WARNING: Readers may find the content of this story disturbing.
In the midst of a suicide attempt, Dr. Guy Turcotte said he didn’t want his kids to find his body, so decided, “˜I will take them with me.’"
The heart-wrenching testimony was heard Thursday morning at the double murder trial of the Quebec cardiologist, accused of killing his two children.
On Wednesday, he explained in detail what happened the night of the tragic events.
He explained picking up his children at daycare and school on Friday February 20, 2009, making a stop at a video store, then travelling to the family’s Piedmont home for dinner.
Turcotte told the jury the crimes took place shortly after supper.
After putting three-year-old Anne Sophie and five-year-old Olivier to bed, he began to surf the net.
That’s when he came across love letters written by his ex-wife and her new lover.
The emails sent him into a downward spiral.
"I read the emails that Isabelle and her lover wrote to one another. They loved each other," he told the jury. "Me and Isabelle never loved each other that way".
The couple had recently separated. They were in the middle of divorce proceedings.
Turcotte testified he then began searching for ways to kill himself.
"I don’t know how to explain it. It really hurt. I was no longer able to endure this. The only thought I had was to die," he testified.
He decided to ingest windshield washer fluid.
Turcotte began drinking the poisonous liquid inside his bedroom.
He then made the eye-opening statement in court.
"I didn’t want my kids to find me dead. Then I said I will take them with me," he said.
The 39-year-old said he repeatedly stabbed Olivier in his bed, and then Anne Sophie in the other bedroom.
Turcotte then said he ingested more windshield washer fluid, and recalls calling his mother.
"I remember telling her I loved her," Turcotte said.
He cried throughout the hearing.
The testimony brought tears to family members in the courtroom.
His ex-wife Isabelle Gaston sat stone-faced in the front row, but exploded in tears during a recess in the proceeding.
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