’She saved herself’

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This article was published 09/06/2023 (862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ERICKSON — The woman who came to the aid of the victim of a violent home invasion said that she isn’t the hero — rather, the woman saved herself.

Muriel Safroniuk said she gave basic first aid to Candace Richardson after she managed to escape her attacker and make her way across the street to Safroniuk’s house.

“I’m so impressed, because a lot of people would have just curled up in the corner hoping that someone would find them,” Safroniuk told the Sun. “She saved herself… she’s a very amazing person.”

Safroniuk hadn’t formally met Richardson before that night, though she knew Richardson’s fiancé, Scott, who is from Erickson, as he had grown up around the same time as Safroniuk’s kids.

While most people might have been asleep in early Tuesday, Safroniuk was instead lying on her couch listening to a true-crime podcast in which the woman featured had just been found with her throat slashed.

Suddenly, a figure who was swaying back and forth appeared on Safroniuk’s doorstep. At first, Safroniuk didn’t know who it was and thought it was someone who was drunk.

“Go away,” Safroniuk recalled yelling. She realized her door was unlocked, and the person opened the door and walked in.

“Help me!” She remembers the person saying before falling to the floor.

When Safroniuk turned on the lights, she found Richardson, unrecognizable and covered in blood.

Safroniuk, a former nurse, began to cut off Richardson’s shirt to assess her wounds and wipe away blood.

“She looked like the movie ‘Carrie,’ where they dumped the blood. Because she was from the tip of her head to her waist, completely saturated (in blood),” Safroniuk said.

“She saved herself… she’s a very amazing person.”–Muriel Safroniuk, neighbour

Safroniuk said that Richardson, who is pregnant, had wounds on her hands from defending herself.

“She fought. She fought like a warrior,” Safroniuk said.

Safroniuk’s husband, Larry, called 911 while Safroniuk relayed the nature of the wounds to the 911 operator.

“I could see it had been a prolonged attack. She had been beaten. She had been stabbed. Her throat was cut. I mean, somebody was after her,” Safroniuk said.

“Had she not got out she would not have made it, in my medical opinion,” Safroniuk said.

Richardson was violently attacked while sleeping in her basement around 2 a.m. on Tuesday.

Richardson and her finance, Scott McMunn, had moved their bed to the basement because of the heat. McMunn had been away that night, staying at a friend’s home in Onanole after a day of playing golf in Clear Lake, his father Jim McMunn told the Sun.

The attacker apparently got into the house by sliding his hand under a screen and unlocking the door.

He proceeded down the stairs to the basement, where he violently attacked Richardson. He slammed her head against the TV, stabbed her 10 times, including twice in the chest and once in the abdomen and the head. She later had to have a piece of broken knife blade surgically removed from her skull.

Richardson lost consciousness and when she came to, she discovered the attacker had left. Fearing that he might return to finish her off, she made her way up the stairs, out through the garage, and over to Safroniuk’s house.

“I could see it had been a prolonged attack. She had been beaten. She had been stabbed. Her throat was cut. I mean, somebody was after her.”

Jim McMunn, who received the call from emergency responders about Richardson, informed his son she was being airlifted to Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre.

Richardson’s family believe the attacker left because he thought she was dead. They believe the attack was random. The family also said that nothing was stolen from the home.

Jim McMunn, a longtime resident and pharmacist in Erickson, said the outpouring of support from the community has been overwhelming and he is grateful for all of the wishes for Richardson’s speedy recovery, though he said that the healing of the physical and mental effects of the attack will take some time for both Richardson and her fiancé.

“Everyone is wishing her a speedy recovery and we’re thankful for that. And we wish her a speedy recovery. But I can tell you that it’s not going to be a speedy recovery for either of them, though,” McMunn said.

McMunn has lived in Erickson since 1988 and said that this kind of violence is unusual for the town.

“We’ve never had anything like this,” McMunn said.

While Richardson remains in stable condition with her fiancé by her side, their restaurant inside the Erickson Curling Club remains closed. Curling Club building manager Scott Gray donated the perishable food to a food bank at the couple’s request.

“They’re very generous,” Gray said of the couple. “They’ve been popular, people like them, they’re friendly, they’re certainly well known with the people that are coming in here.”

“My wife locks the door all the time now, (she) tells my son to lock the door… It’s really shaken a lot of people.”

Richardson and McMunn own and run the restaurant themselves. Gray said the couple had only opened the restaurant less than a year ago, but has already been a success.

Gray said the crime has sparked fear in the community.

“My wife locks the door all the time now, (she) tells my son to lock the door,” Gray said. “It’s really shaken a lot of people.”

RCMP arrested an 18-year-old man Wednesday afternoon. At press time, he had not been officially charged but RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre told the Sun that he expects the man will face charges of attempted murder, break and enter, and relevant weapons charges.

The suspect is scheduled to appear in Brandon court this morning.

— Brandon Sun