Boundary Road incident confirmed as murder-suicide

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Sault Ste. Marie police have finally released more information on two sudden deaths that occurred at a Boundary Road residence on May 1, confirming on Tuesday that those deaths were murder and suicide.

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An investigation revealed that the incident involved a married couple, with the husband strangling his wife before she took her own life by “self-strangulation,” a police press release said.

The wife was found inside the house, while the husband was found outside the house in a vehicle.

When the Sault Star arrived at the scene on May 1, an abandoned Toyota Rav4 was parked in front of the house with the driver’s door ajar.

The Star then asked the neighborhood residents, who said they knew very little about the elderly couple, except that they had lived in the bungalow at 581 Boundary Road for a long time and mostly kept to themselves.

“This appears to have been an act of domestic violence. It is an isolated incident,” Sault police said in a news release Tuesday. “Identifying information is not being released.”

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This May 1 incident is not the only high-profile case of domestic violence to occur on the streets of Sault Ste. Marie recently.

Last October, Bob Thomas Hallaert shot his ex-girlfriend Angie Sweeney and his three children (aged six, seven and twelve) before taking his own life.

Hallaert also injured his ex-wife Kim Rose during the shooting spree, which took place at two locations on Tancred Street and Second Line West.

Following this shooting, several community groups have taken a more proactive approach to dealing with domestic violence in Algoma.

Sault Ste. Marie Police launched a new pilot project in March to improve officers’ response to IPV-related calls that do not result in charges.

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This project includes updating dispatch policies, improving dispatcher training and regularly reviewing service calls to “ensure a high level of professionalism, compassion and decision-making by our personnel,” said Chief Hugh Stevenson.

Sault police said earlier this month that these increased IPV efforts have resulted in charges in four cases, and that officers have called people involved in toll-free calls 271 times since March.

Sault-area stakeholders have also been actively advocating for Bill C-332, a federal law that aims to criminalize coercive control in relationships by amending the Criminal Code.

Members of Sweeney’s family and activists such as Dan and Michelle Jennings, whose daughter Caitlin was allegedly killed by her partner David Yates in London, Ontario, visited Ottawa earlier this month to witness the passage of this bill in the House of Commons.

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