Guelph, Ont. man pleads guilty to ‘brutal murder’ of his wife

Details of the brutal murder of Seble “Mimi” Dietrich at the hands of her husband Stephan Dietrich were presented to the Superior Court of Justice Thursday after the defendant pleaded guilty to second degree murder.

The court heard that Stephan Dietrich beat his wife Seble to death with a shovel in the family’s garden shed following an argument over a cell phone bill.

Autopsy photos showed evidence of blunt force trauma to Seble’s skull and it was those injuries that caused her death.

Dietrich then placed her body in a hole he had dug in their backyard and filled the hole with cement.

The courtroom was silent but for the whisper of an Ethiopian interpreter as assistant crown attorney Elizabeth Maguire read out the statement of facts in the case.

The court heard that the couple had met in Dietrich’s home country of Germany in 1998. Seble had moved to Germany from her home country of Ethiopia to attend school. They were married in 1999 and had three children aged 17, 14, and 11. The family moved to Guelph in 2010.

Seble became active in the local Ethiopian community and assisted in starting a chapter of the Meheret Evangelical Church in the Guelph area. She also launched an online talk show called the Mimi Show that was influenced by her church activities. She rented space at 31 Wyndham St N to start a cafe and used the address to film segments for her show.

In May 2014 Dietrich began an extra marital affair with a woman from Toronto. He met her when she was working as an escort and the relationship intensified over the following months. Phone records and text messages revealed that Dietrich planned to leave his wife and start a life with the other woman.

He made online searches about filing for divorce and even filled out an online divorce application in his wife’s name without her knowledge.

On July 10, 2014 the couple received an outstanding phone bill, which angered Dietrich. He called the phone provider and a recording of the call captured Dietrich arguing with Seble. It is the last time her voice was heard.

Dietrich did not report for work the next day but instead drove to Buffalo with his oldest child. He then spent the weekend with the other woman in Toronto. He used his wife’s red Mercedes to make the trips.

On July 14 he parked the car at Seble’s cafe on Wyndham Street. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the car with an envelope in his hand and getting in a taxi. He dropped the envelope in the mailbox of his employer who was also a good friend of Seble.

The envelope contained four letters purportedly typed and signed by Seble as well as her wedding ring, a SIM card from her cell phone, her car keys, a colour copy of her German passport and her Canadian residency card.

In the letters Seble indicated that she was pregnant with another man’s child and had ran off to start a new life. She praised her husband and admitted to stealing money from him. She wanted a divorce so he could find someone better than her. One of the letters explained how she parked the car at the cafe on July 10 the day she disappeared. Eyewitnesses and a pair of Toronto parking tickets proved that Dietrich was driving around in Seble’s car days after she went missing.

Despite concerns from her family and friends, Dietrich did not report his wife missing until police began investigating her disappearance on July 20. He told their children that their mother didn’t love them anymore and ran away to start a new family. He began removing her belongings from the home and in mid-August moved his girlfriend into the family home.

Evidence began to mount against Dietrich and on June 9, 2015 he was charged with 1st-degree murder and obstructing justice. Police searched the family property at 55 Vancouver St. and with the help of cadaver dogs located the remains of Seble “Mimi” Dietrich encased in cement under a shed.

Dietrich waived his right to a trial and pled guilty Thursday to 2nd-degree murder. He was told the penalty for 2nd-degree murder could be as much as 25 years in jail with no chance of parole until he has served 22 years. He will appear again in court again on November 22 when victim impact statements from Seble’s family and friends will be read and entered in the record.

The trial had been scheduled to start in May after many court appearances and delays.

‘Seble’ Dietrich went missing in July of 2014, her car found abandoned in Downtown Guelph near where she ran a second-floor coffee shop on Wyndham Street.

It sparked a massive search and eventually a rally was held by her family and members of the Guelph and Kitchener Ethiopian communities in which she was an active member, urging police to do more to find her.

In June of 2015 her remains were discovered in the back yard of the family’s home at 55 Vancouver Dr. on the city’s east side, where she lived with her husband and three children.

Dietrich was arrested and has been in custody since.