Alberta soldier charged with attempted murder of her three children
Posted September 18, 2019 4:35 pm.
EDMONTON — An Alberta soldier who works at CFB Edmonton has been charged with the attempted murder of her three children.
Cpl. Chantal Jadwiga Condie, who is 41, also faces arson charges, and is to enter a plea on Thursday in St. Albert, Alta.
In a separate civil lawsuit, her ex-husband, Drew Condie, alleges the children were in their mother’s care on July 20, 2015, when a fire broke out in the basement of the home.
He alleges the fire was initially ruled an accident by military police, but the investigation was later reopened.
No one from the Canadian Armed Forces could immediately be reached for comment on the investigation or the charges.
Condie’s lawsuit alleges that Chantal Condie gave the children a sleeping aid that night and that a letter “in the nature of a suicide note” was found a month after the fire — two things she denies in her statement of defence.
The lawsuit says that she took the children to West Edmonton Mall’s Fantasyland Hotel and Galaxyland amusement park before the fire.
“The defendant treated them to the following: nice and expensive restaurants, to a day in Galaxyland and to about two movies,” says the statement of claim. “This behaviour was out of the ordinary.
“The minor plaintiffs claim that this ‘great’ weekend was in preparation for the defendant’s ultimate plan of killing them and herself through fire.”
The lawsuit alleges the suicide note was written on Fantasyland Hotel stationery.
It also alleges that she took three smoke detectors in the home and put them in the basement before starting a fire and closing the door.
None of the allegations has been proven in court. Chantal Condie denies all of them in her statement of defence.
She suggests it was her former husband or one of the children who started the fire. She denies giving the children anything to make them sleep and denies writing a suicide note.
Chantal Condie also alleges the children’s father has a history of mental illness, alcohol dependency and violence toward her and the children.
Drew Condie’s lawyer said her client was in Saskatchewan on duty with the military at the time of the fire.
“Her allegation that he was involved in the fire is completely false,” said Catherine Christensen in an email.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2019.
Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press
