On Saturday, April 18, a man the Halifax Examiner refers to as GW, went on a drive with his common-law spouse (CLS).
They “drove the back roads,” CLS said in a statement later given to RCMP Staff Sergeant Greg Vardy.
“They … ended up near a penitentiary that GW said his uncle Glynn had been a prisoner there,” said Vardy, as recounted in a court document signed by RCMP Sgt. Angela Hawryluk.
CLS did not say which penitentiary. But the only federal prison in Nova Scotia for men is the Springhill Institution, about a 50-minute drive from the couple’s house in Portapique. The next closest federal prison for men is in Dorchester, New Brunswick, about an hour and 20 minute drive from Portapique, but one would have to drive at least partly on Highway 104, which is a far cry from a “back road.”
Assuming the pair visited Springhill Institution, it has ominous implications: Sean McLeod, who was a correctional manager at Springhill Institution, and his partner, Alanna Jenkins, a correctional manager at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, were murdered by GW just hours later, at their Hunter Road house.
CLS “said that the McLeods would come for drinks and knew that they had been married and divorced,” reads the court document. “She thought that GW got the handcuffs and corrections uniform from him. She said that GW seemed to like them both and there were never any arguments.”
GW and CLS then “drove through Debert and were in the area of the Diefenbunker. GW commented on a building that had asbestos that he could have purchased for $70,000.”
As described, this appears to have been the welding shop at 123 Ventura Drive. That night, after he murdered 13 people in Portapique, GW drove to the very same spot, hiding in his replica RCMP cruiser behind the building.
GW left his hiding spot at 5:43 the next morning, and seems to have driven directly to the McLeods’ Hunter Road house — although, it’s possible he went somewhere else first. According to Google Maps the quickest, most direct route from 123 Ventura Road to the McLeods’ house, along Highway 4, would take 37 minutes, going the speed limit. We know that at 6:29am he sped by a home on Hunter Road, still some distance from the McLeods’ house. So there appears to be somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes unaccounted for.
Returning to CLS’s description of her drive with GW, “They drove to a building where planes were and saw some people there and GW commented that they were not properly social distancing,” continues the document.
I contacted someone who works at the airport, and they told me they had never crossed paths with GW.
“Asked about GW’s connection to Debert, she (CLS) stated that he (GW) liked to go there with [redacted] and had been to the Diefenbunker together,” continues the account.
The Diefenbunker, the welding shop, and the airport buildings are all in the same industrial area south of Plains Road.
Next: “They stopped at a denturist’s residence and GW was talking about dentures and covid. She (CLS) told GW that she wanted to leave and they did.”
It’s not clear who this denturist was. From context, it’s evident that it was not Gina Goulet, who GW killed the next day at her Shubenacadie area home.
We know that because CLS described her and GW’s relationship with Goulet:
CLS said that Gina Goulet was a denturist and that she and [redacted] had connected at one point. She said that GW did not like Gina at first but seemed to like her after because she and Gina were friends;
CLS said that she wondered how GW knew where Gina lived and that GW had pointed out Gina’s house when the drove around on Saturday (April 18, 2020).
Much of CLS’s account is redacted, including what appears to be a description of other places they drove to that day.
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