Man admits 5 fatal stabbings
Calgary assailant believed he was slaying Medusas and werewolves, court hears
CALGARY — Friends and family sobbed and gasped with horror Monday as they heard graphic details about how five young people at a house party were slain by a man who believed he was killing Medusas and werewolves for the son of God.
Matthew de Grood, 24, admitted in an agreed statement of facts read at the start of his firstdegree murder trial that he stabbed his victims. But court heard he told police he didn’t take pleasure in it.
“I stabbed people in the house,” the statement quotes de Grood as telling officers.
“I just want to say that when I stabbed them, I tried to do it mercifully. I aimed for their heart. They put up a struggle, which made it hard, but, so you know, it wasn’t sadistic or anything,” he said.
“I didn’t enjoy killing at all. I said sorry, but the son of God was controlling me.”
De Grood’s lawyer, Allan Fay, pleaded not guilty on his client’s behalf. Fay told reporters he plans to argue his client was not criminally responsible for the killings.
The stabbings, in what police have called Calgary’s worst mass killing, happened at a party being held to mark the end of the university school year in April 2014.
Killed were Kaitlin Perras, 23; Lawrence Hong, 27; Josh Hunter, 23; Zackariah Rathwell, 21; and Jordan Segura, 22. Hunter, Hong and Segura all attended the University of Calgary. Perras studied at Mount Royal University and Rathwell was a student at the Alberta College of Art and Design.
Prosecutor Neil Wiberg spent more than an hour reading out the agreed statement of facts that contained details from de Grood’s interview with police. The judge also lifted a publication ban on material submitted by police to obtain search warrants.
The unsealed documents detailed how de Grood, the son of a high-ranking Calgary police officer, was “a good boy, kind and compassionate” until his personality began to change about a month before the stabbings.
He began spending time alone and became quiet and withdrawn. He added a number of unusual posts on Facebook, including quotes from Megadeth lyrics, quotes from the Bible and ramblings on reincarnation.
A childhood friend invited de Grood to the party. De Grood had just finished a shift at Safeway and wore his uniform. The friend noted how de Grood was acting strange. He made a number of odd rambling statements, including: “Obama was the Antichrist.”
The agreed facts said de Grood handed his friend a clove of garlic, stating that “he may need it.” He also passed him a knife similar to a bread knife with a serrated blade.
Once at the party, de Grood put on a pair of blue latex gloves.
De Grood told police that he felt he had to attack Rathwell, a budding young musician, before Rathwell attacked him. He told police the two had a disagreement over Buddhism.
De Grood grabbed a chef’s knife with a 21-centimetre blade from a knife block in the kitchen.
“I asked him to give me my space. We were walking toward the knife block, so I decided to shoot first because I didn’t know what he was going to do, so I stabbed him,” de Grood is quoted in the unsealed documents as telling officers.
“Then the people on the couch saw and obviously started freaking out, so I killed them from left to right as quickly as I could. The girl ran into the corner, so I went and stabbed her. I said I’m sorry I have to do this. Then the guy from the kitchen wasn’t dead. I had to hunt him down. Then I just left.”
De Grood’s friend and some others had gone out to get something to eat and came back to chaos.
“He heard screams from a female believed to be Katie. This was followed by Josh running out of the house with de Grood chasing him,” read the court documents.
Police received a series of 911 calls beginning at 1:22 a.m.
De Grood was arrested and taken into custody a short time later and interviewed by police.
“What I did may seem atrocious but I was killing Medusas, werewolves,” he told the officers.
He has been undergoing treatment at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre since his arrest.
The victims’ families made a statement on the courthouse steps before the start of the trial in which they urged people to focus on their loved ones. De Grood’s parents, Douglas and Susan de Grood, were also in court and sat in the front row.
“The priority for us during this trial is to ensure that our loved ones will be given the full and just attention that they deserve,” read Greg Perras, Kaitlin’s father. “All we ask is that you remember how they lived — with purpose, with life, with goodness and love for their friends and family.”
The statement said the last two years have been extremely difficult for the families.