‘He finally got her, we knew’: Friends of St. Boniface murder victim want change

WINNIPEG — Camille Runke was fighting for her life and all her friends could do was helplessly watch her suffer.

“She had done everything by the book,” Camille’s friend Jen Noone said. “She lived in fear everyday.”

READ MORE: Winnipeg police confirm husband of woman murdered in St. Boniface is dead

Camille Runke, 49, and her estranged husband Kevin Runke, 44, were married for about two years.

In June, they separated and in July, Camille got a restraining order against her husband. She reported 22 incidents of harassment and stalking to police between July and October.

“I wish they could have done something a little more to protect her. Again, a restraining order is just a piece of paper,” Noone said.

On July 24th, police charged Kevin Runke with mischief to Camille’s property. He was to appear in court on No. 9.

But for three months, police say Camille reported her vehicle being vandalized.

“She couldn’t go to work, she was followed,” Noone said. “She couldn’t talk to people, he was tapping her phone lines, she couldn’t live the life she wanted to because of him.”

WATCH: Jen Noone talks about the events leading to Camille Runke’s death

Noone said Camille shared harassing texts and photos with her, in hopes of gathering all the evidence for her day in court Nov. 9th.  One of the last text messages Camille sent Noone was after a threatening phone call from a strange number, “He knows how to be completely anonymous…and how to scare me.  I’m f–ing tired of this s**t.”

Noone said Camille would find nails scattered on the ground around her truck and on her way to work, “The nails on the way to work, she’d change her route he’d do it again, she’d get dropped off at work and he’d still continue doing it.”

Camille installed security cameras on her home in July.

“Camille Runke did everything she could to reasonably sever her relationship and protect herself,” Winnipeg Police Deputy Chief Danny Smyth said.

WATCH: Winnipeg police brief media in the death of Camille Runke

On Oct. 23, police again warned Kevin Runke to stop harassing Camille, charging him with breaching his conditions by not reporting an address change.

“There was no evidence for us to arrest Runke on any of those, and where there was evidence we did arrest him,” Smyth said .

Eight days later, Camille was dead, found shot to death outside her work in St. Boniface.

“The first thing we said was he finally got her, we knew,” Noone said.

Kevin Runke was a person of interest but police couldn’t find him until Monday when Winnipeg police homicide detectives located his vehicle near St. Malo.  But when they attempted to pull him over he stopped in a wooded area and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Court records show an ex-girlfriend of Kevin Runke’s tried to get a restraining order against him in February of 2013 but was denied.  Another former girlfriend of Runke’s was able to get an order in June 2013.

She spoke to Global News but didn’t want her identity revealed.

“Camille confided in me earlier this year, she wanted to know what to do to make him stop.”

The ex-girlfriend said she and Kevin Runke dated in 2011 for three months.  After they broke up she too had to install cameras on her home after he would stalk her and compromise her vehicle and follow her to work.

But it all stopped when Runke met Camille in 2013.

“I feel for her family, she did everything she could…something needs to change.”

Camille’s funeral will be held Friday.