Front Burner - A disappearance at ‘The Pit’

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

Nearly six years after her disappearance, Sheree Fertuck’s husband is on trial for murder in Saskatoon. Today, Front Burner explores the controversial undercover police sting operation at the heart of the case.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. I think we've just been trying to live our lives as normally as we can. Of course, today is going to bring back a lot of memories of Sherry. As Tika White speaks outside the trial of the man accused in her sister's murder, she's strong, she's to the point. But you can also hear nearly six years of emotion behind

her voice. Because that's how long it's been since Sherry Furtug disappeared in Saskatchewan. And that's how long her family's awaited answers from a twisting and contentious investigation. I think that's all that we want is the truth. And hopefully the evidence is going to get us that. The trial for Sherry's husband Greg Furtack began Tuesday in Saskatoon and at the heart of it Greg's controversial confession obtained with an operation known as a Mr. Big Sting. For months, undercover police posed as criminals and played out dozens of scenarios to win Greg's trust. So whether what Greg told them can be used in the trial is now up to a judge. And Greg told my colleague Alicia Bridges in jail that he faked the confession because he was intimidated.

I made it up. And we went out supposedly looking for the body. Well, there was no body. So we just drove around to these different places because it was all BS. Alicia has been investigating every twist and turn in this wild case since 2018. And she tells a story in the very excellent CBC podcast, The Pit. She's here to explain how a disappearance that once looked like a cold case could end up an important decision for police tactics in Canada. Hi, Alicia. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hi, Jamie. So when Sherry Furtuck disappeared, where's the last place she was thought to be and what was left behind there?

So the last time she was seen was at her family farm, the farm where she grew up. Sherry lived in Saskatoon, but that farm was in a rural area near a town called Keniston. And she would visit that farm every day to have lunch with her mum, Julianne, because it was quite close to the gravel pit where she worked. So Sherry was a gravel hauler. She would drive gravel from this pit from point A to point B. So she had lunch with her mum and then she drove back to that pit to do her job. But later that night, she missed an appointment. She didn't answer or return calls that evening. And the next morning, the family went to look for her and they found her abandoned semi-truck with her coat keys and cell phone inside.

How do people describe Sherry? We heard over and over that Sherry was a strong woman. People like her cousin, Alan Kirpin, like her friend, Florence Greek, they all described her the same way, that she had this really strong work ethic. Sherry was a lady living in a man's world, I think. Like she did non-traditional type woman's work. She ran a gravel business after her dad Michael passed away. We did business with Sherry in the gravel business and her dad before that. So you get to know them and trust them. When we go out and have a good time, we were always laughing. She was always involved in what we were doing. Just a

very nice person. We used to arm wrestle. She would win three quarters of the time, but the jobs that she did and stuff like that, she was quite muscular and stuff like that. So she was very strong. She grew up hauling gravel with her dad at that farm. She later took over the family business with her brother. And then in the winter, she was a stay-at-home mom. So she was very dedicated to her family, including her three children. Her friends said that she was so excited about the birth of her first grandchild, which was not too long before she disappeared. She loved the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. She loved music.

Her favorite karaoke song was When Will I Be Loved by Linda Ronstadt. It's a good one i know i know you spoke to sherry's mother early on in the investigation and what did she think happened? Well, we first spoke to Julianne in early 2018. So we sat at the kitchen table where she had had lunch with Sherry that day that she disappeared. And she told us that she hoped that Sherry was still alive, but she had come to terms with the possibility that she perhaps might not be. She that day raised suspicions about Sherry's estranged husband, Greg Furtuck. She said that Sherry had told her that if anything happens to me,

like do this or that, she said, to look after her dog. And she told Julianne that Greg had come at her with a knife in the past. Stuff like that. She'd tell me about those incidents, but, you know, what goes on behind closed doors, you often don't hear about it. So there was probably a lot more than what she told me. And I don't even know if I should have this recorded,

but I'm kind of careful with what I say because, I don't know, he could come out here someday and kick the door in. Wow. Okay. And I want to be clear here, you know, nothing that we're talking about here is proof of Greg's guilt in her murder. But as you start getting court documents, as you start diving into this case, what do you learn about the relationship? as you start diving into this case? What do you learn about the relationship? So there were two incidents that we learned of Greg being violent towards Sherry. The first was in November of 2010.

Greg pleaded guilty at the time to uttering a death threat against Sherry. They had had an argument prior to that. Sherry went to the police station in Saskatoon. She said that Greg had went to the police station in saskatoon she said that greg had threatened to kill her apparently you know she had taken his handgun and he wanted the gun back and when sherry wouldn't give it back he told her well there's another gun i'm going to get it and put a bullet between your eyes and he pleaded guilty to that charge so in 2012 a couple years

later greg grabbed sherry by the head and neck and dragged her out of a room during an argument. The police were called. They found prohibited weapons, including a gun called an Uzi. Greg was charged with assault, possession of a prohibited weapon. And again, he pleaded guilty. And after he pled guilty in both of these incidents, what happened? Essentially, like, how did the courts handle them? Yeah, so for the first incident, he went through a domestic violence counseling program.

Because he had pleaded guilty and he agreed to do that counseling program, he got what's called an absolute discharge. So even though he pleaded guilty, there was no conviction on his record. And then when it came to sentencing for the second incident, the Crown tried to argue that Greg should spend a year behind bars and get a lifetime ban on owning any guns. But because he had that absolute discharge for the previous incident with the death threat, his lawyer was able to successfully argue that he shouldn't receive a jail sentence this time around because he had no prior convictions. So in the end, he got a six-month conditional sentence,

so he was allowed to serve that in the community as long as he followed some conditions ordered by the court. Okay, so in June 2019, police arrest Greg, and he's charged with one count of first-degree murder and causing indignity to a body. But shortly after, and I want to stress how unusual this is, you do get to interview Greg in jail. And what does he say to you about how he felt about Sherry? Well, he tells us that he loved Sherry

and that he would never have harmed her or hurt her. And he actually repeats that sort of as a line many times throughout the interview, that he loved her and he would never have hurt her. Because I didn't do it, you know. I feel a little depressed because I said I still love my wife and I wouldn't do anything to hurt her. When we ask him about the assault charge, he says he doesn't remember much about it,

but he says that Sherry, in his recollection, Sherry came at him first. I never ever assaulted Sherry. I remember one time she come at me and I just pushed her back. I never threatened her. I did push her back. I thought it was just self-defense. Okay. And I guess I think it gets a little bit messy here, right?

So what does Greg have to say about how the police investigated him? Yeah, so we learned through this interview that he was arrested as a result of a really lengthy and complicated undercover police operation. And that's called a Mr. Big Sting. So a Mr. Big Sting is when police poses criminals, they pretend to be in this fictitious criminal organization, and then they befriend the target and welcome them into that group, which is sort of an organized crime or appears to be an organized crime group, something like the mob in the movies. This happens over a period of months. They will often fly their suspect all over the country

to participate in these fake crimes so that the suspect will feel that it's real. And the goal is to build trust and in the end, get a confession in a final meeting with Mr. Big, who is the boss of this fake crime group. During the podcast, we spoke to a defense lawyer, Brian Pfeffeli. And Mr. Big will usually try to say, I can cover this crime up for you, but you need to give me the details. We need to be able to eliminate the evidence. So where could your DNA have been? And we'll make sure we can deal with it. He ran through some of the reasons this method is controversial.

He's actually worked on Mr. Big cases himself as a defense lawyer. And there are instances of it historically leading to false confessions. So some of the criticism is that it can target vulnerable people, people with addictions or with financial problems. It's also been argued that Mr. Big himself, this character, the mob boss, can be intimidating and that it is a high pressure situation to put the target in. So in order to make a voluntary confession and have it admitted in court, it needs to be made of your free will as a person. And that's been defined by our court system as saying there haven't been any threats or promises made to you and there haven't been any oppressive

circumstances. The problem with Mr. Biggs at their core is that they're based on exactly those things. And so what do we know, if anything, about how this played out in relation to Greg's case? Yeah, so we don't know all the details yet. He says that he confessed to the undercover police um according to the police he told them that he shot cherry at the gravel pit uh shot her twice and killed her that he wrapped her body in a tarp and used a payloader that was already at the pit um to load her into his truck and then dumped her body in the bush um somewhere in the area uh between saskatoon and the gravel pit in Akeniston. He now says that he only did that because he was afraid

of the undercover police, that he was intimidated. When he did take the undercover cops to this bush location where he said he dumped her, they didn't actually find anything. Well, I had to take them somewhere, you know. But there was no body to find because i made it up we drove around the country road went through some bushes and and like how did you explain that there was no body did you just have to say make up an excuse or well i says i can't remember everything you know that was it and he says part of the reason he confessed was because there was this character

that he knew as someone called a clean-up guy who would clean up after violent crimes. So he said that, you know, that person, it made him think that he was the only person who was there to clean up, so he needed to say what the undercover police wanted him to. He said I cost him a bunch of money because the cops were looking

into me. I didn't know what he was talking about, but then I seen there the cleanup guy. So that's when I started. I got worried for my safety. Okay, so now Greg's trial, I know it was originally set for March of this year, but literally three days before the trial starts, it gets delayed because of COVID and Greg has to wait another six months in jail. Also at this time, I know one of our colleagues gets to speak with a guy who's surprisingly asked for this delay. That's Greg's lawyer and he's an interesting character himself. So what can you tell me about him? His name is Morris Bodnar. He's been a lawyer for almost 50 years and he has a pretty colourful history in Saskatchewan. He told us that he's worked on between 50 and 100 homicide cases. He's defended the Hell's Angels. He's worked on major drug cases. But before that, he was a member

of parliament for the Liberals in the 90s. Now he's 72 years old and he says that this is his last case, his last big case that he's ever going to do. Okay. What does Bodnar have to say about whether he trusts Greg, his own client? Yeah, I mean, he says that Greg lies, that he is an unpleasant person when he drinks. I don't trust and believe him.

If Greg told me that it's sunny outside today, I would go to the window and check it myself because there are so many examples in the disclosure that he's untruthful. And his kids even say that Dad lies. But he says that that just doesn't mean that Greg killed anyone and that people should remember that. Just because he's a person that's not a nice person, that may be obnoxious, may be violent at times, etc. Doesn't mean he killed anyone. And unfortunately, I think that's the attempt by the Crown is to show, well, he's such a bad apple.

Therefore, he must be guilty of getting rid of her. Okay. I understand, too, Greg has talked about memory loss as well. Can you tell me about that? Yeah. So when we met Greg in jail, when we interviewed him there, he told us that he had had a fall during the Mr. Big Sting. he told us that he had had a fall during the Mr. Big Sting. So when the sting was still in action and in motion, Greg fell.

He fell on the steps on the ice and he had a serious injury and he ended up in hospital. And he tells us that he now has memory loss as a result of that fall and that the undercover police came to him after that fall and came to see him in hospital and showed him photographs of them together prior to the fall to show that they knew each other because he said he had this memory loss. And we now know that the police have actually had to redo some of their Mr. Big scenarios because of that memory loss. And they were actually the ones who called the ambulance to, you know, despite Greg's protests, they called the ambulance when he was unwell and had him taken to hospital. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection.

Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know

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cell phone pinged a tower near the gravel pit on the afternoon that Sherry disappeared. It says it has surveillance tape that shows Greg washing his vehicle at a car wash later that afternoon. The Crown says there is a spot of blood on Greg's truck that matches the DNA profile taken from Sherry's razor. profile taken from sherry's razor and the crown they'll also present uh bullet casings from uh they're spent bullet casings from a 22 caliber rifle that they say was found at the gravel pit by police a few months after sherry's disappearance but not in the initial search so greg said in the confession that he now denies obviously that he used a Ruger 10-22 rifle to kill Sherry, then got rid of the gun. So police say that when they searched Greg's home, they found 22 ammunition, a cartridge, and a magazine, but no gun. Okay. And I just want to be clear about one thing here. Sherry's body

has never been found, right? No. And that's despite multiple searches. So, you know, given how controversial the Mr. Big Sting is, what do we know about how the judge will decide whether to accept this confession as evidence or not in this trial? Well, the judge first has to decide if the confession is even admissible. So Mr. Big confessions aren't automatically admissible in the courts. The onus is on the Crown to convince the judge that it should be allowed as evidence. So they have to show the judge that the value of that confession as an investigative tool outweighs any kind of prejudicial effect on the outcome. And any claims of sort of abusive process or anything like that would have to come from the defense. So in this trial, all that evidence will be considered by the judge as part

of voir dire. And that's sort of a trial within a trial for the judge to decide if it should be allowed in the first place. And that's underway now. Okay. And worth noting here, this is not a jury trial. This is a judge alone trial. know uh uh one of sherry and greg's daughters took the stand this past week and what did she have to say yeah uh lana furtuk she was 17 at the time of her mom's disappearance and she testified on the second day of the trial so she said that she and her siblings had suspicions that Greg had done something to Sherry. Lana was actually with her grandma, Julianne, when she first went to the pit that morning after Sherry didn't come home. And when she called her dad, when she called

Greg Furtuck after Sherry had gone missing to let him know, she said that he seemed unconcerned and that he told her, if you ever find her, let me know, were the words know she said that he seemed unconcerned and that he told her if you ever find her let me know were the words that she said and i just want to talk a little bit about the defense here is the defense pointing to anybody else who could have possibly had a motive for the murder yeah so the defense is hinting at tension between Sherry and her competitors in the gravel hauling industry. So Morris Bodner, that's Greg's lawyer that we talked about earlier, told the court that there was another gravel hauler in the area who lost out to Sherry on what he said was a $2 million gravel hauling contract. But an employee of the company

responsible for that contract actually explained it's a little bit more complicated than that. Another gravel hauler initially won that contract, but the company suspected that person of shorting them. So he was fired and then Sherry took over the contract, which we're told would have totaled around 1.5 million. So the theory of the gravel competitors, the defense has been hinting at it so far a few times in the trial. Okay. You know, I imagine this trial has been an incredibly long wait for both Greg's family and for Sherry's and for their children. And it's expected to last, I think, eight weeks, right? And so what do the people who love Sherry say they're hoping for here?

Well, the biggest thing they're hoping for is to find Sherry. There's nothing to suggest that this trial will actually lead to new information about where she is. But they're really holding out hope that somehow this trial would lead to that. It's been incredibly emotional for them to go through all of this. It's kind of hard to fathom how difficult it must be for everyone involved. I mean, Sherry's sister, specifically, Tika White, she said that, you know, at the same time that she's relieved it's happening, she just can't wait for it to be over. But what she really wants is, she just wants the truth. She wants to know what really

happened and she wants justice for Sherry. The next few weeks are going to be tough. So I guess we're just going to have to take it day by day. And the evidence that comes out every day is, we'll have to just take it in stride. Just hope that justice is served. And coming back to these Mr. Big tactics, what do you think the outcome, if anything, of this trial might mean for Mr. Big confessions in future cases? I think every time one of these cases goes through the courts, there's potential for a new precedence to be set.

So, you know, future trial judges will consider how this evidence was handled when making their decisions. I think what makes this trial appear unusual to me is the issue of the memory loss and police having to sort of redo some of those scenarios. They have to show through those scenarios that they ran the operation without exploiting the target and also within the parameters of the rules. So how they did that and how that fits in with having to sort of redo that, I think will be an interesting aspect here. And also the fact that there is no body in this case. So if for some reason this evidence wasn't considered admissible, I think that could have significant

consequences for how Mr. Big Stings are run in the future. Okay. Alicia, thank you very much for this. Thank you. Thanks, Jamie. All right, that is all for today. Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner, and we'll talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.