Couple allegedly confined four years
TROIS-RIVIÈRES, QUE. • A couple have been arrested and charged in what police in Trois-rivières are calling a case of manipulation and control that saw another couple apparently held prisoner in the basement of a home for four years while their alleged captors took over their finances.
Guy Boileau, 55, and Marie-jeanne Côté, 54, appeared at the courthouse in Trois-rivières Friday, Boileau on crutches and Côté hiding her face in her hands. They were charged with forcible confinement, extortion, assault and uttering threats against two people. The judge ordered a publication ban on the victims’ names.
The suspects have been released on bail and must abide by a long list of conditions. They can only leave the house to work.
Police said on Friday that the alleged victims — both in their mid-60s — made the acquaintance of Côté in 2010, when all of them lived in the Rimouski area. Police say that at some point Côté “took charge” of the couple.
When Côté moved to the Trois-rivières area, the couple followed, and when Côté decided to move in with Boileau in 2014, they did as well, taking up residence in a basement apartment.
The suspects and alleged victims did not come to the notice of police until November 2017, when an anonymous resident alerted authorities that locks had been installed on the outside of doors leading from the basement, even though it was clear there were people living inside.
Trois-rivières police spokesman Luc Mongrain said Friday that it took a year for the investigation to conclude because of the number of witnesses and difficulties encountered in getting a statement from the alleged victims.
“What you have to understand is, as is the case with conjugal violence, the (victims) were at first hesitant to give us information because they feared reprisals, that their situation would get worse,” he said. “We had to … finally create a link of trust for them to tell us what happened to them.”
He said the couple were not confined around the clock. “At certain times of the week they could leave to do groceries and return. Then they could be confined for two or three days in a row.”
Mongrain said the female victim left the basement in August 2017 because of a fall down a stairway and decided not to return. Her husband remained in the basement until June 2018 when, after an argument with the suspects, he, too, left. Mongrain said the male victim was relieved to hear his captors had been arrested.
At the house, a well-kept single-family, Côté’s daughter said it was awful what was happening, that it was all over the newspapers and television.
“I don’t think they did anything wrong,” said the young woman. “They lived with us for four years and came and went as they pleased.”