Ian Bush to be charged in 2007 triple homicide involving retired judge

Ian Bush, an Ottawa man accused of invading the home of a Second World War veteran and leaving him bound with a plastic bag over his head, is expected to be charged in an unsolved 2007 triple homicide involving a retired judge, his wife and neighbour, investigative sources have confirmed to CBC News.

• This story from Feb. 16 was updated on Feb. 17.

Bush's lawyer Geraldine Castle-Trudel said police executed two search warrants on Bush. One allowed police to take a DNA sample from her client, who is undergoing a psychiatric assessment for the attack on 101-year-old veteran Ernest Côté in December 2014. The other was executed at Bush's family home in Ottawa.

Sources confirm police have been investigating the link between Bush and the triple homicide for several weeks.

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• Further psych assessment ordered for home invasion suspect Ian Bush

Bush, 59, was arrested in December after Ottawa police released photos and a surveillance video following the home invasion. Côté managed to call 911 after the suspect left.

On Monday, CBC News learned that police had linked Bush to the unsolved triple homicide that involved victims left with bags over their heads.

Retired Tax Court of Canada chief justice Alban Garon, 77, his wife Raymonde, 73, and their friend Marie-Claire Beniskos, 78, were found dead in the couple's Ottawa apartment on June 30, 2007. Garon had retired as chief justice in 2004.

The three had been beaten, bound and left with bags over their heads, sources told CBC News. They all died of suffocation, sources said.

Police sources have confirmed to CBC that DNA was found at the 2007 triple homicide scene.

In 2008, Ottawa police offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the triple homicide case.

A friend of Beniskos told CBC News that the memory of the crime "still hurts" years later.

"It would be such a relief to find out who did that and why they did that to Marie-Claire," said May Bertrand. "It's still very touchy. But I hope, I hope they find who it is."

Bush's lawyer, Geraldine Castle-Trudel, told CBC News on Monday that she has not heard anything from police about potential charges in the 2007 homicide.

"If they charge him we'll deal with it," she said.

Bush, who has no previous criminal record, is currently undergoing a court-ordered psychiatric assessment at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.

Côté had been alone in his apartment on Durham Private when a man claiming to be a City of Ottawa employee asked to be buzzed into the building on the morning of Dec. 18.

Once in the building, a man forced himself into Côté's apartment, tied him up and robbed him, police said at the time.

Côté suffered only minor injuries and did not need to be taken to hospital.