Guilty pleas entered in 2011 murder in rural Sask. where victim died in trunk of car

Edward Keith Geddes was clubbed over the head with a piece of wood, tied up and put in the trunk of a car, where he died after the drunk man who put him there went off the road into the ditch.

The details about Geddes' death were shared last week in Saskatoon Court of King's Bench, when two men entered guilty pleas for their roles, 10 days before the scheduled start of their jury trial.

Robert Wesley Pich, 61, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and his uncle John Robert Gregoire, 73, pleaded guilty to interfering with human remains. They return to court on March 20 for sentencing.

In order for Justice Richard Danyliuk to accept their guilty pleas, he needed to be sure they understood what they were pleading to, so Crown prosecutor Keltie Coupar read aloud from a draft statement of facts outlining what happened.

In late 2010, Gregoire hired Geddes, 64, as a mechanic and manager at a business he owned in Neilburg, Sask., Coupar said.

Gregoire came to suspect Geddes was stealing from him and on April 11, 2011, Gregoire called Pich and told him to get Geddes to the farm.

Pich told Geddes he needed help getting a filter off a front-end loader and Geddes came to help.

"Mr. Pich clubbed Mr. Geddes in the head with a four-by-four piece of wood when Mr. Geddes was changing the filter," Coupar said.

Pich then tied up Geddes with zip ties and waited for Gregoire. While he waited, he drank alcohol and questioned Geddes, shooting a pistol near him. After Gregoire arrived, they moved Geddes to an empty house and continued questioning him and shooting the pistol.

At some point later on, Gregoire told Pich to get rid of Geddes and take him to Saskatoon or Battleford. Pich put Geddes, who was still alive, in the trunk of a car.

"Mr. Pich was driving to Saskatoon when due to his intoxication and the freezing rain, he lost control of the vehicle and hit the ditch on Highway 40 outside Battleford, Saskatchewan," Coupar said.

Police don't know when exactly Geddes died. Police impounded the car after a passersby reported the crash at 12:34 a.m. on April 12, 2011, but they didn't search the trunk.

From jail, Pich called Gregoire to get the car. Even though Gregoire picked up the car that same day, he didn't look in the trunk until about a week later, when the foul odour from the trunk was unmistakable.

Geddes was dead. That night, Gregoire dug a hole in a brush pile on his property in the RM of Hillside, near Baldwinton, Sask., about 200 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon. Gregoire used a front-end loader to carry Geddes's remains to the hole, where he piled brush and dead cows over top of Geddes's body.

When Geddes went missing in 2011, police considered his disappearance suspicious, but they didn't crack the case until 10 years later. That's when police decided to use an undercover investigative technique, known as a "Mr. Big sting."

During the operation, Pich and Gregoire both made recorded admissions that led to their arrests in February 2022, Coupar said.

The burial site, which had become a water-filled slough, was drained and searched. Searchers found Geddes's body on Oct. 12, 2022, but the advanced state of decomposition meant the time of death couldn't be determined.

Lawyers are expecting to present a joint submission on sentencing when the case returns to court on March 20. Pich was remanded in custody, while Gregoire is out on bail.