National Post (National Edition)
Murder charges laid in deaths of Métis pair
Accused denied bail, hunters shot after fight
man has been denied bail after being charged with second-degree murder in the case of two Métis hunters shot dead in the wake of a fight on the side of a rural northern Alberta road, RCMP say.
Jake Sansom, 39, and Morris Cardinal, 57, were found shot to death Saturday morning on the road north of Glendon, about 225 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. Autopsy results released Wednesday ruled the cause of death for both men as homicide by gunshot.
Mounties on Thursday afternoon said investigators believe two vehicles stopped on the road around 9:30 p.m. Friday, March 27, and the occupants got into a verbal, then physical fight. The driver of a third vehicle then stopped before a man fired a weapon several times, killing Sansom and Cardinal.
The victims’ bodies were discovered on the road outside a parked black 2014 Ram 1500 truck the next morning around 4 a.m.
RCMP say the investigation led them to the accused man, who then turned himself in to the Bonnyville, Alta., RCMP detachment where he was arrested and remanded into custody on Wednesday, following a judicial hearing.
The two victims, who have Métis hunting rights, spent Friday hunting for food after Sansom was laid off from his job as a heavy-duty mechanic because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anthony Michael Bilodeau, of Glendon, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder. He was denied bail after the Wednesday judicial hearing. His next appearance is set for April 9 via videoconference.
Court documents obtained by Postmedia show Bilodeau has been ordered to stay away from two males who have the same last name.
“Justice is being served. My loved ones will have been vindicated from all this. I am still devastated as they have taken them from us,” Ruby Smith, Sansom’s mother and Cardinal’s sister, wrote in a statement.
Sansom’s brother and Cardinal’s nephew, Mike Sansom, said now that an arrest has been made he feels safe to play with his children outside again.
“I feel a (little) better but I still feel torn apart inside,” he wrote about the arrest in a statement. “(B)ut that fear will always be there now (knowing) there’s evil people out there.”