Gravel contracts and competition revealed during Fertuck first-degree murder trial

Sheree Fertuck was professional, but a “persistent” and “aggressive” business person — constantly calling Martin Koyle’s office to try and secure work.

That testimony was offered Thursday by Koyle at the first-degree murder trial of Greg Fertuck, who’s accused of killing his wife.

Koyle was a project manager with Texcana Logistics, a company that hired gravel haulers to provide material for roads and rail beds in the Kenaston area in 2015.

He took the stand for the Crown, describing his business dealings with Sorotski Holdings, the family company 51-year-old Sheree Fertuck worked for.

Koyle told the court that at first, his company hired Jeff Sagen, another area gravel hauler, but because of issues with load weights, he then decided to hire Fertuck.

Fertuck and the company mutually decided to install a scale to weigh each load in the future. Koyle said Sheree’s contract was worth about $200,000, and that the entire project was estimated to be $1.5 million — although it did end up going over budget.

Koyle was asked by the Crown whether he ever witnessed Sheree as violent, angry or involved in any altercations. He replied that although he hadn’t directly witnessed anything, he’d heard “rumours” that Fertuck’s company and Sagen’s company didn’t get along.

The scale that was installed was later damaged, testified Sheree’s brother Darren Sorotski, who was a gravel crusher for the family company. He wasn’t sure when it was vandalized.

Sorotski testified he’d last seen his sister the day she went missing, on Dec. 7, 2015. He had lunch with her at the family farm in the early afternoon. Fertuck was the first to leave to go back to the gravel pit.

His mother Julianne called him the next day, and asked him to go to the gravel pit because no one could contact his sister. He said when he got to the pit, he found all of the 14 lights on Sheree’s truck on, keys in the ignition. He started the truck to warm it up, noting it had been cold. He did not check on the loader that was located next to the truck.

Under cross examination, Sorotski said his mother eventually took over the contract that Sheree had earlier secured, although he didn’t know any other details about it.

Sheree’s uncle Ronald Matycio also briefly testified, describing the search effort in the days after Sheree went missing. He said at one point he ran into Greg Fertuck at a Walmart, but that Fertuck never asked if he could help with the search for his ex-wife, when she was last seen, or that they may have been trying to reconcile.

Late Thursday afternoon, Sheree’s daughter Lauren briefly testified and described her parents separating in 2010, then attempting a reconciliation in 2011 that failed. The testimony was postponed, however, because of poor audio and video quality.

The final testimony of the day came from RCMP Cpl. Pascale Laurialt, who described her efforts co-ordinating searches with cadaver dogs, a plane, and an attempt to find “warm” spots in gravel piles near Sheree’s semi truck and loader in the days after she went missing.

The trial is expected to continue for at least another month.