Dementia sufferer accused of murdering his wife dies
The Calgary man accused of murdering his wife while in the throes of dementia has died.
Defence lawyer Alain Hepner confirmed Wednesday that Fred van Zuiden died Sunday night at a secure-care facility in Camrose.
Hepner said a service was scheduled for noon Wednesday at the Calgary Jewish Funeral Chapel.
He said the cause of death was listed as pneumonia.
“That’s what was relayed to me,” Hepner said Wednesday morning, as he prepared to attend the service.
“He was in a Camrose facility awaiting transfer to a Calgary facility,” Hepner said.
He said both facilities were secure “because the dementia was so advanced.”
Hepner said he spoke to Crown prosecutor Ken McCaffrey, whom he expects to withdraw the murder charge that remains outstanding against Van Zuiden.
“Crown counsel will be bringing the file into court for an application, hopefully this week,” he said.
He said McCaffrey initially indicated he would stay the charge, but Hepner asked that it be withdrawn instead because of issues relating to van Zuiden’s estate.
“It would delay things,” he said of a stay, which technically would allow the Crown to reinstate the charge within a year.
“It would delay probate.” He said despite van Zuiden’s age and mental condition, family members who he spoke to took his death hard.
“The family’s very saddened by Uncle Fred having passed,” he said.
But he said due to van Zuiden’s ailing heath, the death was not unexpected.
“Dementia was only part of it, there were other physical ailments,” Hepner said.
Van Zuiden, 87, was charged with second-degree murder in the Oct. 4, 2016, death of his wife, Audrey, 80, who was found dead in the couple’s Rideau Place S.W. home.
In January 2017, he was found unfit to stand trial because of his advanced dementia.
Psychiatrist Dr. Ken Hashman told court that van Zuiden’s dementia had worsened significantly in the months following his wife’s death.
Hashman said the octogenarian, who penned a book on his experiences hiding from the Gestapo in his native Netherlands, thought corrections staff and others were his Second World War foes.
In October 2017, an Alberta Review Board panel said van Zuiden could be moved from a psychiatric hospital to a secure residential setting.
Hepner said van Zuiden had been housed in Camrose while a secure facility in Calgary was found, and was to be moved here shortly.