Uncover - S23 E4: The north 40 | "The Pit"

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

Police announce a major breakthrough in Sheree's case. They've put someone behind bars. A former roommate of the suspect remembers a troubling conversation about Sheree, and the family of the accused protest his innocence. For more, including a 360 video experience of the gravel pit, visit cbc.ca/thepit

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. While working on this story, we've been keeping in touch with the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Matter Police. Their historical case unit is in charge of the investigation into Sherry Furtuck's death. Their historical case unit is in charge of the investigation into Sherry Furtuck's death. And early on, police tell us, pretty emphatically, that this is not a cold case. It's active. That usually means no interviews with law enforcement.

But we're in luck. The lead investigator agrees to speak with us on the record. It's nearing the end of June 2019. But as we start preparing for the interview that's scheduled for the next day, a few things happen. On Monday, June 24th, we get a cryptic comment from someone at the courthouse. It's about Sherry's estranged husband, Greg Furtuck. Then, the lead investigator postpones our interview. We're about to get some big news. Holy shit. That's so crazy, Victoria. That's pretty nuts.

Holy shit. I'm Alicia Bridges, and this is Episode 4 of The Pit. It's the evening of Monday, June 24th. So it is about 7pm and Alicia is on her way to pick me up from my house. That's Victoria Dinh. We've been working on this story together for the past year. We've been working on this story together for the past year. We just got a note from the RCMP saying that they're going to be postponing our interview with them. So we're just going to do a drive by Greg's house to see if anything's up. All right. I don't really know what we're going to see, but I think maybe we would be able to see if the police are sort of hanging around or keeping an eye on the place.

I am so nervous. How are you feeling? Yeah. I'm pretty nervous too. I actually always feel nervous. Like, I mean, we've only driven past there once, but last time we did, I felt nervous as well. It's just because it feels a little bit weird to be going and looking. But I think it's just we need to see if something's happening there right now. Okay, so we're just about a block away across the park from Greg's house. Doesn't look like much activity is going around here.

Or going on around here, rather. Just the regular family. Family's out for a walk. Some kids riding their bikes. Yeah, everything looks pretty normal. I think all we really thought we might see is maybe a police officer sitting in their car. That's what I was thinking too. on the other side of the park. Or if it was a full arrest and something was happening,

then maybe we would see. We go home. For now, we've done everything we can. The next morning, we go to the provincial courthouse. A cluster of people crowd around a list of names. It's posted on a corkboard just past the metal detector. They're figuring out which courtroom to go to. It's nine o'clock.

That's usually when people who have been arrested make their first appearance. And based on what we've heard, we have a feeling Greg Fertak might be there. But his name isn't on the list of new arrests. We stop for a coffee on the way back to the newsroom, and that's when it happens. Our phones start blowing up with messages. The RCMP have sent out a mass email, and it's about Shiri Furtuck. The RCMP say they're holding a news conference to update the public and the media about the investigation. It's happening at 11 a.m., just a couple of hours away.

And it's taking place in Regina, a city that's a two-hour drive away. So we won't get there in time. Instead, we plan to meet the lead investigator in Saskatoon at the same time. We have time, so we drive past Greg's house. Maybe something there will give us a clue of what the police are about to tell us. When we arrive, Greg's truck is out front. There's not much activity.

Then, a white van pulls up across the street from the house. So someone just got out of a van. Oh yeah, that's the police. Oh, it's definitely the police. A black SUV parks in the driveway. Two more cars arrive. So right now we're just parked across the park from Greg's house. And there are a few officers. There's one in uniform

that's like headed towards his garage. They're taking pictures of his house. Let's drive past again. Holy shit! That's so crazy Victoria. That's pretty nuts. This is big. In the eyes of the public, Sherry Furtuck's case is cold. For years, the police have been pretty silent. But now, something is happening. It's time to meet the lead investigator.

Sherry was first reported missing in December 2015. While we wait in the lobby of the RCMP building, we watch a live stream of the news conference on our phones. Major crime investigators were involved shortly after her disappearance. In April 2016, investigators made a determination that Sherry was the victim of homicide. The investigation has continued, and today we're able to announce an arrest. Last night, at approximately 6.30 p.m., investigators from our major crime and historical case units made an arrest in relation to the homicide of Sherry Furtuck. Greg Furtuck was arrested without incident on the outskirts of Saskatoon

and has been charged with one count each of first-degree murder contrary to section 235 of the criminal code and indignity to human remains contrary to 182B of the criminal code. So it's what we thought. When it's over, the door opens. It's the lead investigator, and she looks exhausted. She's wearing an oversized hoodie, and her hair is pulled back. Her eyes look tired. Her boss is with her. She's been working hard on this case.

She knew Sherry's mom well, so this means a lot to her. We figure they can't tell us much more than what was said at the news conference. And we're right. They apologize for postponing our interview. Things have changed now. And since an arrest had been made and charges had been laid, the lead investigator can no longer be interviewed. We head back to the office to regroup. The next morning is Wednesday, June 26th. Greg is scheduled to appear in court for the first time at 9 o'clock. There's a small group of reporters waiting in the hallway at the provincial courthouse.

In just a few moments, we'll see Greg in person for the first time. We've all filed in, and shortly after the judge arrives, she calls on Greg. He steps out from behind a door and into a small prisoner's box in the corner of the room. It's surrounded by glass. It's strange to see him here. We've heard people talk about Greg. We've seen the selfies he's posted to his Facebook page and old photos of him with Sherry. But now here he is in the flesh. He's wearing a khaki button-down shirt. His grey hair is a little overgrown, unkempt, and he has a scruffy goatee. His hands are folded neatly in front of

him. Behind a pair of glasses, his eyes follow his lawyer as he speaks. The lawyer is Morris Bodnar. He represented Greg on his previous charges back in 2010 and 2011. Greg waves at an older woman and a man who arrive a few minutes in. They sit in the two open seats closest to the front. It's Greg's mum and his brother, Elmer and Reg Furtuck. Not much happens in court. It's not time for Greg to enter a plea yet. He's scheduled to be back in a little over three weeks. As everyone leaves, we catch up with Elmer and Reg outside. No, we've got nothing to say about this.

No, nothing at all. He's innocent. The police were drinking and driving with him. Trying to coerce him into saying stuff. The police? Undercover police! They say undercover cops befriended Greg during their investigation. What they're describing sounds like a Mr Big Sting.

It's a technique where undercover police pose as criminals to try to draw out a confession. Police coercing him into saying, saying things that he's drinking. And you know, we come from a family that talks foolish. You know what guys are like when they're drinking in the bars? I'll kill you or say this or that. You know, guys talk stupid and silly. Half my friends talk like that. Do you want me to kill you or something?

Well, whatever they heard on tape or whatever they got on tape, it's all bogus. Yeah, they're saying that he murdered her. No, no, no. He didn't. No, no. Greg didn't murder her. They're saying that on the news. The police are saying that he murdered her. Greg didn't murder her. They're saying that on the news. The police are saying that he murdered her.

Elma and Reg are shaken. They say Greg didn't do it. That the police are making the evidence fit their narrative. They say he was in love with Sherry. When she went missing, he went on antidepressant pills and he almost lost it because his wife was gone. And it was almost more than he could handle because she was gone. And now the cops are trying to put this on him that he's trying. Coming to his place and drinking with him and partying with him and driving with him.

How are you guys feeling right now, Alma? Like, how are you feeling about all of this? I'm really upset. What about you, Reg? How are you feeling? Well, it's bothering a person. Like, he loved his wife very much. And even though they were separated, he used to go out to their their parents' farm and gravel with them truck drive gravel with their graveling company and everything

and he'd stay in their house with them and he's always go over to her house to barbecue for her and the kids and they're always there for them and now they're trying to say that he again did he did Greg ever tell you where he was that day did he ever explain to you he was in town he was in town with, he took this woman to the... Oh, his girlfriend. His girlfriend to... When this was supposed to have taken place. To the hospital. Yeah. He wasn't there at all.

Is there anyone who saw him? Anyone who could say that they saw him that day to say where he was? So that they know he was there? His girlfriend was with him. I'm pretty sure it was his girlfriend that was with him. Yeah, she was with him all night. Was she with him all day, do you know? We think so, but we don't know for certain.

She was on a car. She said she couldn't take him. The girlfriend he is talking about is Doris LeBrock. We tried to contact her, but she didn't want to be interviewed. But wherever his wife is or went or where she was walking she's really good physical condition whether she banged her head on that truck because we talked with it with some people that knew her and from the graveling company and what whether she banged her head and just went walking and didn't stop walking out of the vicinity of where the police checked if she just fell down.

Whether she just fell down and just laying there by the graveling pit. Well, she kept walking and walking. If she banged, the truck box came down, which we believe that some people were saying the truck box came down. If it grazed her head or banged her head or something if she was checking something and then she didn't pull her head

just banged her head a bit well that'd give her a little bit of a knock on the head she went walking and that's what they believe happened. Do you know much about Sherry? Have you met her before? Yeah we met her but she never would come to our place. They were married. She'd never come to our place, always, never with the kids, always at the graveling pit. Greg was always with the kids, looking after the kids and cleaning and railroading.

Railroading, and he'd go to the farm, gravel and combine at Sherry's farm. He loved her very much. So you wouldn't say that Greg had ever been violent? No, he'd never been violent with her. He was in court once a few years ago. There was just a court record saying that he had been here. It was an assault charge against Sherry. Do you guys know anything about that? No, no, we don't. We never heard nothing. So an assault charge against Sherry

a few years ago that went through the courts. She bought him a gun. She bought him this machine gun and gave him as a present and charged him with it. She showed the police where it was in the garage, and he wouldn't tell her, he wouldn't tell the police that she bought him the machine gun. He didn't want to squeal on her because that's his wife, and he loved her, and he didn't want her to go to jail. They used to go out to the graveling pit and shoot this machine gun off. They used to go together? I don't know. I don't know, but this is what I heard. They used to go to the graveling pit and stuff. All of this leaves us with more questions. What exactly did Greg tell the

undercover cops? What's his side of the story? We know he says he didn't kill Sherry, and soon we'll try to ask him all of these questions. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs.

And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. It's now Thursday morning. I'm at home getting ready for work when I get a phone call. It's Alicia. She just heard from a Keniston farmer. He says there is a convoy of police vehicles heading out in the direction of the gravel pit. So we hit the road. Okay, so where are we going? So the directions were to drive past the gravel pit until we get to a farm that has a sign that says FEM,

which I think means like farming equipment machinery or something. So we have to keep an eye out for that and then we have to head north. That's the instructions. So I think it might be just up here that's a white sign. This place is surrounded by rolling green fields and sloughs. We see two groups of police searching in the distance. They tie small pieces of fluorescent tape to trees. It's to mark the places they've covered. Hi there. Hi. Are you on the phone or? No. No. Okay. I will have to defer you to one of the

people that's going to be coming back right away. Okay. Two pickup trucks head our way. Uniformed officers are piled into the beds of the vehicles, their legs dangling off the back. One of them knows who we are. It's Sergeant Donna Zavislak. We've been hounding her for information about Sherry's case for months, but she agrees to tell us what they're up to. We are conducting searches in the area to locate evidence in relation to the murder of Sherry Furtuck. And what can you tell us about what you've done so far? So what we're trying to do is be very methodical about where we're searching and how we're conducting the searches because we want to be able to make sure that we're doing it in a way

that it's going to assist us if and when it goes to court or if the information is needed in court. Can you say anything about what you're looking for in terms of evidence? No, I can't speak to that. I don't know if you touched on this, like if there are certain kinds of things that you're looking into, like treed areas or like sloughs and that kind of stuff. Are you able to say anything like that? Um, just from, because of the passage of time, you know, we're making sure we're covering off all areas, but we also know within, uh, the timeframe over the last three years, if people would have found something in an open area, usually they would call us, right? So to have something exposed where a lot of the area that we're looking at is,

you know, farmland, most people farm it and have been on it, so if they saw an anomaly, usually they will report it. So we do have areas that we are concentrating on, but I don't want to speak to those right now. Are you able to say anything about how you go from here? What are your next steps? The next steps from here is once we believe we've successfully cleared the area, depending on if we locate what we're looking for, then that's the end of it. But if we don't find what we're looking for, we're definitely going to have to reassess as an investigative team and determine what is going to be the best process. So we make sure that we cover everything off in a methodical way that we can,

you know, make sure that, you know, we're finding what we're looking for. And that includes Sherry. Later, they will confirm that they did not find Sherry. As we're driving back to Saskatoon, we share theories about why they're looking in that location. And then the phone rings. Hi, Ron. How are you? It's Ron Statiewicz. He's an old friend of Greg's. I'm fine.

Good. Have you heard what was happening over in Saskatoon right now? Yeah, that's what I've heard. We've got a few text messages this morning about today. I heard that he is arrested. Yeah, what I wanted to tell you, if he is arrested, then I would have no problem testifying. Okay, so you're like okay with us using the tape? Yeah, sure, that's not a problem.

Okay, yeah, that's great, yeah. The tape Ron is talking about is from an interview we did in November 2018. We met Ron at his house. We sat at his kitchen table with his partner Marlene. Ron didn't want us to use the interview at the time. He said he was afraid of Greg. But he let us record it just in case something changed. Now that Greg's in custody, Ron feels more comfortable with us using the interview. Well, I wouldn't say I've worked exactly with him, but we worked on the same railroad.

At times, I've worked with him on work trains, just him and I and an engineer. I've known him from, I've hunted with him, fished with him. Prior to my wife's death. We even had fishing trips together with his wife and my wife. So you would say that you were sort of friends for quite a long time? Well, I was always his friend, yes. I have no arguments with him over the years.

We got along quite well. Ron is one of the people police spoke to after Sherry disappeared back in 2015. But there was something he didn't tell them about Greg. He tells us instead. I wanted to give the police a chance to possibly find a body and find out for sure what's actually going on. And today I really didn't tell the police some of the evidence that I probably held back at the time.

So what were you holding back, Ron? The police had asked me back then how well I knew him, and I told him that that time he was drunk and I had no other choice. I had to kick him out of the house, and he had brought a woman into my house, and they were downstairs having sex or whatever, and I didn't like it. I gave him a month to move, but he also moved in at a time when I was very vulnerable because I had just lost my wife, and I'm not sure I handled it properly the way I should have handled it.

There's other things that I neglected to say is his attitude, neglected to say is his attitude and which I never told the police at the time is his is meanness his what he had said to me under a drunken scenario situations where he sat on the couch here and told me that I have no dislike for her anymore. I'm going to get rid of her and bury her in the North 40, wherever that might be, I don't know. And the mother-in-law was going to go there with her, which I never told to the police. The North Forty.

It's slang for the backwoods, the boonies or the bush, but it can also be literal. In Saskatchewan, the North Forty can be a 40-acre parcel of land on the northern side of a farm. Ron says he never actually saw Greg become violent. He says he also didn't see any bruises on Sherry. But he feels Greg could still be involved with Sherry's disappearance. I was so upset back then that I didn't know what was right and what was wrong

because I'd just lost my wife. And so then after that he'd be sitting on the couch, and he'd just go downstairs, and I wondered why he was getting so drunk all the time, but when I went to clean the rooms downstairs, I could find dozens of bottles that I threw into the... Well, I didn't throw them in the garbage. I went to the bottle exchange. They were all mostly vodka, and he'd been drinking a lot,

and he did threaten her, like like he said I'm gonna bury her in an earth 40. What year did this take place? My wife passed away in 2010. And then Greg came to live with you? For as long as I could put up with him was five months, and he brought this girl over, which is a friend of Marlene's. But anyway, he started coming over here and drinking, and I never ever paid rent. I never did nothing. I just stayed downstairs like it was his own and just kind of took over. So finally I said to him, I said, you've got to leave.

I said, I have children coming. I have three daughters that come here, and they have keys to the house, and I don't want you to be here with that woman. And it was this house here? My house, yes. Ron says this took place in late 2011, around the time of Greg's assault charge. Greg moved in with Ron in October of that year, and by January,

Ron had kicked him out. Can you tell me more about the things that he told you about Sherry? Well, I think I pretty well told you pretty well everything to where it was, but he cursed her every day. He swore at her, I'm going to bury the fucking bitch right in the North 40, whatever that was. There's that phrase. What is the North 40? Do you know what that is? I have no idea whether it's the North 40. It's probably a piece of land someplace. Maybe in Bigger where he grew up as a kid. I don't know.

They had a farm somewhere in Bigger, out west of Bigger or east of Bigger. I'm not sure. I was there once. We were hunting together and we shot a deer and we skinned a deer out on a farm. But right now I couldn't tell you where it even is. It's difficult to know what to make of this information. Is Greg all talk? Maybe he just likes to say shocking things, get a reaction from people. Ron says Greg had been drinking, same as in his cousin's story from episode three. Sandra Twotty says Greg talked about getting rid of people, but that he was very drunk. Even Greg's brother says his family likes to, in his words,

talk foolish. And what if these stories aren't true, or they're misremembered? Memory can be flawed. People have been wrongly convicted based on false memories. The comments from people who knew Greg are something to consider. But none of these claims are proof that Greg was or wasn't involved. This interview leaves us with a lot of questions for Greg. But for now, we have to find the farm Ron was talking about, the Furtuck family farm in Bigger.

It's May of 2019, and we're trying to track down Greg's old family farm near Bigger. We get directions from a farmer in the area. But farm directions are a little bit different than Google Maps. So, south of Dupreau, set of curves, two miles east, and then it's the first old farmyard on the left-hand side. But we do need to keep an eye. This is east, right? If we're going south, this is east.

I don't know. Let me look at this map. We get one of the neighbors to show us around. Don't get too close, because, like, actually you can fall in. My impression is there's nothing there, but I don't think... Oh, God. At the end of a long, grassy driveway, we get to a weathered old farmhouse. The windows are smashed, the door teetering on its hinges.

There's a hole in the roof where a set of shingles used to be. It's completely abandoned. Wait, is that not the bottom? What is that? Yeah, that's where the water started. There hasn't been anyone living here for years, maybe decades. There's old clothing on hangers, broken dishes on the counter, and an old leather shoe in the doorway. There are paw prints where animals have been scratching at the walls. The floor has sunk into the basement.

It looks like they left in a zombie apocalypse. This is where Greg used to live with his parents, Elma and George. It's tiny, but the land around it is vast. It's the same farm where they used to live when Greg's cousin, Sandra Tordy, used to visit. She remembers the farm as a young girl. They always came, they were all so clean. All the boys had their hair slicked back with broil cream and all had new clothes on. Yeah, we had lots of fun as kids.

He had a rough, I think, growing up. It always was fun and teasing and laughing, but there was never, you know. So like I said, I've never seen Greg in a state of violence or anger. And when you see him now, what do you think? What I see now, I feel sorry for him in a way. I do feel sorry for him because he's a lost soul right now, I think.

But do I want to rekindle the relationship? That's the wrong word. we kindle a relationship that's the wrong word do I want to go back to visiting no I think mainly because when he he'd phone me when he was drinking

sometimes like 11 in the morning and I didn't want to hear that you know yeah I don't I don't know what became of him with that family. It's just tragic, that's all. You know, because like he said, there was good times, many good times. Throughout this process, Sherry's close family has been silent. Sherry's mom, Julianne, was

the family spokesperson. But after she died, no one wanted to take over. Sherry's mum Julianne was the family spokesperson, but after she died, no one wanted to take over. Sherry's children didn't return our calls or messages, and her siblings didn't want to say anything either. All we got was a text from Sherry's sister, Coralie. It said, quote, our family is happy, pleased that an arrest has been made and that charges have been laid. She didn't want to say anything else about Sherry or the case against Greg. Now we've heard from people who suspect Greg and people who support his claims of innocence. But only he can tell us his story, the full story. We have to get in touch with him. And so we do. the full story.

We have to get in touch with him. And so we do. My name's Greg Furtuck and I was Sherry Sarotsky's husband. I probably still am. They haven't found the body so she might be out there somewhere, you know.

On the next episode of The Pit. Well, I don't remember saying something that stupid, but... Do you think you'd ever say something like that, just like... Well, I can say, I would say something, because that's really far out. But they said I was drinking, I don't know. I didn't know what I was like when I was drinking. Sherry's my wife and I loved her and I wouldn't hurt her.

The Pit is a CBC investigative podcast. The story was written, produced and mixed by Victoria Dinh and me, Alicia Bridges. Our senior producer is Corrine Larson. Editorial guidance came from Paul Dornstetter and David Hutton. Additional support from Karen Yeske and Courtney Markowicz. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or just tell your friends. You can also contact us directly by emailing thepit at cbc.ca.

For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.