Triple homicide is family tragedy

Suspect related to female victims

Michel Grenier said he knew Denise Hallé for more than 30 years.

“She started going out with my best friend, and they were married for 34 years, so we were close,” said Grenier, 53, who lived a few doors away.

Hallé and her cousin Jeanette Lauzon-Toupin were among three people who were killed Wednesday night in Shawinigan, about 120 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Hallé’s brother-in-law, Sylvain Duquette, 51, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder at the Shawinigan courthouse Thursday morning, plus one count of attempted murder using a firearm. He was also charged with setting a criminal fire, and sequestering a person against her will. His next court date is Thursday, April 13.

Duquette looked calm as the charges against him were read in court late Thursday afternoon.

Grenier awoke around midnight when the Lac-Marchand St. home that is a few doors away from his caught fire. On Thursday, there were black burn marks on the roof, over the door and the windows of the house where Hallé lived. Many of the windows had been broken.

“My dog was barking and I saw a fire truck and smoke coming out of the top of the house,” Grenier said. “I walked over and asked them what happened to Denise, but they wouldn’t answer me.”

Duquette’s stepmother, Jocelyne Pellerin, 70, was killed in her home nearby on Ernest-Blais St. in St-Mathieu-du-Parc, just west of Shawinigan. Radio-Canada reported she was tied up before being shot, in front of Duquette’s father, Claude Duquette, 80. Claude Duquette was apparently sprayed with gasoline, but managed to escape and run to a neighbour’s house for help. It was the neighbour who called 911. The house on Ernest-Blais St. was difficult to see behind police tape, but investigators were sifting through the scene Thursday morning against a backdrop of assorted Christmas decorations affixed to the front of the house.

Claude Duquette was transported to a hospital and is in stable condition, SQ spokesperson Christine Coulombe said.

Sylvain Duquette was ordered by the court not to communicate with his father, at the request of Crown Prosecutor Vicky Belleville.

Duquette was arrested at a gas station in the northern sector of Shawinigan minutes after the incidents occurred. Witnesses at the scene reported the man had gasoline canisters beside his car when he was arrested.

Duquette had been living in the Lac-Marchand house since October. He had been unemployed for several years, separated from his wife and was having trouble making ends meet, according to Grenier.

About a month after Duquette started staying with Hallé, her husband Jocelyn Duquette, who was Sylvain’s brother, died after a very short battle with cancer at age 52.

Sylvain Duquette took the news very badly, Grenier said.

“He was very emotional about it,” Grenier said.

While he had been staying with Hallé since the fall, Grenier said he had been told to find another place to stay by April 1.

In a Facebook post from March 30, Duquette expressed frustration about life in general, and his difficulty finding a job. He also expressed anger that he was being asked to leave Hallé’s house, saying she was going against the wishes of his dead brother who said he could stay with them until the end of June.

“My dad came by today,” he wrote. “He didn’t even look at me or offer me $5 to help, knowing full well that tomorrow they were going to throw me onto the street like dirt.”