Suspect in Wolseley murder ‘wasn’t upset’ at arrest, officer testifies By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 12, 2019

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This article was published 11/06/2019 (1927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Taken into custody after her Wolseley neighbour was found stabbed and beaten to death, Brenda Schuff didn’t have the appearance of someone who had just been arrested for murder, a police officer told jurors Wednesday.

“She didn’t ask about what was going to happen to her; she was straight-lined,” Winnipeg Police Service Const. Dru McCormick testified. “It was pretty much like it was any other day… She wasn’t upset.”

McCormick was responsible for searching Schuff’s body and seizing her clothing after her arrest for the April 10, 2017, death of 54-year-old Judy Kenny.

Schuff’s jeans were “quite bloody,” as were one of her socks, her right foot, and both hands, McCormick told a Winnipeg court. Her right hand was swollen, she said.

McCormick said she could smell alcohol on Schuff, and her eyes were red, glossy and swollen.

Schuff was arrested at approximately 3:20 a.m., after she approached a police officer outside Kenny’s Camden Place home. On Monday, Sgt. Ari Mamott testified Schuff said, “I’m the one you are going to want to talk to about this,” and showed him her bloody hands.

Schuff remained in handcuffs after she was taken to police headquarters, processed, and placed in a video interview room. Court heard police were concerned Schuff would disturb potential forensic evidence on her hands and monitored her closely until a member of the identification unit arrived to tape paper bags around her hands nearly two hours later.

McCormick said she warned Schuff repeatedly to stop “fooling around with her hands.”

Prosecutors allege Schuff and Kenny met for the first time the night of the slaying while Kenny was outside her house looking for a friend’s dog. The two returned to Kenny’s home to socialize, and Schuff later beat, stomped and stabbed Kenny to death, the Crown said.

Police were alerted to a disturbance at Kenny’s house after a Japanese exchange student staying in the basement called a mentor, Jiyu Iida, who, in turn, called 911.

Iida told court Yuri Inagaki called him at approximately 2:30 a.m. on April 10, 2017, but he didn’t call 911 until 30 minutes later, believing the screaming he heard over the phone, including shouts of “Jesus,” might be “an extreme religious thing.”

“Yuri had (planned) to stay in the house for the next three months,” Iida said. “She thought her house mother (Kenny) would find out she called police, and she didn’t want any trouble.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

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