Gravel hauler who competed for business with Sheree Fertuck clears his name in her disappearance
CBC
Jeff Sagen's voice cracked as he stood outside a Saskatoon courthouse and described the relief of finally taking the stand and getting a chance to clear his name in Sheree Fertuck's disappearance.
"It was very hard on my head because I would never have anything to do with something like Sheree disappearing," Sagen said in an interview after testifying Friday at Court of Queen's Bench.
Greg Fertuck is on trial, charged with first-degree murder in Sheree's disappearance in 2015.
Sagen, 56, runs a 7,600-acre grain and cattle operation east of Kenaston, Sask. He also has a side business hauling gravel with his brother Ken. His entry into the gravel business, he testified, came when Sheree taught him how to spread gravel.
They were one year apart in school and had grown up in the area south of Saskatoon.
The defence had suggested through earlier witnesses, both at the trial and the preliminary hearing, that Sagen had ill feelings toward Sheree because they both hauled gravel and that she had beaten his bid on a lucrative contract months before she went missing.
Prosecutor Carla Dewar asked Sagen whether the pair had a contentious relationship.