Dr. Guy Turcotte double murder case: Quebec dad felt he was being replaced

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ST. JEROME, Que. – Among the things Guy Turcotte took from his home to the furnished and fully equipped house he rented after his marital breakup was a wooden silverware box containing knives like the ones he used to kill his children.

The cardiologist packed his clothes and a few personal belongings on Jan. 26, 2009, when he left the home he shared with Isabelle Gaston, also a doctor, and moved to nearby Piedmont, Que., about 75 kilometres north of Montreal.

Two days earlier, the couple had returned from a Mexico vacation, their six-year acrimonious marriage in ruins because Turcotte had learned of Gaston’s affair with the couple’s personal trainer and friend, Martin Huot.

Less than a month later, Turcotte’s children, Anne-Sophie, 3, and Olivier, 5, were found stabbed to death in their beds in the Piedmont home.

Police found Turcotte, who had tried to kill himself by drinking windshield wiper fluid, under his bed.

As the fifth week of his first-degree murder trial got under way Monday, Turcotte calmly and quietly recounted the anger and betrayal he’d felt when he learned of the affair, which began in October 2008.

It was in stark contrast to his three days on the stand last week when he could barely get his words out between convulsing sobs.

He said Monday that he felt he was being replaced in the family by Huot and was devastated to learn that the children had gone to Quebec Winter Carnival with Gaston and her new lover.

After that, Turcotte told Gaston he wanted the couple’s bed, despite the fact he neither needed it nor had space for it in the Piedmont home. As a result, the mattresses and frame sat propped up against the dining room walls.

"I knew Martin slept in it," he said quietly, under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Claudia Carbonneau.

"And that made you angry," Carbonneau said.

"Yes."

"And you weren’t concerned that (Gaston) would be left with no bed," Carbonneau continued.

He hesitated to take it, Turcotte said, but decided she could use one of the spare single or double mattresses in the house.

Quebec Superior Court has heard that the couple, who met in medical school in 1999, fought often and that Gaston wondered if Turcotte might be gay. She found gay pornography on his computer more than a couple of times and once made an appointment for the couple to see a sexologist.

"I was ashamed," Turcotte said Monday of his wife’s discovery. "She was afraid I’d leave her because I was gay.

"But I explained there was no danger of that since I liked women."

He said their lives together worsened with the arrival of children – Olivier in 2003 and Anne-Sophie in 2005.

They took a parenting course, but fought often over juggling household tasks and their demanding careers.

"She said I didn’t pay attention to her and didn’t meet her needs," he said, not once meeting Carbonneau’s eyes. "I wasn’t convinced but she believed it."

The Crown and defence have already admitted Turcotte killed the children; the jury must decide whether he intended to.

Carbonneau posed the question that has been on many minds since the beginning of this dramatic trial: Why?

"You had no financial problems, you had a good career as a doctor with a good salary, shared custody and were buying a

house," she said.

"You think that a good salary and career prevents me from feeling pain and being demolished by what happened?" he said.

"Excuse me, but that doesn’t console me."

Turcotte’s cross-examination continues.