Double murder arrests dismantle Aylmer drug ring

Laurent Robillard-Cardinal

The Sûreté du Québec alleged during a May 8 press conference at their local headquarters that two assassins hired by an Aylmer narcotrafficker are responsible for Amanda Trottier and Travis Voutour’s death.

The mystery started to unravel on May 5 when the SQ made their first in a series of arrests in connection with Aylmer’s 2014 double-murder.

As police strategically released tidbits of information throughout the week, the portrait remained hazy until May 8 when police held a press conference to crystallize the image.

The first arrest police made was that of Aylmer resident Sonia Vilon, 39, followed by René Samson VonRichter, 24. Both formed a couple, and police accused each of premeditated murder. Unlike Vilon, apprehended in Aylmer, Samson VonRichter was already in detention for crimes unrelated to the 158 de la Terrasse-Eardley case.

A few days after the initial arrest, police nabbed 34-year-old Ronald Junior Brazeau, allegedly the head of a drug trafficking network “very active” in Aylmer, and charged him on two counts of first-degree murder.

According to police, the 16-month long investigation tends to confirm that Brazeau ordered the murders of Travis Voutour and Amanda Trottier, both 23 and found dead inside their de la Terrasse-Eardley home on January 6, 2014. A family member made the initial discovery on the home’s ground floor, and found Amanda Trottier’s unharmed three-year old child upstairs.

The SQ’s investigation, carried out with Gatineau police, also contributed to the dismantling of a drug trafficking network which Voutour had apparently antagonized.

“At the time, it was believed that the victims were caught stealing drugs from that organization. We can now confirm that Brazeau paid the two arrested suspects, Vilon and Samson VonRichter, (an undisclosed amount) to retaliate for the stolen drugs,” said SQ spokesperson Marc Tessier.

Therefore, the SQ’s initial presumption that the double-homicide was likely a setting of accounts is now even more plausible.

To come to this conclusion, investigators talked to about 200 persons, including those met on December 8, 2014, when the SQ set up a mobile command post at the corner of Front Street and Allumettières Boulevard. Despite this string of arrests, the case remains open.

“The investigation is not over. Some of the individuals we arrested could face more charges in several days,” said Tessier, who added that the SQ arrested everyone they had on their radar.

Besides the three suspects, each charged on two counts of first-degree murder, the SQ arrested six individuals involved in the drug tracking network allegedly headed by Brazeau. Seizures in three Aylmer homes and two in Quyon allowed police to impound 13 kg of marijuana, four firearms, and an undisclosed amount of cash.

Vilon and Samson-VonRichter are scheduled to return to court on May 22.