Court documents tell of troubled family

Court documents obtained by CTV News are shedding more light onto the murders of three family members in a rural home near St. Leon in 2005.

The documents expose a tangled web of leads and suspects in a complex police investigation, but it also tells a story of a family undergoing difficult times.

According the documents, police interviewed hundreds of witnesses including several members of the Labossiere family.

In November, 2005, the bodies of Fernand Labossiere, 78, his wife Rita, 74, and their son Remi, 44, were found in the burned out shell of the family's western Manitoba home.

Two years after the murder, police arrested and charged Rita and Fernand's son, Jerome Labossiere, with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder. Two other men, Michel Hince and Jeremie Toupin are also charged.

One family member originally told police he thought it was a murder-suicide committed by Remi, who was heavily in debt.

Remi was heavily in debt

The documents shed more light on Remi, who was allegedly involved in two-year affair with a married woman.

She apparently left his place around midnight.

She and her husband were investigated in the murder, but were cleared.

The documents also show Rita Labossiere had been out that night, and had returned at around 11 o'clock.

Police also looked at an associate of Jerome Labossiere. That associate and Jerome also came up in the police database as an alleged suspects in several property theft investigations.

According to the documents Jerome became a suspect two months after the murders.

Jerome Labossiere had some bad debts, and at the time of the murders, he was in a legal battle over the family farm valued at more than $1 million, according to court documents.

In a will dated August, 2000, his brother Remi Labossiere left proceeds from the estate to six nephews and nieces. However a second will, written shortly before the murders, left all of the property to Jerome Labossiere and his wife, Claudette.

The documents contain police allegations that have yet to be proven in court. Jerome Labossiere, Michel Hince and Jeremie Toupin have not been convicted in the murders, and are considered innocent until proven guilty.

Five members of the same family murdered

The murders in St. Leon preceded the murders of two more members of the same family in their home on Chokecherry Cove on April 20, 2008.

Kelly John Clarke, 38, is now charged with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Joel Labossiere, 34, and his pregnant wife Magdelena, 33.

They were shot execution style. Joel is the nephew of Jerome Labossiere, and was also in a legal fight with Jerome over the family farm.

With a report from CTV's Caroline Barghout.