Francis Proulx charged with murder
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Francis Proulx charged with murder
To Nancy Michaud, Riviere-Ouelle was a peaceful farming community on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River where citizens never thought to lock their doors.
But townsfolk fear the tranquillity of their picturesque village has forever been broken after police found Michaud's lifeless body in the basement of an abandoned, dilapidated house a few kilometres from her home.
Police say somebody dragged Michaud, who worked as a political aide to a high-profile provincial cabinet minister, from her house in the middle of the night while her two young boys slept.
Riviere-Ouelle native Francis Proulx, 29, was charged Monday with first-degree murder in her death. (story)
Provincial police say Francis Proulx, 29, has been arraigned in Quebec City in the death of Nancy Michaud. Police say Proulx may face other charges, including kidnapping, confinement and robbery.
Michaud's death has shocked residents in the small town of Riviere-Ouelle, northeast of Quebec City.
Police say there was a violent struggle when Michaud, an aide to Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard, was abducted from her home early Friday morning while her two young boys slept.
Acting on a tip, police found Michaud's body Sunday in the basement of an abandoned house a few kilometres from her home.
Posted by JT at 10:35 AM
On Thursday, May 22, 2008
Death of Nancy Michaud: "It is an act of weakness"
Citing the Bible, Lise Hudon contends that her 29-year-old boy has become a lost sheep in a lost world.
Reporter Marc Larouche
Saint-Pascal
The apartment is pretty, in order. Inside, silence. The silence of a mother pierced to the heart. Lise Hudon is 50 years old. The mother of the one who is accused of killing Nancy Michaud, Francis Proulx, is wounded. Since she learned the charges hanging over her son, she gets up crying and goes to bed in tears. Between the two, it is difficult to eat. She tries to understand.
"When I heard the radio news of the arrest of a thin man with a small car, in my heart as a mother I knew. It was my son. My son is unique. My little Francis, is mild, "she said sobbing. "I can not cry. I have no more tears.. "I am proud to be a Jehovah's Witness."
Hudon, was traced down by journalist Catherine Handfield La Presse, and agreed to confide to the Sun this evening. She says that as a young man, her son adhered to his religion. "I've always left the door open."
Citing the Bible continually, she maintains that her 29-year-old boy has become a lost sheep in a wicked world. "It is written that Jehovah God is close to those who have broken the heart and save those who have crushed the spirit."
She looks at the sky, relies on her God. "Francis has never been lucky. He experienced hardships, injustice, misery. "Her eyes, which light up when talking about her son, contrast with sadness without a name that betrays an expression of her face.
Lise Hudon has not had an easy life. His son neither. "I was mother-daughter when I was pregnant with Francis, 20 years ago. I got married three months later, to ensure protection. But his father was violent. It is perhaps hereditary."
She last saw her son this winter. "I told him he had always been my sunshine. I felt it with all my heart, but he seemed so unhappy. It left me with a sad smile. I asked him to forgive me if there were things I had not really done for him. He did not speak, but listened.
"The Bible says that even the sage becomes insane. It is a stroke of madness. Francis did this to stop suffering. This gesture, for him, as if it had wanted to tell the world: look, this is what I feel deeply for all the evil that I was done. (...) But he must be repentant of his gesture. It's not malice. It is an act of weakness. "
She remembers an event marring the childhood of her only son. "When he was 14 years, he attended high school Riviere-du-Loup. He told me that other young students would humiliate him due to his religious faith. Francis was deeply wounded by this unjust world. He always kept it inside him. (...) When the accumulation became too big, it broke out. "
No drugs
Lise Hudon was sure that her son did not take drugs. But before what she called "the event", he had stopped taking his antidepressants." This is what put him on a path where he could not come back. My little sheep. Sweet like a little lamb. I did my best to raise him. All my best. I feel like a poor woman, a poor wife, a poor unfortunate mother", just say I want to see my son.
"I'd like to see him speak, even though I know it will be difficult." Does she have a message for the family of Nancy Michaud? "I know so well Madeleine (her mother). I know them all so well. We were good neighbors. One day I want to go see them. I would like to hug them. Tell them that I am sorry for my son. Tell them I love them, I think of them, I pray for them. "