, prior to 10:25pm,” reads the commission’s summary. “He parked his vehicle in their U-shaped driveway, with his vehicle facing south and his driver-side door closest to the Gulenchyns’ front door. It appears plausible of available information that the perpetrator shot Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn. He then set the home on fire.”
After leaving the house and returning to his car, GW saw Andrew and Kate MacDonald in their car, stopped on the road beside the house.
Encounter with Andrew MacDonald
Andrew MacDonald is lucky to be alive.
MacDonald and his wife Kate live on Portapique Beach Road which is parallel to Orchard Beach Drive. Shortly after 10pm on April 18 Kate heard “popping sounds” and saw a fire from her bedroom window. The couple jumped in their car and drove down Orchard Beach Road where they saw a huge fire engulfing the warehouse at 136 Orchard Beach Drive.
Kate MacDonald called 911 and reported the fire. They turned and on their way back up Orchard Beach Drive noticed a white police cruiser parked in the driveway of Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn’s home at 71 Orchard Beach Drive. Kate MacDonald was startled by the sight of a fire in the kitchen of that home and reported it to 911.
The white police cruiser pulled out of the driveway and came alongside of the MacDonald car, on the driver’s side, about two feet away. According to the commission’s summary, the gunman pointed a handgun equipped with a laser sighting device. In that split second, Andrew MacDonald recognized the perpetrator and ducked. Two shots can be heard on the tape of the 911 call as well as an exclamation from MacDonald “It’s our neighbour, Gabe! He just shot me in the arm!” A second bullet narrowly missed his head.
MacDonald, who owns Maritime Auto Salvage in Glenholme, was able to describe the fake police car in some detail as well as identify the make of the car owned by another neighbour (Faulkner, see below) who followed behind MacDonald.
At the police checkpoint on Portapique Beach Road, Andrew MacDonald recognized one of the officers from the Bible Hill detachment. Four officers had arrived from Bible Hill detachment by 10:26pm and were soon joined by three more. While waiting for an ambulance to take him to hospital in Truro, MacDonald told the officer what had occurred.
Kate MacDonald was talking to a female officer and mentioned there was a back road out of the Portapique area that connected with an old church in East Montrose. At 10:48 the female officer radioed that information over the Colchester RCMP radio channel.
Even then, the killer may already have made his escape from Portapique.
David Faulkner
At around 10:30, David Faulkner and his wife and daughter were driving west along Highway 2, en route from Truro to their home in Bass River. As they approached Portapique, Faulkner saw “flames in the air” above the community.
Faulkner knew Portapique well, as he had previously lived on Portapique Crescent — he had sold his house to Leon Joudrey.
Faulkner turned left off the highway onto Portapique Beach Road; there was not yet any police presence at the entrance to the community. He then turned left onto Orchard Beach Drive and saw “a marked police car at Frank’s” — that is, at the Gulenchyn house — in front of the door, facing south. He didn’t see any people.
The house was on fire. “The curtains were open, and … the left hand wall, that was just flames, you know, two or three feet off the floor” Faulkner later told investigators.
He drove past the Gulenchyns’ house, then turned left onto Portapique Crescent and on to Leon Joudrey’s house, where Faulkner pulled into the driveway and called Joudrey; the call went to voicemail.
Faulkner then backed out of the driveway and retraced his steps. As he turned the corner back to Orchard Beach Drive, he saw two vehicles in the road in front of the Gulenchyns’ house, both facing north.
“The cop car was sitting on the left-hand side … and there was another car sitting on the inside of him, which would have been to the right of him,” explained Faulkner. ”
He heard “at least two” loud sounds — “either explosions or gunshots” — and both cars sped north. He couldn’t tell which care was leading and which was behind, but as he continued down the road, he saw the fire in the Gulenchyns’ house had grown.
Faulkner followed behind the other two cars and when he got to the intersection of Orchard Beach Drive and Portapique Beach Road, he found the police car stopped across the road; the other car had continued north on Portapique Beach Road. Faulkner drove on the lawn of the abutting house to get around the police car, and continued north on Portapique Beach Road.
A short way up the road, Faulkner saw RCMP cars with flashing lights — the first real police to respond to Portapique. The officers were engaging with the first car that had sped in front of him — that is, Andrew MacDonald’s car. Faulkner looked in his rear-view mirror but there was a “drop in the road” that blocked the view back to the fake police car.
The RCMP officers approached the Faulkner family at gunpoint and told them to put their hands out the windows of the car. One officer approached the car and “asked us what we were doing in there,” said Faulkner. “And I just told him the story about my buddy was Leon. He asked if I knew Gabriel and I say ‘yes.’ I’m pretty sure he [the cop] said he [GW] went crazy or went — like he had said — said to me that he was on a rampage or shooting or what.”
Faulkner and his family were allowed to leave, and on his way home he stopped at the Bass River Fire Hall and told the chief where the fires in Portapique were.
Bjorn Merzbach and Allison Francis
Bjorn Merzbach also considers himself fortunate to be alive after a night of terror.
Merzbach is the president of the Orchard Beach Estates Landowners Association and lives on Orchard Beach Drive with his wife, Allison Francis. Francis thought she heard “fireworks” at 10:21 on Saturday night and texted her husband who was in his workshop.
Merzbach went outdoors and heard two separate rounds of shots from two different firearms. Merzbach went inside his home to get his rifle. From his bedroom, he saw the Gulenchyn residence at 71 Orchard Beach Drive engulfed in flames.
He went outside and took cover behind his truck, where he heard two shots from the direction of the Gulenchyn home. He then saw three white cars drive quickly north toward the Portapique Beach Road — the MacDonalds, the fake police cruiser, and the Faulkners.
Allison Francis attempted to contact her neighbour Lisa McCully and Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn without success. An earlier call to the Blairs had also gone unanswered.
At 11:14, she received a call from the RCMP telling her to lock her doors and shelter in place. She told them fire was rapidly approaching their home – volunteer firefighters were not permitted to come into the area while an active shooter was in the area — and she was preparing to leave with her children. The RCMP phoned back and said they would send officers to help evacuate them but Francis didn’t wait and packed up the truck and left with their three kids and two dogs.
When RCMP visited the home around midnight and later at 12:35am, they found Bjorn Merzbach “protecting his property.” Merzbach told them about the shots he had heard from two different weapons.
The commission summary doesn’t mention it, but Merzbach confirmed to the Examiner many months ago that he stood in his front yard with a hose and a rifle all through the night, in case the fire or the killer came closer.
Murder of Joanne Thomas and John Zahl
The killer sat in his car, stopped at the intersection of Portapique Beach Road and Orchard Beach Drive, just a hundred or so metres from where RCMP officers were attending to Andrew MacDonald and questioning the Faulkners, but the real cops couldn’t see the fake cop. That allowed the killer to continue on.
The commission’s summary theorizes that GW then drove south on Portapique Beach Road to the home of Joanne Thomas and John Zahl; the summary provides no details about the couple’s murders, beyond information from Thomas’s phone that helps time their deaths:
Joanne Thomas was texting with a relative on April 18, 2020. Ms. Thomas’s final text was sent at 10:23pm. It was unrelated to the perpetrator or the events in Portapique. The next message in the conversation was sent by the relative at 11:32pm.
There was no response to the 11:32pm text. The next morning, at 8:04am, the relative texted again: “Are you ok? Please text.”
Murder of Corrie Ellison
The commission’s summary then theorizes that the killer next drove on a trail he had constructed on his own property — a parcel known as Lot 287. The trail connected the cottage on Portapique Beach Road to the warehouse on Orchard Beach Drive. If so, he would have seen both structures burned from the fires he had set earlier.
He emerged on Orchard Beach Drive, next to the warehouse, only to discover Corrie Ellison taking photos of the fire.
Francis Ellison lived on Orchard Beach Drive, about 450 metres south of GW’s warehouse. On that weekend in April 2020, his two sons, Corrie and Clinton were visiting. They spent Saturday together, and then at around 10pm, Richard went to bed.
Corrie and Clinton thought they heard a gunshot. They went out onto the deck of the house and saw flames. Richard, who couldn’t sleep, joined them. Corrie said he was going to go check out the fire, but Richard told him not to. “Don’t go up there, there’s a bad — bad cat up there,” said Richard. “He’s got guns and if he’s been drinking, anything can happen.” Corrie went anyway, and Clinton came along, but only to the end of the driveway, and then returned to the house. Corrie kept walking up the road.
At 10:36, Corrie called Richard and told him the warehouse was on fire. Corrie took three photos. The first two — at 10:39:26 and 10:39:33 — were of the warehouse burning. The third, at 10:40:12, was an “indiscernible” image. Then, nothing.
After about 15 minutes, Clinton was concerned about Corrie and so walked up the road carrying a flashlight to look for him. Near the warehouse, Clinton found Corrie’s body lying in the road, with blood beside it. Clinton turned off his flashlight and ran into the woods.
For the next few hours, Clinton was hiding in the woods, thinking that the light he saw from flashlights carried by police officers was actually the killer coming for him. He turned his phone off so it wouldn’t make noise or shine, giving away his location. But through the hours he would turn it on briefly to call his father, who in turn made a series of frantic calls to 911. All the while, Clinton didn’t know the fate of his brother — he wasn’t told Corrie was dead until the next morning.
Corrie’s DNA was later found on one of GW’s boots.
During one of his calls with 911, at 1:40am, Richard named GW and said GW had probably killed Corrie. Richard also said that GW had a Smith & Wesson handgun he had smuggled into Canada from the United States.
Eventually, 911 was able to get on the phone with Clinton, and at 2:35am he was connected with police on the ground.
The next morning, in an interview with police, Richard said that he knew about GW’s illegal weapons. “I don’t know if that’s my fault, if I should have said something, ’cause he showed me these weapons that he’d, I think he got them in the States,” said Richard. “He had his ways of getting around stuff like that — he must of knew the right people and that to get these things, and he showed me the rifle that he had bought and it was one of those Ruger mini-14s, and plus he had a stainless steel Smith & Wesson and I’m pretty sure he had a shotgun too.”
Richard said his brother David Ellison was friends with GW and had seen the replica police car, although Richard hadn’t seen it himself. Richard also related an incident when GW thought his uncle Glen was trying to sleep with Lisa Banfield, and “he ripped right through Glen, almost had him crying … just right in a rage, like the jealousy had just, yeah.”
Killer escapes Portapique
After he killed Corrie Ellison, GW appears to have driven south again, to Cobequid Court, and then east to the entrance of the “blueberry field road” — a rough road that runs along the western edge of a commercial blueberry operation, north from Cobequid Court to Brown Loop.
One family that lives to the west of the blueberry field road saw a vehicle on the road at about 10:45.
A man named Dean Dillman lives in Five Houses, which is west of Portapique River, across from Portapique. On Saturday night, Dillman’s mother, who also lives in Five Houses, called him to say she could see a fire in Portapique.
Dillman, “who has a background and training in forest firefighting,” packed up his firefighting gear and drove to Portapique. There were RCMP cars with their lights flashing at the head of Portapique Beach Road; Dillman thought the fire was at his friend Leon Joudrey’s house, so Dillman drove farther on Highway 2 to Brown Loop. He stopped at the bend in the road, right where Brown Loop meets the northern end of the blueberry field road. He turned off his lights so he could see the fire better, got out of his car, and broke out his compass in order to better locate the fire.
It’s uncertain when Dillman arrived at Brown Loop, but he wasn’t there long. He called Joudrey, got no answer. He called a mutual friend at 10:53, and they spoke for two minutes. At 10:58, Dillman’s mom called him back and said she was afraid — there was someone walking around in the woods near her house with a flashlight — so Dillman left Portapique and drove back to Five Houses to be with his mother.
The entire time he was on Brown Loop, Dillman did not see any other vehicles. If GW escaped the community via the blueberry field road, he must have done so just before Dillman arrived.
There’s video of what looks to be an RCMP cruise passing the Wilson’s gas station on Highway 2 in Great Village at 10:51pm.
The Nova Scotia killer’s dark past, and a mysterious $300,000
The denturist who killed 22 Nova Scotians in April acquired about $300,000 in mysterious circumstances from the estate of a disgraced lawyer who was convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.
Property and corporate records show that Gabriel Wortman sold two Fredericton rental properties belonging to Tom Evans for about $300,000 in 2010, after Evans died at the age of 60.
New Brunswick law does not require that wills be probated, and there is no will on file in New Brunswick Probate Court, so publicly available documents do not show how Wortman came to possess the properties. The man who bought the properties from Wortman and the real estate agent who handled the transaction for Wortman say that Wortman claimed to have inherited the properties from his friend.
But a woman who served as the director for the holding company that controlled the properties, and who spoke to Maclean’s on the condition her name not be used, suspects that Wortman got hold of the properties and sold them by tricking her.
READ MORE: The Nova Scotia shooting and the mistakes the RCMP may have made
The relationship between the two deceased men may explain how Wortman got the money to acquire the property that he owned in Portapique, where he killed 13 people on April 18, and how he acquired one of the guns that he used in the crime.
On the night of April 18, Wortman, dressed as an RCMP officer, began killing his neighbours and burning properties. He escaped police and continued his rampage the next day, driving around in a replica RCMP cruiser, shooting people known to him and random strangers.
The RCMP, who are refusing to reveal details about Wortman because of an ongoing investigation into the source of the guns he used in the massacre, have said the killer had five illegal guns, four of which were smuggled into Canada from the United States, the fifth “through the estate of a deceased associate.”
The killer’s father, Paul Wortman, has said that a friend—believed to be Evans—helped Wortman get a handgun. “He ordered it in the States somewhere,” Wortman told Halifax’s satirical Frank magazine in an interview not long after the shooting. “It was sent from wherever he ordered it to Houlton, Maine. His friend gave him the information, or probably made the arrangements or told him who to contact.”
Paul Wortman said a contact of Evans held the gun for Gabriel, who smuggled it into Canada. Paul Wortman related the same story about the origin of the handgun to an investigator working for the families of the victims, according to a summary of an interview obtained by Maclean’s.
Paul Wortman called it a “huge handgun.”
People who knew Wortman say he spoke about smuggling cigarettes across the border from Maine while he was a student. He told one acquaintance that he did so in a Zodiac-style inflatable boat.
Paul Wortman told the investigator that his son was not interested in guns or shooting as a boy and suggested he may have become interested in guns through his relationship with Evans.Paul Wortman said that his son became acquainted with Evans through relatives. But when Gabriel Wortman sold the buildings, he told the buyer that he got to know Evans when he was renting a room from him while a student at the University of New Brunswick.
“What I was told, from him, is basically he lived in the properties when he was going to university and he befriended Evans,” said Gabriel El Zayat. “And they stayed in close contact and when he passed away he left the properties.”
Gabriel Wortman was a student at UNB in the late 80s, as Evans’ professional life was going off the rails.
Fredericton lawyers remember Evans as a colourful and publicity-seeking young lawyer in the early 1980s, and he often appeared in the pages of the local Daily Gleaner. He handled high-profile criminal matters, including one case where he defended five South American men accused of coming to New Brunswick to try to break two accused Colombian cocaine smugglers out of prison.In the late 1980s, his own legal problems ended his career.
In 1986 he went to police to complain about being assaulted by a 19-year-old male prostitute he regularly hired. A jury acquitted the young man, and Evans soon faced charges himself.
He was charged with a firearms offence after he and some British soldiers frightened children at a bible camp while skeet-shooting near CFB Gagetown. And in 1987 he was convicted of giving liquor to underaged boys and sexually assaulting one of them. He was sentenced to three months in jail.
The assault took place after two teenage boys were arrested by the RCMP for drunkenness. Evans had them released into his custody and gave them more liquor. When they passed out, he sexually assaulted one of them. According to a precis of the case from the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, Evans “lied about the victim’s whereabouts when a telephone enquiry to his residence was made on behalf of the victim’s mother. His plan to seduce the victim was premeditated.”Evans appealed the conviction and lost. The provincial law society suspended him and in 1991 he resigned from the bar, likely to avoid being formally disbarred.
At the same time that Evans’ career was collapsing, Wortman, then 19, was moving from Moncton to Fredericton for university.
A college friend, broadcaster and comedian Candy Palmater said in an interview this year with The Chronicle Herald that Wortman struggled at university. “He was a little bit different, like I’m a little bit different, but he was beautiful and he had a really deep heart, but he was the brunt of everybody’s jokes.” A spokeswoman for Palmater declined to say whether she had information about Wortman’s relationship with Evans. “Candy will not be speaking about this sensitive issue further,” said Denise Tompkins in an email.
Wortman’s friendship with Evans eventually led to a business relationship.RELATED: The Nova Scotia killer had ties to criminals and withdrew a huge sum of cash before the shooting
Corporate records show that in 1996 Wortman became the president of Northumberland Investments, the holding company that Evans established in 1984 to handle his two rental properties in downtown Fredericton, including one on Northumberland Street. In 1997, Wortman’s signature appears on a $100,000 mortgage with a private lender on one of the properties.
El Zayat, who bought the properties from Wortman after Evans’ death, said he was told Evans lived off rental income from those properties, and he lived in one of the buildings himself.
El Zayat said Wortman’s acquisition of the properties, which he believed was an inheritance, seemed odd to him. “I found it really odd that somebody would leave a bunch of properties to a guy. I just found it odd. I remember telling my real estate agent, this is weird.”Corporate records show that in 2008 Wortman was removed from the company. (Public records do not outline why this change was made.) A friend of Evans who was the lone director of the company at the time says Evans was upset with how Wortman was spending money.
The former company director was surprised to learn that Wortman had managed to sell the properties belonging to Evans. “Tom didn’t want Gabe to inherit anything because he felt he was being foolish with his money so he asked me to sign [corporate documents to remove Wortman],” she said.
On Jan. 8, 2010, two months after Evans’ death, Wortman was reinstated as president of Northumberland Investments, corporate records show. The director believes Wortman tricked her into signing the document that made that possible. “When Tom died Gabe asked me to sign off or I would become responsible for the debt. So I did.”
She never saw Wortman again.After selling the buildings in February, 2010, three months after Evans died, Wortman made “atypical cash deposits” worth $200,000 and a term deposit worth $46,600, according to a Suspicious Transaction Report filed by Toronto-Dominion Bank later in 2010 to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, documents released in court show.
READ MORE: The RCMP is broken
Nova Scotia property records show Wortman bought properties on Portland Street in Dartmouth, where he established a denture clinic, and in Portapique, where he built a cottage, in September of 2010, just months after he sold the Fredericton properties.
Wortman had a number of property-related disputes. In 2004, he managed to become the owner of one rural Nova Scotia home after befriending a cash-strapped auto body specialist and getting him to sign legal documents that he eventually used to gain ownership. In 2010, he tried a similar legal technique with his uncle until a judge put a stop to it.Property records show that one day before the deed of the Fredericton properties were transferred, Wortman became the director of Berkshire Broman Corporation, another New Brunswick company. The previous owner was Kipling Scott MacKenzie, a Nova Scotian who was convicted of arson in 1996 and is currently facing several charges in provincial court. Wortman later used that company to buy the RCMP cruiser he used in his rampage.
According to documents filed in court by the RCMP, several other Suspicious Transaction Reports were issued after the shooting concerning Wortman’s financial transactions in the previous months.
On March 20, Wortman withdrew $475,000 from a Brinks cash depository in Dartmouth. Documents filed in court by the RCMP say the money was from his investments and the pick-up was arranged by CIBC. When Maclean’s first revealed that transaction in June, RCMP declined to comment, although RCMP sources said the transfer appeared to have the hallmarks of a payment to a confidential informant.
The RCMP has angrily rejected questions about whether they were involved with Wortman, denying they had a “special relationship” with him in interviews with other media outlets. The RCMP has repeatedly declined interview requests from Maclean’s about the withdrawal, and did not release details of the financial transactions until forced to do so in an action brought by media organizations seeking to have redactions stripped from search warrants.RELATED: The Nova Scotia shooter case has hallmarks of an undercover operation
The RCMP has no details to add about his relationship with Evans. “We are looking into the gunman’s previous relationships and interactions as part of the ongoing investigation,” said Cpl. Lisa Croteau in an email last week.
A preliminary psychological autopsy conducted for the RCMP concluded that Wortman was an “injustice collector”—someone who nurses grudges until he explodes in rage.
In July, the Nova Scotia and federal government promised to establish a public inquiry into the shooting rampage. They had earlier announced a review, without the power to compel testimony, but reversed themselves and announced an inquiry after family members protested.Former Nova Scotia Chief Justice J. Michael MacDonald and former Fredericton Police Chief Leanne Fitch are to be two of the panelists. Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan dropped out after the government announced the review would be an inquiry. The governments have yet to name a replacement.
Stephen Maher is an investigative journalist. He can be reached at stephenjamesmaher@gmail.com
October 27, 2022 (day of the dump & a month after Heidi knew) CTV - July 10 2020 referral
Little Grey Cells 
• Arrests, possible fraud, sexual assaults, ...
𝙈𝘼𝙉𝙔, 𝙈𝘼𝙉𝙔 thanks to Oh Dear for all off her hard work! She does so much for us all it would take too long to list. She initially posted the document in chat as can be seen. If not for her, well, I don't know where we all would be...
Please subscribe to her channel!
/ @ohdear6958
We have such a dedicated little family seeking the truth. I consider myself blessed to be part of that. Many thanks to all of you for tireless work and support!!!
I tweeted and informed MANY people, including CTV's Heidi Petracek, Sept 23, 2022 OVER a full month before she and CTV chose to report... on the day of the document dump. Link to Tweet:
/ 1573400581376741376
https://archive.ph/aRNYX
The July 10, 2020 SITREP/SiRT referral was NOT included in final dump. Many documents were but the initial document was over a month before. Report is framed as though it came out that on October 27, 2022. It did not.
This is compounded in severity because MSM is aware of documents BEFORE the public, Why did they chose not to report on it?
The following people/institutions/MSM chose to either IGNORE or missed the tweets I sent informing them back in September:
- Note not ALL of these people could have missed these tweets. That is theoretically impossible.
- Viva Frei
/ 1573395970561576960
- Raquel Dancho (MP, SECU member and Shadow Minister of Public Safety) , & Michelle Rempel MP
/ 1573395251200684032
- Western Standard, Rebel News, Post Media, Toronto Star, Pete Cross, Premier Tim Houston, Tony Clement, The Conservative party of Canada:
/ 1573393772096135168
• Arrests, possible fraud, sexual assaults, ... 10 Comments
October 26 2022 - Leon appeals to Heidi & Canadians for support. God bless 24
Little Grey Cells / lil_grey_cells / dontstoplearni1 / redbloodedleaf
Rage in the Kage:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP03... 
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