Police publicly rule couple’s deaths were murder-suicide

Article content

An Elgin County man fatally shot his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself, Ontario Provincial Police have announced three months after the deaths.

Police on Wednesday identified Kyle Savage, 34, and Tanya Wiebe, 34, as the two people found dead inside a home on Roberts Line in Central Elgin, near Sparta, on Jan. 31.

Article content

“Post-mortem examinations confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for both individuals. The investigation revealed that the female’s death was the result of a homicide,” Elgin OPP said in a statement Wednesday.

Article content

Property records show Savage owned the house where the couple’s bodies were found.

Friends and family had already identified Wiebe and Savage as the deceased, but police hadn’t previously confirmed their identifies or said who the shooter was, citing the ongoing investigation.

Wiebe is remembered as a dedicated hockey mom to her son, Chase, 15, from a previous relationship, and she loved spending time outdoors with friends and family.

“We may feel angry, we may feel confused but what happened to her is not Tanya’s story. My sister was by far much more than this and I want us to all remember her for who she was,” Wiebe’s sister, Linda, said during a eulogy at her only sibling’s funeral.

“As everyone knows Tanya was the best mother for Chase,” she said. “He was her number one priority in life and she was dedicated to anything he wanted to pursue.”

Weeks after Wiebe’s death, a three-on-three hockey tournament was held at London Sports Park arena on Brookside Street, where players sported purple jerseys – the colour representing domestic violence – with Wiebe’s initials on them to honour her.

Article content

Article content

The OPP’s decision to identify the pair and rule their death a murder-suicide is unique.

London police don’t typically release the names of people killed in murder-suicides, something local women’s advocates have long called on them to do.

For example, two bodies were found in an apartment by emergency crews who responded around 4 p.m. on Sept. 7, 2023, to a highrise at 565 Proudfoot Lane, near Oxford Street and Beaverbrook Avenue, police said.

Family and friends identified the deceased as Tiffany Gates, 30, a longtime server at Crabby Joe’s restaurant in downtown London, and her boyfiend, Chris Charlton.

Investigators recovered a gun from the scene and autopsies determined both died from gunshot wounds, but they haven’t ruled the deaths a murder-suicide.

Gates’s mother has told reporters she believes Charlton killed her before turning the gun on himself.

The head of the London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC) applauded the OPP for publicly declaring the Central Elgin case a murder-suicide.

“It’s really important for us to not make murder a private issue,” LAWC executive director Jennifer Dunn said. “Murder should be a public issue even if there’s no (ongoing) risk to safety.”

Article content

The public now knows Wiebe’s death is a case of femicide, the killing of women and girls because of their gender, Dunn said.

“We need to continue talking about the severity of men’s violence against women in our community and this is one way we can help do that,” she said, adding it helps raise awareness about the issue.

“The goal with some of the work we do . . . is to shift the blame . . . that women feel and what better way to do that than to show what has actually happened in a situation like this instead of leaving it opened ended?”

Article content