Thelma Krull, missing for more than 2 years, declared legally dead

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This article was published 06/09/2017 (2668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A missing grandmother has been legally declared dead as the homicide investigation prompted by her high-profile disappearance continues.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond signed an order Thursday that declares Thelma Krull dead for the purposes of settling her estate.

Krull, 57, went missing more than two years ago, and Winnipeg police believe she was the victim of foul play. Her husband, Robert Krull, filed a request early last month under Manitoba’s Presumption of Death Act to have the court declare her dead, a legal step that will allow him to carry out her will. Thelma’s will names her husband as the executor and directs her estate go to him after any debts and expenses are paid.

Bond agreed with the request, filed by lawyer Tyler Derksen, which included consent from Krull’s two children. The judge signed the order during a brief civil hearing in the Court of Queen’s bench Thursday.

Thelma disappeared the morning of July 11, 2015 after she went for a walk in the Civic Park area of the Valley Gardens neighbourhood. Her glasses and cellphone were later found in the area, but she hasn’t been seen since. On the two-year anniversary of her disappearance, the Winnipeg Police Service officially announced investigators believed her to be a victim of foul play. On July 27, police released a sketch of a potential suspect — described as a 270-pound, 5-foot-8 Indigenous man in his 40s with a bowl haircut — who may have been staying in the Valley Gardens area at the time of Krull’s disappearance.

No arrests have been announced in the case and police spokesman Jay Murray said Thursday there are no updates in the investigation.

In his affadavit filed in court as part of the request, Robert Krull said his wife’s disappearance was “completely out of character for her” and that she did not have any mental-health issues or financial or legal problems.

“Due to the investigation and comments from police homicide unit, the fact that no one has heard from Thelma since before July 11, 2015, Thelma’s lack of online and banking activity, the failed attempts of members of the community to find Thelma, and the amount of media coverage regarding Thelma’s disappearance without anyone having reported seeing her, I have no reason to believe that Thelma is living,” Robert Krull’s affidavit stated.

The high-profile case prompted hundreds of Winnipeg residents to take part in volunteer searches in the days, weeks and months after the former administrative support worker went missing on the day of her grandson’s birthday party. She regularly went out for walks that summer as she trained for a planned hike of the West Coast Trail in B.C. with her older brother.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay