Warning: Graphic content
A man who has pleaded guilty to murdering and dismembering his wife in Sackville, N.B., was sentenced Monday for second-degree murder.
The charge comes with an automatic life sentence and a judge has determined he will not be eligible to apply for parole for 24 years.
Roger Hilyard Crossman also pleaded guilty to a charge of indignity to a human body or human remains.
Police found Marlene Crossman’s remains after a wellness check at her Sackville home on Oct. 12, 2023. She was 59 years old at the time.
According to court documents, they were married for close to 37 years and had two sons.
Crossman did not appear in Moncton’s Court of King’s Bench to hear Justice Maya Hamou hand down her decision. Court heard that he was in the hospital. He has Stage 4 lymphoma and refused treatment, according to his defence lawyer Martin Siscoe.
Court adjourned briefly Monday morning to allow for Crossman to join the proceedings virtually from his hospital room.
The court heard he’s submitted an application for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID).
The Crown suggested to proceed without him. But Justice Hamou said his absence would defeat the availability of witnesses to read victim impact statements to him.
“I’m not prepared to adjourn this hearing because he wants to avail himself to MAID. You don’t get to opt out of your sentencing hearing,” she said.
What happened
The day of the murder, Marlene’s supervisor at the Amherst Theater noticed she hadn’t shown up for work and missed an appointment with a potential cast member.
Court documents say he found that abnormal, as he saw her as a punctual person who answered messages quickly.
He grew concerned when she didn’t answer his texts or calls and went to her residence to check on her. The Crossman’s vehicle wasn’t in the driveway but the light was on inside and the front door wasn’t locked.
Around 4:04 p.m., he called Sackville RCMP for a wellbeing check. When officers arrived, they found a series of staged body parts accompanied by handwritten notes in and through the house.
Officers reportedly found:
- both breasts
- a left eye
- a left hand
- the head
- genitals
“Looking down the hallway, the officers saw the head of an older female placed on a towel so it would be facing whoever would look down the hallway. The head was missing the left eye. A little further, there was a left hand, cut off at the wrist,” reads the court’s statement of facts.
A note next to the hand said, “Let me give you a hand.”
The missing body parts led to the back bedroom, where police found the body next to two knives and a hatchet.
An autopsy found her death was caused by three sharp force injuries to the chest and abdomen.
Investigators suggest Crossman killed his wife in the bathtub then moved her body through the hallway to the bedroom where he dismembered her.
Court documents say he turned himself in that day at the RCMP Antigonish detachment, where he told police his relationship with Marlene was terrible and he wanted more affection.
Statement of facts
During sentencing on Monday, four people read victim impact statements and 10 statements were filed in total. According to the statement of facts, witnesses described Marlene as a good mother, sister, friend and colleague.
One of their sons said it felt like his parents fought every day, sometimes hearing statements from Crossman like, “I should kill her for that,” according to court documents.
Marlene had also confided in a longtime friend that her husband threatened to kill her on numerous occasions.
“During one lunch together, Marlene told a friend, ‘I’m telling you right now. When they find me dead, I want you to make sure that you tell everybody that Roger did it because it’s going to happen,’” reads the statement of facts.
With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Josh Smith
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