Brother of 2 slain women speaks out to help end ‘nightmare’ of intimate partner violence

By admin On Dec 16, 2022

The brother of two women killed more than a decade apart — Sommer Boudreau, 39, and Ashley Boudreau, 24 — hopes that by sharing his family’s nightmare, other families might be spared it.

“This loss of life has such an impact, not just for [Sommer Boudreau’s three children] Tyee, Tia and Ashley, but for our mother Carrie [Boudreau] who has now had to face the horrific loss of both her daughters,” brother Christopher Halliday wrote in an email to CBC on Thursday.

“No parent should ever have to face that, and somehow this woman needs to face it twice in a lifetime,” he wrote. “We love you Sommer and never forgotten Ashley … beautiful souls taken before their time.”

The body of Sommer Boudreau was found in the rented Deep River, Ont., duplex of Adam Rossi the night of Sunday, Dec. 11.

Details remain scarce, but police in the Ottawa Valley town 190 kilometres west of the capital were conducting a wellness check at the Rutherford Avenue duplex when her body was discovered, according to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

Rossi, 41, is charged with second-degree murder and committing an indignity to a human body, and is next scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

Deep River Police and OPP have declined to say how Rossi and Sommer Boudreau knew each other, or whether the alleged murder was domestic in nature.

A sign just outside the home where Sommer Boudreau’s body was found asks people to take an ornament from the box and hang it on this small tree in her memory. (Kristy Nease/CBC)

Sommer remembered as giving, strong

Halliday remembered Sommer Boudreau as a “tremendously beautiful, charismatic soul who wasn’t afraid to tell you how it was or give her opinion,” and who loved to support the people around her.

She was strong, for herself and for those close to her heart, and that strength showed through when she beat cancer several years ago, he recalled.

She had an infectious personality that people were drawn to, and wanted the simple things: a decent home and a healthy family.

“Sommer is and will always be loved unconditionally, she will be missed, and we will keep her with us every day,” Halliday wrote.

“Let’s remember her thirst for life, and how she touched everyone’s heart she came across.”

Two women stand side-by-side. — Sommer Boudreau, right, stands with her mother, Carrie Boudreau, at the end of Sommer’s battle with cancer a few years ago. (Supplied by Christopher Halliday)

Sister killed by partner hours after domestic dispute

Nearly 13 years before Sommer’s death, Ashley Boudreau was killed by her partner, Andrew Ferguson, in a unit of a subdivided home in Ottawa on Jan. 7, 2010. It happened just hours after police had been called about a domestic dispute between them at the same address on Cambridge Street S.

Five Ottawa police officers responded to that call, according to a detailed report compiled by Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

One of the officers spoke to a neighbour who provided details of the couple fighting and arguing, and another peered in through a window with a flashlight and saw Ferguson, who turned away after the officer identified himself and asked Ferguson to open the front door.

A picture of a woman sitting on the front steps of a house. — On Jan. 16, 2010, 24-year-old Ashley Boudreau was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, Andrew Ferguson, in Ottawa. (Supplied by Christopher Halliday)

After seeing and hearing nothing else for a period of time, the five officers left. They had not spoken to the couple and had not forced their way into the unit.

Forensic evidence and a photograph on Ferguson’s phone suggests Ferguson killed Ashley later the same morning, then killed himself later on, according to the SIU’s report.

One of the responding officers was investigated by the SIU and cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

A list of names inscribed on a large rock. — Ashley Boudreau’s name is seen on the Women’s Monument in Petawawa, Ont., on Dec. 15, 2022, four days after her sister Sommer Boudreau was killed. Sommer’s name will be inscribed at a later date, according to Victim Services of Renfrew County. (Kristy Nease/CBC)

‘Not enough attention’ paid

The nature of any relationship between Rossi and Sommer Boudreau is unclear, but people working to end violence against women in sprawling Renfrew County are calling her death a femicide.

Faye Cassista, a program manager for Victim Services of Renfrew County, said Sommer’s mother gave permission for her daughter’s name to be inscribed on a monument honouring women killed by men in the area — the same monument that already bears Ashley’s name.

A police cruiser parked on the street in front of a home. — A Deep River Police cruiser is parked outside the rented home of Adam Rossi, 41, where investigators continued to document the scene on Dec. 15, 2022. Ontario Provincial Police are leading the investigation, with the help of the small local police force. (Martin Blais/CBC)

A vigil for Sommer will be held at 6 p.m. Monday in the basement of the Deep River Public Library, organized in part by End Violence Against Women Renfrew County, a coalition of groups in the area working to stop intimate partner violence.

Her brother said it’s an issue that deserves more attention than it gets.

“I believe in my heart that not enough attention is being brought to this type of violence towards women in our society,” Halliday wrote to CBC.

“I only hope that something can be brought to light with our family’s loss to help prevent someone else from facing this type of nightmare.”