An 18-year-old murder victim's plea with police to help protect her was largely ignored, a colleague and friend told CTV.
Officers from the Richelieu-Saint-Laurent Police Department met with Daphné Boudreault on Wednesday, the day she died, said Shanon Meilleur, Boudreault's friend, who also who worked at a convenience store with her in Saint-Hilaire.
Meilleur said Boudreault complained to her regularly that her ex-boyfriend Anthony Pratte was abusive; he screamed at her over the phone at work and called her names, she said.
“We think that she was in fear for her safety,” said Meilleur. “The police had just said, ‘Oh, he’s just in a rage right now, he’ll be okay after.”
Meilleur said she found Boudreault at the convenience store on Wednesday morning curled up in a ball, crying.
“She told me, ‘What, does he have to kill me before the police do anything?’”
Several hours earlier, police were called to the depanneur where Boudreault worked to remove 22-year-old Anthony Pratte, who had accompanied her to work.
According to Meilleur and other staff members, when Boudreault said she feared for her safety after breaking up with her boyfriend of two years, police officers at the store said they could not do much for her, and sent Pratte away in a taxi.
Later in the day Boudreault went to the apartment she had shared with her ex-boyfriend on Forest St. in Mont St-Hilaire before recently moving to her father's house.
Boudreault had wanted a police escort, and there are conflicting reports about whether she received one or not.
One relative told Radio-Canada that Boudreault had an escort to the front door but entered alone, at which point she was stabbed.
However most other reports say that police, and later on Boudreault's stepmother, only showed up after Boudreault had entered the home alone.
A Richelieu-Saint-Laurent police officer found Boudreault bleeding from multiple knife wounds at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
She was transported to hospital where she was declared dead.
Sureté du Quebec officers are now investigating her murder.
The Independent Bureau of Investigators has also set out to determine whether police acted appropriately in handling her complaint. Five investigators will examine the Richelieu Saint-Laurent police department and the events leading to the slaying.
In two videos posted online before her death, Pratte said he wished Boudreault "all the misfortune in the world. I wish that you are never happy"
In the video, Pratte admitted he hacked into his ex-girlfriend’s phone and Facebook account to access her private messages.
Richelieu-Saint-Laurent police arrested Pratte Wednesday and at the time called him "an important witness" to the attack.
Pratte appeared in court Thursday afternoon to be charged with first-degree murder.
None of the allegations against him, or the statements about what happened Wednesday, have been heard in court.
Pratte will be back in court in one month.
Kevin Gould contributed to this article.
