Warning: This story comprises graphic particulars of a murder.
A 70-year-old Alberta lady was convicted this week of second-degree homicide and indignity to a physique for fatally stabbing her husband, eradicating his arms and dumping his physique 150 kilometres east of her residence on an deserted farm in Saskatchewan.
The crime has no clear motive, however the particulars are outlined in Court docket of King’s Bench Justice Dallas Miller’s 34-page conviction determination, which was handed down following a trial earlier this month that noticed prosecutors Jase Cowan and Brian Shantz name 18 witnesses over the seven days of proof.
The sufferer was Alfred (Alf) Belyea, a 72-year-old Cypress County councillor who had served his neighborhood for six years and had lately instructed his spouse and pals he was planning to hunt one other time period.
The killer is Deborah Belyea, a largely housebound lady with a number of well being points who makes use of an oxygen tank. One in every of Deborah’s pals instructed police she struggled to hold her personal knitting bag, which weighed as a lot as a litre of milk.
The homicide occurred within the hamlet of Suffield, 40 kilometres west of Medication Hat, on the Thanksgiving weekend in 2021.
The final folks to see Alf alive in addition to his spouse have been three fellow Cypress County councillors, who spent the Thursday earlier than Thanksgiving on the golf course along with one other tee time booked for the vacation Monday.
However someday between that Thursday spherical of golf and the vacation Monday, Deborah killed, dismembered and disposed of her husband, based on this week’s ruling in Medication Hat. She would finally draw a map to his physique, leaving the map in her lounge for his or her three daughters.
The Belyeas have been shut with their three grownup daughters, who lived in British Columbia. Weekly Zoom video chats have been supplemented with near-daily telephone calls to and from the ladies.
When Deborah instructed them their father had been lacking for 4 days, they urged her to name police.
RCMP initiated a lacking individual investigation.
Const. Adam George testified that when he met along with her, Deborah had an oxygen tank along with her and “walked gradual and unsteady and appeared fragile.” He mentioned she was emotional and cried throughout her assertion to police.
She instructed police that the Thursday earlier than he disappeared, she and her husband had taken a drive and he or she’d instructed him she wished to go stick with one among her daughters. The officer understood that to imply there was problem within the marriage.
A late evening letter
The morning after that dialog, Deborah instructed the officer she awoke and her husband was gone. She mentioned he’d talked about a plan to take a look at a bit of land with an acquaintance, so she assumed that is the place he’d gone. However Alf by no means returned.
When police started investigating her father’s disappearance, Trina Belyea flew to Alberta to be along with her mom.
Trina arrived on Wednesday, Oct. 13, and famous in her testimony that her mom suffered from despair and had points along with her coronary heart and lungs. The daughter famous her mom was “very upset, emotional and crying.”
Each girls awoke in the midst of the evening. The mom and daughter spent a while collectively in the lounge and Trina fell asleep in a chair.
When she awoke, her mom was writing one thing.
‘Please don’t hate me’
Deborah went again to mattress and her daughter learn the letter.
“I really like you all a lot. You’ve got all turned out to be beautiful, loving women. We’re so proud.
I really like Alf with all my being and I at all times have. I simply wish to be near our women and grandkids. I really like and cherish you and by no means harm you. Please don’t hate me. I wanted to be liked and wished, your dad to carry me, however he by no means did anymore. I’ve days the place I sit right here on my own … and need I used to be with everybody or useless. And now I want I had simply died. I do not bear in mind what occurred however I’ll finally, I’m positive. Simply bear in mind I really like you.
I didn’t imply for this to occur. I do not ever — even know for positive I did something, however I need your dad residence. I really like him. Please assist my — I’m so sorry. I used to be such a burden to your dad. No marvel he did not like me. I do know he loves me simply as a lot as I really like him. I am forgetting and doing silly issues and making his life hell. He would not let me breath. So sorry. Love everybody.
Deborah had included a hand-drawn map, displaying her residence and a location in Piapot, Sask.
Trina referred to as RCMP.
Gadgets from Belyea residence discovered with physique
The following day, officers have been dispatched to observe the route drawn on Deborah’s map.
In Piapot, about 5 minutes off the Trans-Canada Freeway, officers arrived at an deserted farmyard. Investigators discovered a gray rubbish bin that “appeared to have a human physique tightly wrapped in a blue blanket and black plastic rubbish baggage.”
It was Alf. His arms have been lacking and have by no means been recovered.
Alf’s physique had been positioned within the couple’s rubbish bin, which was lacking from their residence.
The lounge space rug was additionally lacking from the household’s residence and was recovered with the physique.
DNA found in Deborah’s trunk
Court docket heard that the investigation finally revealed Alf’s DNA was a match to a blood stain within the trunk of Deborah’s automobile.
The decide heard a toxicology report confirmed Alf had a concoction of sedatives in his system on the time of his dying, together with morphine, codeine, zopiclone and bupivacaine.
Deborah didn’t testify in her personal defence.
Defence lawyer Katherin Beyak argued the letter and map have been a continuation of a dream Deborah had instructed her daughter she’d had.
The Belyeas lived close to Piapot earlier than they moved to Suffield, Beyak instructed the decide.
Beyak took concern with the problem of an absence of homicide weapon and the truth that the time of dying hadn’t been pinpointed.
‘Tight circle’ of proof
Deborah’s bodily limitations have been additionally a spotlight of Beyak’s submissions.
Beyak argued her shopper’s want for an oxygen tank meant “she merely couldn’t do all of the bodily acts required to commit the homicide, reduce off the arms and transport the physique nearly two hours away.”
However prosecutors Cowan and Shantz argued Deborah had unique alternative to homicide Alf, who, the proof confirmed, was killed in his residence whereas carrying pajamas and dragged out the entrance door.
She knew the place his physique was, they identified. And his blood was in her trunk.
Miller dominated the proof, although largely circumstantial, did not depart any area for doubt as to Deborah’s guilt.
“Collectively, this proof creates a good circle and prevents any cheap inference apart from responsible,” mentioned Miller in his determination.
A sentencing listening to will happen in February.
A second-degree homicide conviction comes with a life sentence with no likelihood of parole for 10 to 25 years. It is not but recognized what Crown and defence will look for a parole ineligibility interval.
