Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the gunman’s former partner was renouncing her role as executor.
The former girlfriend of the gunman who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia has legally renounced his will, which made her the executor of his $1.2 million in assets, according to court records.
In his will, mass killer Gabriel Wortman made the ex-girlfriend his sole heir. His assets included homes worth $712,000 and $500,000 in personal belonging, the court documents show.
She was also named his executor. But she applied to renounce the will on May 25, removing her as executor, saying they had never been married. The application was approved by the Nova Scotia court on June 11.
The province’s public trustee has now taken control. The killer’s assets are the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of victims by the husband of one of those who died, Kristen Beaton.
The former girlfriend was Wortman’s first victim on April 18, the night his violent rampage began, but she survived and hid until morning. Wortman was killed by police the next day.
His handwritten will, dated 2011, is four pages long and said he was to be buried quietly at the cemetery in Portapique, N.S., “in a hudson bay blanket” with no service, obituary or public notice.
Meanwhile, the RCMP is seeking the phone records of the murderer’s two denture clinics between April 19, 2019, and April 21, 2020, as part of its investigation into whether he had help planning the mass shooting.
Court documents unsealed on Friday show the RCMP asked the court to compel a Nova Scotia phone company to hand over the gunman’s call data to investigators.
He owned two denture clinics, one in Dartmouth and Halifax.
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“The historical call details in the possession of Bell Aliant and/or Bell Corporate Security will show who Gabriel Wortman and (redacted) had been in contact with prior to Gabriel Wortman commencing his killing spree on the night of April 18, 2020,” said an RCMP officer in a sworn affidavit.
“This information will assist in determining if there are any co-conspirators to this tragic event.”
According to search warrant documents, the gunman’s common-law spouse told police he did not have a cellphone and smashed her cellphone the night of the shooting.
“Any contact made that evening and prior would be from the landline telephone numbers that he had access to,” the document said.
Last week, the RCMP revealed the initial findings of a psychological autopsy on the gunman who killed 22 people, which determined he was an “injustice collector,” or someone who held on to conflicts with others until he boiled over with rage or violence.
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