ST. JÉRÔME – In the days following the brutal killing of his children, cardiologist Guy Turcotte was obsessed with money and made calls to settle his financial affairs.
He composed a three-page list of things his family should fetch from the home he rented in Piedmont, including two soap pumps and a bag of potatoes.
There was also a pot he’d bought, which he’d never used, so his mother suggested she return it to the store for him.
"I was obsessed with money because I didn’t have any," Turcotte told his first-degree murder trial Thursday.
While in Montreal’s Philippe Pinel Institute for a psychiatric evaluation following his arrest on Feb. 21, 2009, Turcotte said all he wanted to do was die, but it was impossible in his cell.
"I knew my children were dead and that I’d done it," he said yesterday, Day 22 of his trial. "I couldn’t stand it and constantly thought of dying."
With nothing to do all day, Turcotte wrote and compiled lists to stop the horrific images of his children from his mind, he said.
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He replaced his wife, Isabelle Gaston, with his parents as beneficiary of his life insurance and stopped all pre-authorized withdrawals from his bank account. He spoke to his financial adviser about adjusting his RRSP portfolio toward less risky investments.
The Quebec Superior Court hearing has already been told that Turcotte was distraught over Gaston’s affair with the couple’s personal trainer and friend, Martin Huot.
Turcotte also called his father and told him to claim a gift certificate to a spa that the doctor had given his wife for Christmas.
"I realized it had been a mistake to buy her that because by Christmas, she’d already betrayed me," he said. "So I decided I’d give it to someone in my family instead."
Turcotte had also purchased four tickets to a show in Laval by popular pop singer Marie-Mai, and had planned to take the whole family. In a phone call from Pinel, Turcotte asked his father if perhaps someone else could use them.
Also on his to-do list was to call Patricia Giroux’s father to get her to forward a string of romantic emails between Huot, Giroux’s ex-husband, and Gaston. It was those emails that Turcotte read on his computer the night he killed the children. He’s testified that the content fed his anger.
Turcotte testified Thursday that his lawyer had asked to see the correspondence.
Also Thursday, court heard the recording of a message Turcotte left March 1, 2009 – just over a week after the killings – at St. Jérôme’s Hotel Dieu Hospital.
His upbeat and clear voice asks his colleague to check for bills in the top drawer of his desk and to file for expenses on Turcotte’s behalf.
He explains he’ll speak quickly because he knows there’s not much space on the message machine and asks the recipient to say hi to everyone for him. The message cuts off before he can finish his greetings.
On the evening of Feb. 20, 2009, a few weeks after moving out of the family home in Pr̩vost, Turcotte stabbed the children РOlivier, 5, and Anne-Sophie, 3 Рseveral times and drank windshield wiper fluid to kill himself.
The trial continues.
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