Mounties recount finding body

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This article was published 06/09/2023 (1101 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The body of a 61-year-old Ninette woman was found wrapped in a tarp in the basement of her home two years ago, a courtroom heard Tuesday morning.

Catherine Mass’ body was found on March 12, 2021, by Killarney RCMP Const. David Kennedy, who was the Crown’s first witness in the trial of Nicholas Joseph Mass. Nicholas pleaded not guilty to second degree murder of his mother, Catherine.

The court also heard from Const. Scott Shearman, who was Kennedy’s partner and also went to the Mass home that day.

Kennedy and Shearman detailed the events of police finding Mass’ body.

Kennedy told the court that he had been called to complete a well-being check on Catherine Mass. He and Shearman went to Mass’ Ninette home. They knocked on both doors to the home and received no response. The officers peered into the garage window and saw that Catherine’s car was parked inside.

After Shearman called their supervisor, the decision was made for the officers to enter the home. They used a prybar tool to enter the home. Once inside, announced their presence numerous times without response.

A search of the upstairs of the home yielded no results, except for a purse that was on the floor next to a bed, Kennedy testified.

The officers then decided to search the basement to find Catherine. Once downstairs, nobody responded to their announcements of police presence. The door to a bedroom was closed, and officers knocked on the door. Again, receiving no response, officers opened the door to find Nicholas Mass seated at a desk, facing toward the officers, staring at his laptop with headphones over his ears.

Officers called out to him, but he didn’t respond. The officers then shone their flashlights into Nicholas’ eyes to get his attention. When Nicholas did not respond to police, Kennedy approached him and touched his arm to get a response.

At that point, Kennedy told the court that Nicholas turned toward him. After turning off what sounded to Kennedy like music coming from the headphones, Kennedy asked Nicholas where his mother was.

Nicholas said that he didn’t speak to police unless he had a lawyer and made a comment about not talking with police after George Floyd.

Kennedy said he advised Nicholas that he was not in custody and that officers were looking for his mother.

Shearman went upstairs to update the detachment supervisor, while Kennedy searched the basement again. He testified that he saw a space between the couch in the main part of the basement and the far wall. Behind the couch was a pile of blankets. When Kennedy removed the blankets, he saw a tarp with an outline of a body.

He touched the tarp and feeling a head and shoulders, told his partner that they should arrest Nicholas for murder. The tarp was wrapped with an extension cord and packaging tape.

Cross-examination of both officers by defence lawyer Saul Simmonds focused on the history of police interaction with both Nicholas and Catherine. Simmonds said that Catherine had interactions with Killarney RCMP numerous times, including once in 2019 when she called authorities to report that Nicholas had taken three hits of LSD and flooded the basement. He pursued lines of questioning with both officers about the complaints Catherine made to the RCMP not involving any physical violence between her and Nicholas.

He pressed both officers on whether they had information about reports about Nicholas’ hallucinogenic drug use, his psychiatric history or reports about Catherine having suicidal tendencies before the constables went into the home for the well-being check.

Simmonds also questioned the officers on their expertise to recognize the signs of someone coming down from psychedelic drugs. Both testified that they weren’t experts and that they did not ask Nicholas if he was on any drugs when they arrested him.

The defence lawyer also carried out similar lines of questioning with both officers about whether they found Nicholas’ behaviour at the time of his arrest odd and cited the transcript of the preliminary hearing of the matter where, under oath, Shearman called Nicholas’ behaviour “bizarre.”

The trial is scheduled for eight days.

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