Neighbour, brother recall night of Fort Liard man’s killing

When Douglas Bertrand rushed to his neighbour’s Fort Liard home, he found Danny Klondike near death from a chest wound. Only when he turned to leave did Bertrand notice a baby behind the front door.

Testifying on the second day of Selena Lomen’s second-degree murder trial, Bertrand told a Yellowknife courtroom the baby had “lots of blood on him.” He remembered summoning his common-law wife for help.

Lomen is accused of murdering Klondike, her common-law husband, in Fort Liard on October 28, 2018.

The baby was not physically injured in the altercation that led to Klondike’s death.

Lomen sat with her head down, at times wiping her eyes, as Bertrand recalled the scene he encountered early that morning.

He described finding 34-year-old Klondike on a couch, his head tilted backwards, after Lomen had banged on Bertrand’s door and exclaimed she had “stabbed Danny.”

Bertrand said Klondike was still breathing but was in obvious distress. He decided to return to his house as his wife was calling the Fort Liard Health Centre. 

When Bertrand later came back to the home of Klondike and Lomen, he discovered Klondike had moved: he was face-down on the floor, his head pointing at the doorway. He was also unresponsive.

Grabbing a nearby towel, Bertrand rolled him over and placed a towel under his head. Bertrand then again returned to his house and called RCMP.

“You guys are too late,” Bertrand can be heard saying in the background of a recording of the call.

Couple were ‘having a good time’

There had been a Halloween party and fireworks display just hours earlier in the community.

Lomen, Klondike, and Klondike’s brother, Dolan, had attended. Dolan Klondike told the court he had seen Lomen and Klondike “having a good time” but neither appeared overly intoxicated.

He last saw his little brother at about 2am. He was awakened at his family home a couple of hours later – he said he had passed out on his couch – by 21-year-old Lomen.

“I yelled to my mom, ‘I think Selena did something to my brother,'” recalled Dolan Klondike, who then went to his brother’s house, finding him dead.

Dolan said the couple had been “close together” in their relationship but added his brother had told him Lomen threatened suicide earlier that year.

The trial is scheduled to last two weeks.

The Crown and defence agree Lomen unlawfully caused Klondike’s death by stabbing him in the chest with a knife.

At issue is the question of intent. To be convicted of second-degree murder, the Crown must prove the homicide was intentional.

The trial continues.