SASKATOON – A judge has adjourned his decision until January 2023 on whether Greg Fertuck’s statements to under-cover RCMP officers during a Mr. Big sting are admissible.
Fertuck’s defense lawyers were supposed to submit written arguments to the court, which now won’t be available until later this summer. Fertuck’s lawyers were scheduled to present their arguments Wednesday about the admissibility of evidence Fertuck provided to police during a Mr. Big Sting. Mr. Big stings are covert operations used by the RCMP where undercover police pose as fictitious criminal organizations to gain a confession. Before the RCMP launch a Mr. Big sting, they place the suspect under surveillance for weeks to learn about his habits and personality. They then come up with an interactive scenario for the suspect.
Fertuck, now 68, was arrested June 24, 2016, near Saskatoon and charged with first-degree murder after he told an undercover officer posing as a crime boss in the Mr. Big sting that he shot his estranged wife 51-year-old Sheree Fertuck twice with a .22 calibre rifle and put her body in the gravel pit, court heard. She was last seen leaving her family’s farmhouse near Kenaston on Dec. 7, 2015, to haul rock to a nearby gravel pit. The body of the mother of three has never been found. In April 2016, police determined that Sheree Fertuck was a victim of a homicide.
Fertuck's trial started September 2021 and has been adjourned several times.
In April the crown presented new evidence consisting of a .22 calibre Ruger 10-22 semi-auto rifle, which was discovered by a couple west of Saskatoon on a rural property. The rifle is believed to be the murder weapon, say the Crown.
