Pembroke is investigating the murder of three women in the Ottawa Valley.
Basil Borutxi killed Carol Culton, Anastasia Kuzik and Natalie Wormerdam in September 2015 in the Renfrew district. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting of Kuzik and Warmerdam and one charge of second-degree murder in the suffocating death of Culleton.
Borutsky had connections with all three women he killed. He spent twice in prison before the killings after two of the victims accused him of assaulting and threatening.
The coroner’s investigation, which began Monday at the Best Western Pembroke Inn and Conference Center, will look at the circumstances surrounding the deaths and may make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths. It will last 15 days and will be heard by about 30 witnesses.
“Some changes need to come out to make people safer; which make women safer, “said Zou Zu Kuzik, Anastasia Kuzik’s sister. “The day of her death is what comes back to me here.”
Kuzik was the first to testify on Monday. Natalie Wormerdam’s daughter Valerie also spoke on Monday.
“You have to build a system that not only catches monsters… Because then it will always be too late,” she said.
Warmerdam describes Borutsky, who has lived with the family for two years, as a “stepfather” who taught her how to pluck chicken and cook a daughter. She mentioned that the way they looked at Borutski when her mother was killed was not the way they had looked at him before, although her mother had interrupted him and people knew she had gone to the police.
“Friends of Basil and hers came to the house and talked about how you could.” How could you do that to him? “
Making victims feel guilty is just one of the problems the investigation hopes to tackle. Others include a criminal justice system that failed to convict Borutsky’s story of abuse before the triple murder.
“It will be a complete shock to Stasi that things can fall apart in this way, that systems can fail, and that is what we need to change,” Kuzik said.
Advocacy groups say the investigation comes at a time when stressors leading to domestic violence are high.
“The incidents have increased because of the pandemic,” said Joan Brooks, coordinator of the End to Violence Against Women in Renfrew County.
Discussions also touched on the rural culture of looking after one’s own business and the connection with the culture of weapons.
At the end of the investigation, the five-member jury will have the task of considering eight public policy issues. A lawyer will then turn it into a report with recommendations.
Borutsky will die in prison. In 2017, at the age of 60, he received a life sentence without a chance of parole for 70 years.
–With files from Stefan Keys, Josh Pringle and Dylan Dyson from CTV News Ottawa.
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