Grim seizure
Pills, notes found in home of woman known as the ‘ Internet Black Widow.’
SYDNEY, N. S. — Police seized several bags and bottles of prescription drugs and a handwritten note about the immediate need to get power of attorney from the property of a woman charged in Nova Scotia with the attempted murder of her husband, court documents say.
The reports filed by Cape Breton Regional Police with a judge list the items officers took from the purses and home of Melissa Ann Weeks, a 77- year- old woman dubbed the “Black Widow” for a manslaughter conviction in the death of a previous husband in 1991 and other charges linked to men she has dated.
She is also facing a charge of administering a noxious substance to her husband, 75- year- old Fred Weeks.
Weeks is originally from Montague, P. E. I.
The documents filed with the provincial court in Sydney say police took bottles containing seven different types of prescription tablets, along with several plastic bags with unidentified pills that were found in two purses.
Police say they also took handwritten notes on stationery from the North Star Inn, where a separate search and arrest warrant application says Weeks stayed after her husband was hospitalized on Sept. 29.
“Three pages of handwritten notes on North Star Inn letterhead referencing lawyers, Wills, power of attorney and a reminder to get ’ power of attorney immediately,’ ” reads a line in one report written by the police officer.
Police also seized prescription drugs from Weeks’s home in New Glasgow, the same complex where she had married Fred Weeks just days before he fell ill at a bed and breakfast in North Sydney.
When they checked in on Sept. 28, Weeks told the innkeeper that they had a rough crossing on the ferry from Newfoundland and her husband wasn’t feeling well, says the application for the search and arrest warrant filed with the provincial court.
Her husband, who has been treated and released from hospital, later told his son that the couple had not made it to Newfoundland, the search and arrest warrant says.
The report listing what was found in the search includes the itinerary for a trip to Newfoundland, along with two boarding passes for a ferry to the province dated Sept. 26 and 27. It doesn’t indicate whether the passes had been used.
Weeks appeared briefly in provincial court Friday, where her lawyer was granted an adjournment in the case. Michael Kuna said he needs more time to prepare her release plan, which should be ready when they return to court on Oct. 26 for a bail hearing.
Weeks, who covered her head with a black hood as she was led into the building, spoke only once at the end of the hearing, telling the judge in a quiet voice: “Thank you, your honour.”
Kuna said he was still waiting for some information before he can proceed, but wouldn’t specify what that was.
“It will all come out during the bail hearing,” he said outside court, adding that his client “was holding up quite well. It’s quite stressful.”
It is the third time the bail hearing has been adjourned, but outside court Crown attorney Dan MacRury said it is not unusual for a case to be adjourned this many times.
MacRury said he would oppose her release, citing her previous convictions and the seriousness of the current charges.
“We believe she’s a potential flight risk and we believe if she’s released, there’s a likelihood that she might commit other offences,” he said outside court.
“We believe it is in the public interest to oppose her release.”
Weeks has a criminal record that includes convictions for manslaughter, theft and forgery. She was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her husband, Gordon Stewart, who she had drugged and run over twice with a car in 1991 outside Halifax. She served two years of a six- year sentence for that crime.
Weeks was also sentenced in 2005 to five years in prison on seven counts of theft from Alexander Strategos, a man in Florida she had met online. Investigators said she stole about US$ 20,000 from him.
A warrant used by police to arrest and search her New Glasgow home challenges several claims she made about the health and family of her husband.
In the warrant, a constable with Cape Breton Regional Police says officers were told by witnesses that Weeks said her husband has several medical conditions and had just gotten off a ferry from Newfoundland.
Based on police interviews with hospital staff, the document states that Weeks was taken to hospital in a “weak and confused state” and had no clothing on. It alleges that hospital officials also told Fred Weeks’s son that Melissa Weeks said her husband had no children.
The warrant says Fred Weeks has a son and a daughter.
None of the allegations in the search and arrest warrant have been proven in court.
In the warrant, the constable says police approached Melissa Weeks at the hospital and twice she told them: “I am not talking to you people.”
In another interview with police, Marion Brackly McKay said Melissa Weeks told her that her husband had fallen out of bed at around 4 a. m. on Sept. 29 and she couldn’t find anyone to help her.