N.S. mom says fisherman ex stalked her family by land and sea: ‘She is considering fleeing the province’

It was less than a week after Christmas when she contacted the Mounties about her former spouse’s stalking behaviour.

The Eastern Passage mom feared her 46-year-old ex, telling an RCMP officer on Dec. 30 that he’d threatened, assaulted, choked and sexually assaulted her.

Police arrested him that same day, but he was released on the promise that he live at his father’s place in Cole Harbour and stay away from his former partner.

Weapons stash 

Then a Crown prosecutor called the Mounties on April 20, after learning from the woman he’d allegedly abused that he had a stash of weapons “including semi-automatic and modified firearms,” according to a search warrant application filed by RCMP Const. Cory Naugle.

Naugle met with the woman – whose identity is protected by a publication ban – that same day.

She told the Mountie she’d noticed her ex’s truck parked near her home on March 9.

“One of her children first pointed it out to her on the way to school,” she told police.

‘Staring back at her’

The woman was able to describe the truck in detail.

She told investigators she’d seen her ex “sitting in the vehicle there before, staring back at her.”

It happened about three times a week as she drove her kids to school around 8 a.m.

She’d take alternate routes to and from school to avoid being followed by her ex, and to stay away from his associates in Eastern Passage.

She told police she believed he would hurt her if he followed her.

‘Noticed a boat’

On April 8, the woman, who lives beside the sea, “noticed a boat ‘lingering’ close to her home for approximately three hours,” Naugle said.

“Typically, the boats that fish in the area near her home are in the area for approximately 45 minutes,” said the investigator.

She described the boat that stayed much longer as low-slung, with a white and blue hull.

The terrified woman later found out that her ex had been using that boat as “his usual fishing boat” was under repair.

‘Fancy scopes’

Her ex doesn’t typically fish in the area in front of her home, she told police, noting he “usually stores a gun on his boat and has ‘fancy scopes.’”

She told police she’d seen guns on his boat in the past “which are to fend off sharks, seals, and pirates.”

He has “several other firearms for hunting,” she told police.

Then on April 14, while out of the province for a medical appointment, she reported getting an alert on her phone that her home surveillance system had detected motion in her driveway.

Surveillance pic

“The surveillance obtained a photo of (her ex’s) truck in front of her driveway,” she told police, noting she was “110 per cent confident” that it was his truck.

When she returned home with her kids on April 19, “she noticed a large crack in her bedroom window, where she and her children sleep,” Naugle said in his information to obtain a warrant filed in Dartmouth provincial court.

On April 20, the woman emailed the constable copies of several photos showing her ex’s white truck parked near her home, and “his blue fishing boat near her house.”

Naugle went to her home the next day, looking to seize the firearms she’d described.

No guns in safe

“I investigated the contents of the gun safe and did not locate any firearms inside. I located hundreds of rounds of ammunition for a variety of different types of firearms and seized them.”

The fearful mom sent the constable another email that day that contained a photo taken near her home of her ex’s white truck. She indicated it was her ex that afternoon, “waiting for us.”

The next day she sent the investigator a photo of her own vehicle with a flat tire that she’d discovered during her son’s birthday.

She later found out a nail had caused the flat and suspected her ex was responsible.

‘Watching us’

Then on April 27, she sent the investigator more photos of her ex’s truck parked near her home. “Watching us again!!!” was the email’s subject line. “Going to get kids.”

The next day, Naugle spoke with her again, learning her ex had moved his guns in the spring of 2022 to his mother’s home about 140 kilometres away in the Annapolis Valley.

“She is considering fleeing the province of Nova Scotia out of fear that (her ex) will kill her,” the Mountie told a justice of the peace to get a search warrant for the mom’s place.

Her former spouse had a valid firearms license, Naugle said.

“In her statement (she) reiterated that (he) owns approximately 15 firearms.”

Sawed-off shotgun

She told police he owned a sawed-off shotgun that he stowed behind his captain’s chair in his fishing boat, and that she’d last seen the weapon in the fall of 2022. She suspected he was doing the same in the boat he had borrowed.

When Naugle contacted the mother’s partner at the end of April, who also has a firearms license, he told police the man they were investigating had begun storing guns at his place in the Annapolis Valley for about 14 months.

“He’s unsure of the exact number of firearms being stored there but he believes there are approximately six in total.”

He told police the man under investigation didn’t have access to the guns and he was willing to hand them over to the Mounties if they got a court order.

‘Harm or kill’

Naugle concluded that the woman has reason to believe her ex “will use those firearms to harm or kill her. (He’s) demonstrated in the past his willingness to commit violence against (her). Moreover, (his) recent stalking behaviour is alarming and has caused (her) to become even more fearful for her safety.”

On May 1, investigators seized a dozen firearms from his mother’s home, including rifles, shotguns, and two small Mossberg Brownie four-shot .22 calibre pistols. None of them were restricted weapons.

The woman’s ex is slated to go to trial this fall on charges of failing to comply with his release conditions in early May, two counts of mischief stemming from events in November and July of last year, choking his ex during an assault last November, threatening to cause her death or bodily harm last November, assaulting her in May of 2017 and sexually assaulting her between Nov. 19, 2022, and last Christmas.