Killing suspect free on bail

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2010 (5797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man charged recently with the cold-case killing of a transgendered Winnipeg sex-trade worker has been released on bail pending his trial.

Ted Herntier, 40, will be allowed to live on a Brandon-area farm with family members who agreed Wednesday to post $100,000 in sureties that will be lost if there are any breaches. The Crown was opposed to Herntier’s release.

“Even a minor breach here, for you and your family, would be quite devastating,” Queen’s Bench Justice Rick Saull said in granting Herntier’s bid for freedom on strict conditions, which include a nightly curfew and an order to hand in his passport. A court-ordered ban prevents specific evidentiary details presented at the hearing from being published.

Herntier was arrested in July and charged with second-degree murder for the September 2004 slaying of 28-year-old Divas Boulanger. Her body turned up several weeks later outside a Trans-Canada Highway rest stop east of Portage la Prairie, a victim of what an autopsy determined was blunt-force trauma.

Police said Boulanger’s murder happened inside Winnipeg before her body was dumped. Divas B. was the street name for David Joseph Boulanger, who was born a male and originally hailed from Berens River First Nation, about 270 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Boulanger lived as a woman and became mired in drug addiction and the sex trade.

Last year, the RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service announced a dedicated task force to examine 84 unsolved cases of murdered and missing women. That task force was involved in the investigation into Boulanger’s death, along with other officers from the RCMP and the Winnipeg police missing persons unit.

Street sex-trade workers speculated after Boulanger’s death that she might have been murdered after a violent john picked her up. But RCMP said earlier this summer there is no reason to suspect a link between Boulanger’s death and any other unsolved homicides.

Herntier was arrested while working at an oil rig in Arcola, Sask. He has family in Winnipeg, including a brother who works for the Winnipeg Police Service. Family and friends have described Herntier as a free spirit with a thirst for adventure who loves exploring the world through his prized possession, a blue-and-white sailboat he christened “Wish You Were Here.”

At the time of his arrest, he was hours away from heading out to British Columbia to meet a woman he’d befriended during a previous trip to Mexico. The trip was supposed to follow a typical pattern for Herntier — spend a few months working the oil rigs to save some cash and hit the high seas. He would pocket close to $7,000 a month, which was plenty to finance a luxurious lifestyle for a man who was divorced, had no children and had paid off his debts, including a residence in the Swan River area.

Herntier appeared in court Wednesday wearing a dark suit, his long hair pulled back into a ponytail. He is being represented by defence lawyer Martin Glazer. No trial dates have been set.

www.mikeoncrime.com