A 36-year-old Toronto man, Bretty Ryan has admitted to
killing his mother and two of his brothers with a crossbow out of fear of
losing his fiancée three weeks before their wedding.
He appeared in court on Friday and pleaded guilty to
first-degree murder of his oldest brother, Christopher, and two counts of
second-degree murder of his mother, Susan, and his younger brother
Alexander.
He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his older
brother Leigh, according to the Toronto
Star.
The family members were discovered at the home on August 25,
2016 suffering from serious wounds with a crossbow lying nearby. All three
died at the scene.
Ryan planned his 66-year-old mother's death, because he
feared she would expose the lies he had told to his fiancée, but according to
the statement of facts in court, he only intended to persuade her not to
mention his financial situation.
He believed his fiancée would call off the wedding if
she found out that he lost his job because of his past criminal record.
Two months before the murders, Ryan got a job at an IT
company, but before he started, he was fired after his employer found out he
had a criminal record.
Just a few days before the shocking killings, he admitted to
his mother that he didn’t have a job and that he was lying to his fiancée about
it. According to the Star, he was telling his fiancée that he was working
from home while he stayed at their condo.
When Susan told her son to admit the truth, he was worried
his fiancée would break off their engagement, despite his mother telling him
that she would continue to support him financially, according to the statement
of facts.
Before he left his apartment that he shared with his fiancée
on that tragic day, Ryan set up a laptop, an iPad and iPhone, that were
supposed to be activated in order to create an internet footprint that would
serve as an alibi.
He then arrived at his mother's Scarborough home to confront
her shortly after 12pm. When the confrontation became heated, his mother called
his older brother, Christopher, 42, to the home, but during the argument, Ryan
slipped away to retrieve the crossbow from the garage.
Ryan then stabbed his mother with a crossbow bolt and
strangled her to death using a yellow nylon rope.
When Christopher arrived to the home, Ryan shot him in the
back of his neck using the crossbow. He moved their bodies into the garage and
hid them under a tarp.
As Ryan was leaving the garage, his 29-year-old brother
Alexander showed up. The brothers fought and Ryan got the upper hand long
enough to fatally stab Alexander with a crossbow bolt.
Leigh, 38, who was in his room at the home, came outside
after hearing all of the commotion, when he saw the bodies, he ran inside and
called for help. Ryan assaulted Leigh, who somehow escaped and ran to a
neighbor's home to call 911.
Ryan was sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility
for parole for 25 years on Friday.
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