Basil Borutski killed three women on the morning of Tuesday, September 22, 2015, in the Ottawa Valley of eastern Ontario. Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam died within less than an hour at three locations in and around the Combermere area, the village of Wilno and the Eganville area. Each woman had once been in a relationship with Borutski, and each had reason to fear him. In November 2017 a jury in Ottawa found him guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam and of second-degree murder in the death of Carol Culleton. The following month Justice Robert Maranger sentenced him to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 70 years, among the longest such periods ordered in Canada. Borutski died in custody in March 2024.
The case became a central reference point in Canadian discussion of intimate-partner violence. Borutski carried a long record of charges and convictions involving the women in his life. He was on probation and bound by a court prohibition order when the three women died, and he had repeatedly declined to take part in court-ordered programs. A coroner's inquest held in 2022 examined how the danger he posed had been assessed and managed, and its jury returned 86 recommendations, the first of which urged the Province of Ontario to declare intimate-partner violence an epidemic.
Borutski was 57 years old when he was charged in September 2015. He turned 60 during the trial, in the week of October 18, 2017, and was 60 at the time of sentence. He had worked as a millwright. In the Wilno area he was widely known for threats and for violence toward women.
A relationship with a former wife had lasted more than 25 years. In divorce proceedings in 2011 the presiding judge wrote that she alleged a steady pattern of domestic violence, and that two witnesses supported her account. Borutski had earlier succeeded in appealing a conviction connected to her.
By the summer of 2015 the record against him had grown long. Across the years there were more than 30 criminal charges, most of them tied to intimate-partner violence, with convictions on close to half. At the time of the three deaths he was on probation and was subject to a court prohibition order linked to earlier convictions.
Two of those earlier matters concerned women who would later die. In 2012 he was accused of assaulting Nathalie Warmerdam; he was convicted of uttering threats and was sentenced to 150 days, less 117 days already served. It was his first period in custody for intimate-partner violence, and he did not complete a court-ordered partner-assault program. In December 2013 he was convicted of assaulting Anastasia Kuzyk and was sentenced to 17 months in custody followed by two years of probation. Again he did not attend a court-ordered program.
He was released in December 2014 and placed on two years of probation. He refused to sign an order barring contact with Anastasia Kuzyk, and he was released anyway, because a probation order takes legal effect whether or not the person signs it. The refusal drew attention at the time. The executive director of a women's legal clinic, Amanda Dale, said of it: "He was giving somebody a message and the message wasn't properly interpreted." A Toronto defense lawyer made the legal point plainly: "The order becomes valid when it's imposed on him. It's not a question for him to agree or disagree with it."
The scale of his history was later set out at the 2022 inquest. A review by two probation and parole managers, completed about a month after the deaths, found that he had been rated a low risk in April 2013, raised to medium and then to high by February 2015. As his assessed risk rose, contact with him by officials fell away. He was permitted to move closer to one of the women despite objections from police, Crown attorneys and victim services, and he was never charged with breaching his conditions. A referral to a substance-abuse program was never made. The review authors wrote that "there were opportunities missed that would have assisted with the overall case management," and that "there was no followup at any time to gauge how they were managing." A psychologist who gave evidence at the inquest, Dr. Peter Jaffe, said the review was "a report that should have been sent to every probation officer in the province."
A criminal harassment charge brought against him in 2010 by a woman connected to a Wilno tavern did not proceed.
Carol Culleton was 66 years old and lived in the Combermere area, within the Hastings Highlands, a short distance beyond the southern edge of Renfrew County. She had been in a past relationship with Borutski. At trial the Crown told the jury that the relationship had not ended in the way he wanted.
Anastasia Kuzyk was 36 and lived in Wilno. She too had been in a past relationship with Borutski, the one he had been convicted of assaulting in 2013. A Wilno tavern owner who had known her said that she "was quite charmed and didn't believe some of the warnings other women were giving her." After the killings a neighbor in Wilno reflected that "this act of violence opened up the door for lots of uncomfortable conversations about our lives." At the 2022 inquest Kuzyk's sister said, "It would have come as a complete shock to Stasia that things could fall apart in that way."
Nathalie Warmerdam was 48 and lived in the Eganville area. She had been in a relationship with Borutski and had once shared a residence with him; she was the mother of two teenagers in 2015, and her parents and children attended the court proceedings. She had met him through his family, and he had moved in with her household in 2010 at a time when he was already on bail. Conflict began after about two years. The 2012 charge that led to his first custodial term for intimate-partner violence arose from her account.
A friend of Warmerdam's spoke about the limits of the word that is usually attached to a conviction: "I'm very cautious with the word 'justice' because there is no justice in this case." A close friend who spoke at the sentencing said, "My friend's life was valued, and the sentence put the weight on that value, for all of the victims and their families." Warmerdam's father, in a victim impact statement, told the court, "I beg the court to keep this man away from my family and society for the rest of his living days." Her daughter described the strain of grieving while rebuilding a life without her mother, and said the sentence lifted a weight from the family.
The three deaths struck a rural, closely connected part of Ontario. The co-chairs of End Violence Against Women Renfrew County called the day "Renfrew County's December 6th," a reference to the national day of remembrance for violence against women. In Petawawa, a monument beside the river lists the first names of 19 women killed by partners in the region since 1969.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 22, 2015, the three women died at three locations in the Ottawa Valley within less than an hour. The Ontario Provincial Police led the investigation, with its Bancroft detachment involved in the part of the case concerning Carol Culleton. Borutski was arrested the same day near Ottawa by the Ontario Provincial Police, with the Ottawa police assisting.
He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He appeared at the Pembroke courthouse on Wednesday, September 23, 2015, and was remanded to October 5, 2015, under an order not to contact a long list of relatives and acquaintances.
Borutski was tried before a jury in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, with Justice Robert Maranger presiding. The venue was moved from Pembroke to Ottawa. The trial opened on Monday, October 2, 2017, and was scheduled to run into January 2018.
He was unrepresented. He did not enter a plea, and the judge treated his silence as a plea of not guilty. On the final day, recalling the start of the trial, Justice Maranger said, "What's that? You're not guilty? That's the plea that was required at the start of the trial."
The Crown attorney, Jeffery Richardson, opened the case on October 4, 2017, and told the jury that revenge was the motive. "The evidence is overwhelming that Basil Borutski murdered Carol, Anastasia and Nathalie," he said. Because Borutski had chosen to represent himself, a court-appointed lawyer, James Foord, acted as amicus curiae and questioned certain witnesses on Borutski's instructions.
For most of the trial Borutski stayed silent. During the week of October 18 he began taking notes and signaling to the court. A recorded police interview was played to the jury, in which he said he had acted out of anger at what he described as the women's lies and betrayals. On the last day, with the jury out of the room, he told the judge, "That is a lie on your part," and after the charge to the jury he said, "I'm not guilty." Justice Maranger replied, "I did it with exact precision Mr. Borutski." The jury deliberated for about 14 hours.
On Friday, November 24, 2017, in Ottawa, the jury found Borutski guilty of the first-degree murder of Anastasia Kuzyk and of the first-degree murder of Nathalie Warmerdam, and guilty of the second-degree murder of Carol Culleton. Outside the courthouse, Detective Inspector Mark Zulinski of the Ontario Provincial Police said he hoped that "by the conclusion of these proceedings ... these people could move forward in their healing processes." Leighann Burns, of the shelter Harmony House, said, "These women were clearly living in fear and it was known he posed a real risk to them."
The sentencing hearing was held on Tuesday, December 5, 2017, in Pembroke. The Crown asked for 70 years of parole ineligibility, made up of consecutive periods, five years short of the maximum available on three murder convictions. The amicus, James Foord, argued that 40 years was the outer limit and that the total should not be unduly harsh.
Sentence was passed on Wednesday, December 6, 2017, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice at Pembroke, on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Justice Maranger imposed life imprisonment for each murder. For each first-degree murder he set parole ineligibility at 25 years, and for the second-degree murder at 20 years, and he ordered the three periods to run consecutively, for 70 years in total. Borutski, then 60, would have been about 128 years old before he could apply for parole.
Borutski gave no answer when the judge asked if he had anything to say. Justice Maranger described the killings as the "vicious, cold-blooded" murder of three "innocent, beloved women," and he called Borutski a "violent, vindictive, calculating abuser of women" who "seems incapable of taking responsibility for his many wrongs." He said that "from time to time, a crime is so deplorable, so devoid of mercy, so cold-blooded," and he called the day one of "the saddest, darkest days" in the history of Renfrew County. The Crown attorney said the sentence "sends a strong message that deplorable crimes will receive significant sentences," and added that "no verdict and no sentence can make up for the enormous loss that these women were." The Correctional Service of Canada later recorded the indeterminate sentence as commencing on December 6, 2017.
Borutski did not bring an appeal. The convictions and the sentence stood from December 2017 onward.
Ontario's Regional Supervising Coroner for Inquests, Dr. David Cameron, announced a coroner's inquest into the three deaths. It opened on Monday, June 6, 2022, at a conference center in Pembroke, with roughly 30 witnesses expected and about 15 sitting days planned. The stated purpose was to examine the circumstances of the deaths and, as the coroner's office put it, to "make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths." The presiding officer was Leslie Reaume, and a five-member jury heard the evidence. Four parties were granted standing, among them the Province of Ontario, and the inquest ran for about three weeks.
Much of the evidence concerned how the risk Borutski posed had been handled. The probation and parole review completed after the deaths was placed before the jury, as was expert testimony on supervision of high-risk offenders. On June 16, 2022, the inquest heard that Borutski had been prohibited by a court order tied to his earlier convictions.
On June 28, 2022, the jury found that all three deaths were homicides and issued 86 recommendations. Seventy-two had been proposed by the parties and accepted, and the jury added 14 of its own. None were binding, and most were directed at the Province of Ontario. The first was to "formally declare intimate partner violence as an epidemic." Others called for closer probation monitoring of high-risk offenders, electronic monitoring, a review of mandatory charging policies, a mechanism for police to disclose a person's history to a new partner, the addition of coercive control and femicide to the Criminal Code, an independent commission, a survivor advocate and an implementation committee.
Warmerdam's daughter, who had testified, said after the verdict, "These recommendations are a good start, if they're actioned. That's a big if," and, "I am furious, and I want change." She also described what she believed had been absent in the years before her mother's death: "He needed to have his community tell him that there was a problem and that he needed to get help to change it." The presiding officer said, "I sincerely hope that this inquest will lead to real and lasting change." A lawyer who gave evidence, Pamela Cross, told the inquest, "These deaths don't end. They didn't end in 2015, or any of the seven years between now and then."
The Province of Ontario responded in stages. In a first response on February 17, 2023, the government reported progress on a little more than half of the recommendations. Warmerdam's son said he was disappointed that the recommendations focused on the conduct of offenders had drawn no response. At that point no federal answer had come on the proposal to add femicide to the Criminal Code.
In a second response published on June 28, 2023, the government addressed 30 recommendations, accepting or partly accepting 22 and rejecting eight. Among those rejected were the call to declare intimate-partner violence an epidemic, the proposed independent commission, the survivor advocate and the implementation committee. The government said that intimate-partner violence "would not be considered an epidemic as it is not an infectious or communicable disease." Kirsten Mercer, counsel for End Violence Against Women Renfrew County, answered that "it is a sociological phenomenon. It is a society-wide problem."
Borutski died on March 28, 2024, in a federal institution in Ontario, of what the Correctional Service of Canada described as apparent natural causes. The service announced the death on April 2, 2024, recording that he had been serving an indeterminate sentence that commenced on December 6, 2017, for first-degree and second-degree murder. As it does with every death in custody, the service notified police and the coroner and said it would review the circumstances.
Advocates in the region turned attention away from the man. Erika Mullins, of End Violence Against Women Renfrew County, said, "I just don't want the focus to be on him," and, "We want focus to be on the families." Erin Lee, of Lanark County Interval House, said, "I hope that this creates an opportunity for peace for many families."
Canadian law divides murder into two degrees. The Criminal Code provides at section 231 that "murder is first degree murder or second degree murder," and that murder is first degree "when it is planned and deliberate." A conviction for murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Under section 745, first-degree murder brings life with no eligibility for parole until 25 years have been served, while second-degree murder brings life with ineligibility of at least 10 years and up to 25, fixed by the court.
The 70-year total in this case was possible because of a provision added to the Code in 2011. Section 745.51 allows the trial judge, having regard to the character of the offender and the nature and circumstances of the offense, to order that the parole-ineligibility periods for separate murder convictions be served one after another, with reasons given. It applies to murders committed after the section came into force. That provision is what allowed the periods of 25, 25 and 20 years to be stacked into 70. On three murder convictions the maximum available was 75 years, which is why the Crown described its request as five years short of the maximum.
A coroner's inquest in Ontario is a public hearing before a jury of five that seeks to inform the public about the circumstances of a death. Its recommendations are not binding, and the Chief Coroner cannot compel anyone to act on them, though recipients are asked to respond. The sentence in this case was passed on December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, a point several of those involved drew attention to.
The nature of Carol Culleton's relationship with Borutski has been described in more than one way, from a former partnership to an account that she had recently rejected his advances. The precise places of two of the deaths are given at slightly different points on the map of the Ottawa Valley.
More than 25 years before 2011: a long relationship with a former wife, later described in divorce proceedings as marked by domestic violence.
2010: Borutski moves in with Nathalie Warmerdam's household while on bail; a harassment charge connected to a Wilno tavern is laid and does not proceed.
2012: convicted of uttering threats in a matter involving Nathalie Warmerdam; sentenced to 150 days, less 117 served.
December 2013: convicted of assaulting Anastasia Kuzyk; sentenced to 17 months and two years of probation.
December 2014: released on two years of probation; refuses to sign an order barring contact with Anastasia Kuzyk and is released regardless.
September 22, 2015: Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam die within less than an hour; Borutski is arrested near Ottawa and charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
September 23, 2015: first court appearance in Pembroke; remanded to October 5, 2015.
October 2, 2017: trial opens in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa, Borutski unrepresented.
November 24, 2017: jury finds him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one of second-degree murder.
December 6, 2017: sentenced to life with no parole eligibility for 70 years.
June 6, 2022: coroner's inquest into the three deaths opens in Pembroke.
June 28, 2022: inquest jury finds all three deaths were homicides and issues 86 recommendations.
February 17, 2023: Ontario's first response reports progress on a little more than half of the recommendations.
June 28, 2023: Ontario's second response accepts or partly accepts 22 of 30 recommendations and rejects eight, including the epidemic declaration.
March 28, 2024: Borutski dies in a federal institution in Ontario; the death is announced on April 2, 2024.