Woman hid in bush for 11 hours to escape former partner

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This article was published 21/08/2024 (431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 37-year-old woman was forced to hide in the woods for 11 hours to escape her former partner, who then killed her parents and brother, in what RCMP called “a horrific act of intimate partner violence.”

Manitoba Mounties provided harrowing details Wednesday about the series of events that led to a triple murder-suicide that rocked the small western Manitoba community of McCreary Friday morning.

“This is no doubt an incredibly trying and difficult time for all,” said RCMP major crimes Staff Sgt. Richard Sherring, telling reporters he was to provide the timeline that homicide and forensic investigators pieced together over the past several days.

“What I will be sharing is an absolutely horrific act of intimate partner violence. This is the second act of such violence, with multiple homicides, within the province in the past six months.”

Sherring was referring to the killings of five people in the Carman area in February.

Sherring confirmed the McCreary killer was Marlon “Mano” David Glover, 41. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound later Friday morning.

The horror began at about 1:20 a.m., Sherring said, when Glover forcefully entered the home of his 37-year-old former common-law wife. The woman had obtained a protection order against Glover last November, after their split last summer.

She was able to escape to a nearby wooded area and hid for hours, Sherring said, where she remained until Mounties found her at about 12:40 p.m. and took her for medical treatment as a precaution.

“I can only imagine it must have been terrifying for her, after the ordeal that she had endured prior to escaping and hiding. I can expect that she was terrified,” said Sherring, adding she escaped a short time after Glover arrived.

Glover then drove to the nearby home of the woman’s relatives and killed three people — her 35-year-old brother, 65-year-old father and 66-year-old mother. It is unclear to investigators, at this point, when the homicide victims were shot.

Community members and social media posts have identified the two older victims as Curtis and Rita Rosenkranz.

Glover later parked his vehicle by the side of the road on Road 84 West in the municipality of McCreary and shot himself.

Mounties from the Ste. Rose du Lac detachment were called about Glover’s body at about 10:10 a.m. That was the first call they received related to the incidents.

A half-hour after Glover’s body was found, Ste. Rose du Lac RCMP were called to check on the well-being of Glover’s estranged partner. She was not at her home when officers arrived, so they continued on to her relatives’ home at Provincial Road 462 and Road 84 West. There, they found the homicide victims.

Sherring said Mounties obtained a production order, signed by a judge, to seize Glover’s two firearms, ammunition and his possession-and-acquisition licence, a day after the protection order was sworn. Sherring said those guns and ammunition were not returned. He said investigators are still working to determine how Glover obtained the firearm he used in the killings, including whether a firearm may have remained in his possession unbeknownst to officials or if it was borrowed.

RCMP recovered the gun used in the killings and sent it for processing.

The three-year protection order, which has been reviewed by the Free Press, barred Glover from following the woman, directly or indirectly communicating with her, being within 100 metres of her home or work, and entering and staying in any place she happened to be, with some exceptions for official matters, such as custody hearings regarding their children.

In her protection order hearing before a judicial justice of the peace in Dauphin in November, the woman accused Glover of stalking her after the couple split in July, being emotionally abusive and exhibiting coercive behaviour, which a court official called domestic violence.

“He’s a manipulator, he’s a narcissist, he’s controlling, he’s the whole nine yards,” the woman told the court during the protection order hearing.

RCMP were called multiple times regarding the order since it was put in place, Sherring confirmed.

Asked what can be done to ensure protection orders are followed, the Mountie said any violations must be reported.

“It comes down to everybody working together and if there’s a situation where there is intimate partner violence and a protection order is in place, if you’re aware that these things are in place, and people are aware that people are breaching these orders, to call the police,” said Sherring.

“We can’t act or help if we’re not made aware.”

The other multiple homicides Sherring referred to happened outside Carman on Feb. 11.

Ryan Howard Manoakeesick, 29, is accused of five counts of first-degree murder in killings of his partner, 30-year-old Amanda Clearwater, her children — two-month-old Isabella, four-year-old Jayven and six-year-old Bethany — and Clearwater’s 17-year-old niece Myah-Lee Gratton.

His charges remain before the court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

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