The spotlight on Ian Bush intensified after a number of media outlets reported that the quiet family man and father of three was also being investigated in connection with a triple homicide in 2007 that had stumped police.
Ottawa police have laid charges in a triple homicide that had stumped investigators for nearly eight years.
Until last December, police here were running into a series of false leads and bad hunches in their hunt to find who killed former tax court judge Alban Garon, his wife Raymonde and neighbour Marie-Claire Beniskos in the Garons' upscale Ottawa condominium. Wide-ranging theories linking the triple slaying to a Garon relative, a biker-gang and the Russian mafia were all scrutinized and dismissed.
But late last year, investigators got an unexpected break in the form of a vicious attack on a Second World War veteran.
Evidence from the strange home invasion of 101-year-old Ernest Côté bore a strong resemblance to the Garon crime scene from 2007. Mr. Côté was robbed of his credit cards and left with a plastic bag over his head.
Investigators charged Ian Bush – a 59-year-old HR consultant who had no previous criminal record – with attempted murder and other charges in the home invasion. The alleged crime seemed so out of character for a man of Mr. Bush's background that the Crown and his lawyer agreed to send him for a 30-day psychiatric assessment.
While Mr. Bush was being evaluated, the previously baffling pieces of the Garon puzzle quickly dropped into place. After executing a search warrant to retrieve a DNA sample from Mr. Bush, investigators began preparing murder charges.
On Friday, just hours after a court heard that Mr. Bush has been deemed mentally fit to stand trial in the home invasion case, police announced three first-degree murder charges against the married father of three.
"Any unsolved case has its difficulties and this case was plagued with difficulties," said Staff Sergeant Bruce Pirt, who was one of the original investigators on the Garon case. "It just took a long time, a number of teams and a lot of people, but we brought it all together."
Even before the charges were announced, Mr. Bush's lawyer, Geraldine Castle-Trudel told The Globe and Mail her client is "adamant he had nothing to do with the three murders" and suggested the case could hinge on the strength of the DNA evidence.
"The public believes DNA evidence is the be-all-and-end-all, but it is only as good as the technician who gathers it and the technician who analyzes it."
All week Ms. Castle-Trudel has voiced objections to police leaks that have appeared in the media. On Friday, she called on Ottawa's police chief to launch an internal investigation to trace the source.
"Can you imagine getting a jury for this case?" she said. "This is outrageous how this has been handled, to the point where my client's right to a fair trial has been affected."
Police said on Friday that they had spoken with the families of the victims to inform them of the charges and are reviewing other unsolved cases in Ottawa and across the country for possible similarities.
Mr. Bush's connection to the slain tax judge doesn't end at DNA and crime-scene similarities.
Records held by the Tax Court of Canada point to a tax dispute that dates back to 1993, when Revenue Canada first issued a notice of reassessment to Mr. Bush.
Documents held by the Tax Court indicate Mr. Bush tried to claim deductions related to moving expenses and losses incurred by his consulting business, called Bush & Associates.
His file includes a September, 1996, missive, addressed to "Extortion Canada" and titled "Re: OBJECTION – NOTICE OF ASSESSMENT, STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT." The words "bull shit" are printed in bold face across the page. Another note, from January, 1996, is addressed to the "Shakedown Division" of "Extortion Canada."
Five years later, the court received a fax summoning Mr. Garon, who was then serving as a Tax Court judge in Ottawa, for a hearing at the "High Court of Humanitarian Justice" in connection with Mr. Bush's case. Mr. Bush's consulting firm is listed at the top of the document.
According to one of Mr. Bush's brothers, Norm, a city councillor in Dryden, Ont., the rest of the family never heard about of the tax dispute or any financial problems he may have encountered.
In recent years, Mr. Bush had become an Twitter devotee – taking online swipes at Justin Trudeau, feminism and Beyoncé – and organized seminars for non-profit organizations.
Wearing a black leather jacket and no handcuffs, Mr. Bush appeared briefly before a packed Ottawa court Friday morning where Crown prosecutor Julie Scott said the psychiatric evaluation had deemed him fit to stand trial for the home invasion.
"There are no NCR [not criminally responsible] issues that have been identified."
None of the allegations against Mr. Bush has been proven in court. Mr. Bush is scheduled to appear in court on Saturday morning for the murder charges.