QUEBEC – The maternal grandmother of two young Quebec girls killed by their father in July 2020 says he seemed agitated and nervous in the lead up to the murders.
Gaétane Tremblay testified today at a coroner’s inquest investigating the deaths of 11-year-old Norah and six-year-old Romy, who were murdered by Martin Carpentier in the woods near St-Apollinaire, Que., southwest of Quebec City, before he killed himself.
Tremblay says Carpentier had told her he did not want to go through with his plan to divorce the girls’ mother or move from his home next door to Tremblay.
She says Carpentier often talked of money problems and about losing access to the children – even though he was repeatedly told by friends and family that those concerns were unfounded.
Tremblay says Carpentier told her in May 2020 he didn’t like seeing his kids being cared for by the boyfriend of his wife, Amélie Lemieux, from whom he had separated in 2015.
She says on the day the girls’ disappeared, Carpentier told her he was going to take his daughters out for ice cream but never returned.
The search for the girls and their father turned into a multi-day police manhunt that gripped the province. Since the killings, questions have arisen about the quality of the police investigation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2023.
