A nearly three-year-long Saskatoon court case has resulted in Greg Fertuck receiving a life sentence for first degree murder and four years for indignity to human remains on Thursday afternoon after killing his wife.
Sheree Fertuck went missing near Kenaston, Sask., on Dec. 7, 2015. Her body has never been found.
Fertuck confessed to the murder in 2019 during an undercover police operation, where he said he shot Sheree twice in a gravel pit, hid her body and stashed the rifle in rural Saskatchewan.
Calling himself a “dark cowboy,” Fertuck re-enacted killing Sheree and drew maps of the gravel pit for undercover officers posing as high-profile crime bosses.
In court, he claimed he was lying during those statements, firing his lawyers and representing himself throughout his trial.
On Thursday, he told court that he was found guilty of “fabricating a good story,” adding that normally, someone who tells a good tale is rewarded by having their story published.
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“I have spent five years in hell, locked up 21 hours a day in a six-by-six cell. Why? Because I told a lie to a bunch of criminals,” he said.
Partway through his extensive trial, the murder weapon was found, matching shells recovered from the gravel pit.
Cellphone records place Fertuck’s phone at the gravel pit on the day Sheree went missing, and pinging off cellphone towers along the same route he told undercover officers he followed on his way to the killing.
Fertuck told Justice Richard Danyliuk he is going to appeal the guilty verdict, saying he was wrongfully convicted with “grave allegations and malicious slander” instead of real evidence.
“I will prove to my children that I never did harm their mother and I pray Sheree turns up and puts an end to this nightmare.”
Crown prosecutor Carla Dewar said it’s unfortunate that Fertuck used his final platform in court to challenge the evidence rather than take responsibility for his actions.
“It shows, if nothing else, the significant lack of any insight or remorse,” Dewar said.
Justice Danyliuk spoke directly to Fertuck before delivering his sentence, calling him a “callous and heartless killer”, saying everyone knows he murdered Sheree.
“You know you did this,” he said. “I know you did this and now everybody knows you did this. Over what? Money? The fact that she would no longer listen to you? Because she would no longer allow you to dominate and intimidate her?”
Danyliuk added that it’s unfortunate Saskatchewan is a leader in intimate partner violence, saying Fertuck is the “worst of the worst” in this lot.
“You acted like a petulant two-year-old in a man’s body, able to do the ultimate harm,” he said. “You robbed the world of the light that shone from Sheree.”
Fertuck will be about 90 years old when he will be allowed to apply for parole.
“I will not lose one second of sleep knowing you are headed to a federal prison for at least the next 20 years,” Danyliuk said.
Sheree’s family also addressed Fertuck, recounting the horrors they have suffered since her murder.
“It’s tough for the children obviously and that’s who we have a lot of concern for,” Sheree’s sister Glenda Sorotski said. “Their lives will forever be impacted in such a negative way that we can’t imagine.”
Sheree had three children and a grandson when she was killed.
Sorotski and her sister Teeka White said Sheree’s death is what ultimately killed their mother, who passed before Fertuck was found guilty.
“She was grief stricken and suffered every day,” Sorotski said. “The day Sheree died was the day we also lost our mom. It killed her.”
They said she suffered from nightmares and eventually succumbed to cancer.
“Joining Sheree was the only closure she could realize,” Sorotski said.