Victim’s ex says he’s saddened by senseless act
The former boyfriend of Hawkesbury homicide victim Marielle Portelance said he had talked to her only a week before her body was discovered, wrapped in a tarp, in a wooded area.
“She was OK at that point,” Patrick Labre said. “She was taking care of herself.”
Labre and Portelance, who had an eight-year-old son together, had known each other for about nine years, he said.
Labre said he is saddened by what he called a senseless act.
Marie-Josée Castilloux, 39, and Mario Lalonde, 32, have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the 30-year-old.
Her body was discovered on July 29 in an isolated area of Grenvillesur-la-Rouge, across the Ottawa River from her home about 110 kilometres east of Ottawa.
Portelance’s death was initially treated as suspicious and then ruled a homicide following an autopsy.
“I was surprised,” Labre said. “It’s sad because nobody deserves to die that way.”
The boy has been in Labre’s full custody for four years and was with him when his mother’s body was discovered, Labre said.
“He was sad. The boy was very attached to his mother. He was saying, ‘Where is my mom?’ ” Labre said. “It’s very hard for a kid to understand what’s going on.
“We’re saying (to him), ‘It is an accident’ right now. We don’t want him to know how she was killed — that would be very traumatizing for him.”
Portelance also left behind a mother, Labre said.
“It’s been very hard for (the mother); it’s been very hard for her sister, her uncle and her whole family.”
Labre, also a Hawkesbury resident, said he did not know the accused or of any previous connection between them and Portelance.
“There’s not one day that I’m not wondering what happened that night.”