A Lake Country woman is feeling a sense of relief after receiving a call that the person accused of killing her brother died in custody.
After almost seven years of court hearings and heartache, Teresa Bartz is finally getting the justice she feels is owed to her brother.
“I’m just really happy that it’s over,” said Bartz.
Richard Fairgrieve, the man accused of killing 50-year-old Willy Bartz passed away over the weekend in custody, a form of justice the family believes the courts couldn’t give them.
“Had he lived he would’ve gotten out, and probably hurt more people so I think we got the justice we needed for Willy,” said Bartz.
In June 2017 Bartz’s brother was found dead in his apartment on 43rd Avenue in Vernon. Fairgrieve was arrested 18 months after the body was found.
Over the seven-year case, Fairgrieve never stood trial due to brain damage caused by a series of strokes. The B.C. Review Board deemed him unfit.
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His girlfriend at the time, however, Jacqueline Leavins was sentenced to 10 years, less time served, after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Fairgrieve was held in a psychiatric facility as the case went on.
“I think there’s a measure of justice for sure I don’t think there’s ever really closure, we never got to say our peace to (Fairgrieve),” said Bartz.
Documents filed in court revealed Bartz’s murder was the result of a love triangle.
Leavins admitted she played a role in the death of her friend and occasional intimate partner, Willy Bartz, in July 2017.
According to the autopsy report the cause of death was a result of multiple stab, chop, and blunt force wounds.
“We never got to hear (Fairgrieve’s) side, he never made a statement, so we never heard anything about what he had to say about what happened that night,” said Bartz.
Fairgrieve died of a cardiac arrest in custody.
“It’s the closest we could get to him dying in jail, not that I wanted them to put him to death, I would have preferred a life sentence which we knew he would never get,” said Bartz.
According to the BC Prosecution Service, Fairgrieve was deemed fit by the review board in September 2023, after several fitness tests, and was scheduled for another fitness hearing in court this April.
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