Cape Breton inn owner recounts experience with ‘Internet Black Widow’

HALIFAX – Melissa “Millie” Weeks and her new husband, Fred, showed up at Chambers Guesthouse Bed and Breakfast last Friday morning.

It was about 8:00 a.m. and Weeks told the North Sydney inn owner she and her husband had just gotten off the ferry from Newfoundland and, according to the 77-year-old woman, it had been a very rocky and stomach-turning voyage.

Weeks, the attempted murder suspect known as the “Internet Black Widow,” told owner Cheryl Chambers they weren’t feeling up to traveling onward and wanted a room to recuperate.

Chambers described Millie Weeks as not looking like someone who had spent the night throwing up, but her 75-year-old husband looked much worse for wear.

“She was all dressed up… perfectly groomed,” Chambers said in a phone interview. “But Fred, on the other hand, looked very gaunt and pale.”

Chambers recounted that the couple, from the town of New Glasgow, N.S., spent most of the day in their room and she didn’t hear anything from them until about supper time, when Weeks wanted a pizza brought to the room.

Her husband was too ill to go downstairs to eat, she told Chambers.

At around 7:00 p.m., Chambers heard a crash coming from upstairs.

“There was one or two of them, actually,” she said, adding it was such a smash that a piece of crystal shook off the dining room chandelier and broke a plate on the table.

But, Weeks said everything was fine and barely opened the door when Chambers ran to check what caused the ruckus. “I just thought they dropped a suitcase or something and didn’t really think much more about it until the morning.”

According to Chambers, Weeks said her husband Fred Weeks still wasn’t well by the time she came downstairs for breakfast.

“While she was eating and sipping her coffee, she said ‘I think I’m going to take Fred to the hospital,'” the B&B owner said.

Although Weeks said she would need an ambulance to get her ill husband to the hospital, Chambers said Weeks didn’t want to call 911 immediately and wished to finish her breakfast first.

After the ambulance arrived, she learned that Fred Weeks was found lying on the floor. 

According to Chambers, Weeks acknowledged her husband had fallen and that she couldn’t lift him up. She didn’t appear to have done anything to make him comfortable — despite her claims to the opposite — Chambers added.

She stated none of the blankets or pillows on the other bed in the room had been disturbed and Weeks never asked for anything.

She added Weeks then took more than an hour to pack their belongings and do her makeup.

“I knew she was stressed, but she took the time to sign my guestbook,” Chambers noted.

A neighbour drove Weeks to the hospital, in what is presumed to be the couple’s car.

At some point in the night, Weeks came back for the vehicle and drove off. She reportedly stayed at the North Star Inn, in North Sydney, for one more night and returned to New Glasgow – where police arrested her on Monday.

*With files from Natasha Pace