Judie Thibault was troubled in the days leading up to her disappearance, according to testimony from her family and friends.
On Nov. 17, 2000, the Friday before Thibault went missing, she met her cousin Alice Hill at the Robin’s Donuts coffee shop on Balmoral Street.
“She was very upset,” Hill said. “She looked terrible and she was crying. She was not good.”
Hill testified Thursday on the fourth day of the first-degree murder trial of Michael Kelly, 65, who faces the charge in connection with the disappearance and death of 57-year-old Judie Thibault.
Thibault was reported missing in November 2000. Her body was discovered near Wolf Lake in August 2004.
Hill said Thibault told her that Kelly, her common-law spouse at the time, was running up debt on her credit cards and that she gave him an ultimatum to get a job or she would end the relationship.
Before arriving for coffee that day, Thibault told Hill she had forgotten something and had to return to her home. She had trouble with the lock and Kelly, who was home, became angry with her.
When she finally arrived at Robin’s, it was clear she was troubled, Hill told the court.
“I was worried…I put my arm around her and walked her to her car,” she said.
“That was the last time I had seen her.”
The following Tuesday, the accused phoned Hill and asked if Thibault had spent the night at her house.
She then accompanied Kelly to Thibault’s camp at Marks Lake to see if she had been at the camp. There was no sign that a vehicle had been at the camp recently; the ground was covered in an untouched blanket of snow.
Longtime friend and co-worker Toni Simmons said one to two weeks before Thibault went missing, Thibault told her during a phone conversation that she was planning to break things off with Kelly after the holidays and that they had been fighting.
When Kelly’s lawyer Gil Labine asked Simmons if Thibault had specified the fighting as being verbal, Simmons said she understood it to be physical from bruises she had seen on Thibault.
Thibault’s cousin Susan Verrill also testified that Thibault told her during a party around Oct. 21, 2000 that Kelly was becoming rough with her and that she was going to give him an ultimatum that if he didn’t start working, he would have to leave.
“I started to ask her questions about how she was going to keep herself safe,” Verrill said. “I was fearful for Judie at that point.”
The court also heard from Thunder Bay Police Services’ Const. Chris Rasmussen, who examined Thibault’s car after it was found abandoned at the Intercity Shopping Centre shortly after her disappearance in 2000.
Rasmussen said there was no evidence that Kelly had been in the vehicle. He also found no fingerprints from Thibault.
“There’s no evidence Judie Thibault was shot or killed in that car,” he said.
The trial continues Friday and is expected to take up to three weeks to complete.
