The Chronicle Herald

http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2005/01/14/f158.raw.html D:\Docs\2017-12-29\0295e1975c8e1b2688b2505ca184c23e.doc

The Chronicle Herald Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada January 14, 2005

Woman used many aliases N.S. killer with lengthy record suspected of exploiting the elderly By JENNIFER STEWART [email protected] Staff Reporter Whether Melissa Ann Friedrich intended to kill her newest male companion is uncertain but there’s no doubt the 66-year-old did away with at least one of her past husbands. The one-time Dartmouth resident, then known as Melissa Ann Stewart, was convicted of manslaughter in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in May 1992 for drugging her husband, Gordon Russell Stewart, 44, and running over him with her car. It appears the woman lied to U.S. immigration officials in 1997 when she moved to Florida. She didn’t mention her past convictions, which include not only manslaughter but a slew of other crimes ranging from fraud to operating under false pretenses to uttering death threats. Most of these crimes were committed in Toronto but at least one forgery charge was laid in Georgetown, P.E.I. Her criminal record dates back to the early 1970s. Melissa Ann Stewart is only one of her identities - police say she has operated under as many as 15 aliases, often a combination of her various married and given names. Court records from her 1992 trial in Halifax state Ms. Stewart, as she was known at the time of the trial, was born in 1938 to Melvin Harold Russell and Muriel Eleanor Kelly in Burnt Church, N.B. Her father drowned about 60 years ago and her mother died in 1975 from heart disease. The court documents say she has 13 half-brothers and sisters, none of whom she was in regular contact with at the time of her trial. The documents go on to explain that her grandmother and a series of aunts and uncles cared for her until she was 15. She alleged one of her uncles sexually assaulted her and her grandmother physically abused her. At age 15 she moved to Ontario and completed high school through evening correspondence at Stafford College. She finished a total of eight university credits at York University in Toronto. During that time, she met and eventually married her first husband, Russell Shephard, an Ontario factory worker. In 1956 the couple had their first child, Douglas Shephard, who now lives in Pictou County, and in 1958 they had a second child who lives in Lower Montague, P.E.I., as Linda Sencebaugh. The family moved to Montague in 1971 and Mr. Shephard was diagnosed with cancer a short time later. It was also in Montague that his wife worked as a real estate agent with Home Life Realty and met her second husband, Gordon Stewart. She also worked as the dining room manager at Brudenell Resort in P.E.I. and as office manager at a Montague optometrist’s office. After almost 30 years of marriage she left Mr. Shephard, who was still battling cancer, and entered into a two-year common-law relationship with Mr. Stewart. They married in April 1991. In a 1992 interview, Mr. Shephard said he enjoyed a good relationship with his wife before she left him for her lover. They divorced in May 1991, he said. Mr. Shephard said his wife “had problems” due to her frequent negative involvement with the law but otherwise was a “gentle person who was never violent.” In the short time the Stewarts were together, she accused Mr. Stewart of being an alcoholic and verbally and physically abusive with her and sometimes with her daughter. For this reason, she suggested they move alone to Dartmouth. The Stewarts had been living at 4 Franklyn Ct., Apt. 231, for less than a month when Mr. Stewart met his untimely death. Ms. Stewart alleged that her husband dragged her from their apartment at knifepoint on April 27, 1991, and raped her in the woods near a dirt road in Goffs, near Halifax International Airport. She said she must have accidentally backed over her husband with the blue 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier in her frenzy to escape. She said she made her break when he left her alone to urinate behind the car. But Crown attorney Susan Potts presented witnesses who testified they saw Ms. Stewart back over a body that was lying face down across the road. Elizabeth Casey and James Coakley, both of Fairview, said they were in the area collecting beer bottles when they saw the car with P.E.I. plates roll over the body, then take off at high speed. They followed the car for a few kilometres until they got close enough to copy the licence plate number. The car was registered to Melissa Stewart. Ms. Stewart’s rape examination turned up no evidence of sexual contact, and a police dog team caught no scent of either her or her husband in the woods. And then there’s the matter of the tranquillizers. Mr. Stewart was so drugged up at the time of his death that the medical examiner testified he was probably unconscious or in a coma-like state when the car rolled over him. The cause of death was found to be multiple chest and neck injuries due to blunt trauma, although no tire tracks were found on the body. Mr. Stewart had three types of tranquillizers in his blood. Defence lawyer Kevin Coady argued that the drugs were not ingested in a large amount shortly before his death but were taken over a period of hours, days or even years. That argument didn’t fly. Ms. Stewart was originally charged with second-degree murder but a jury found her guilty of manslaughter on May 27, 1992. She was sentenced to six years in prison but served only two. Upon her release, she moved to Bradenton, Fla., and remarried in 2001. Her third husband, Robert Friedrich, died in December 2002 at age 84. In the 14 months he was married to Ms. Friedrich, his health rapidly deteriorated. His family has said his will was changed to exclude his three sons and make Ms. Friedrich the sole beneficiary of his $100,000 estate. After he died, she had his body cremated. Mr. Friedrich’s death was never investigated because of his age and poor medical condition. Bradenton police don’t plan to pursue charges in his death. Ms. Friedrich was arrested Jan. 6 in Pinellas Park, Fla., on suspicion of exploiting the elderly after she allegedly drugged her boyfriend, Alexander Strategos, 73, and siphoned thousands of dollars from his bank account. Ms. Friedrich met Mr. Strategos through an online dating service called AmericanSingles.com. She moved into his Florida condominium the first time they met face to face. That evening Mr. Strategos was taken to hospital after he fell and hit his head - the first in a series of unfortunate accidents that alarmed his family. Police are now trying to determine if they are looking at an attempted murder case.