LINDSAY TRIAL: Accused admits to murdering ex-girlfriend
An Edmonton man has admitted in a Kamloops courtroom to killing his ex-girlfriend, stabbing an undercover police officer and blinding his cellmate at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre — but he said he had no other choice.
Mark Lindsay took the stand in his own defence today (Aug. 15) in the second day of his aggravated-assault trial, describing in detail a group of "serial killers" he thinks has been trying to kill him for more than three years.
The 25-year-old was arrested on Sept. 21, 2011, after attacking an undercover Mountie in Barriere. At the time, Lindsay was the target of an elaborate undercover RCMP Mr. Big operation.
The operation began just days earlier. Undercover officers were attempting to find out if Lindsay had anything to do with the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, 31-year-old Dana Turner.
Turner had vanished a month earlier, shortly after Lindsay — the son of a former Edmonton police chief — got out of jail following a 50-day sentence for stabbing her in the head.
In his testimony, Lindsay admitted to killing Turner. But, he said, he was acting out of self-defence.
"I killed her and I panicked," he said.
"I didn't want to go back to prison, so I covered up the body and everything."
Lindsay said Turner was part of a group of serial killers who had been threatening him for years. He said she was sending him threatening "psychic communications" in the moments leading up to the murder.
"She wanted to kill me," he said. "I was very certain of that.
"She told me she was going to kill me and a lot of other people. I was in a panic.
"This sounds crazy, but she was a powerful witch and she could communicate with me psychically."
Wendy Yurko, Dana Turner’s mom, told KTW following Lindsay’s admission:
“My thoughts are so complicated about my daughter.”
“I don’t have any faith in our system.
“The only thing that will make me feel better is if he would die the way he killed my daughter.”
“It’s like we live in an alternate universe.
“This is not our life, this is somebody else’s life and we just happen to be in it.”
Turner's body was discovered in a farmer's field near Red Deer in October 2011.
Lindsay said he left Edmonton after killing Turner and headed to Vancouver.
"It was just to get out of the city," he said.
"I was still in shock from what I had done."
On a Greyhound from Vancouver to Edmonton, Lindsay met SM — an undercover Mountie whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
SM offered Lindsay work and he accepted.
But, before long, Lindsay said he started to believe SM was part of the group of serial killers.
Lindsay said his first warning came the day he met SM, when the two were in the lobby of a downtown Edmonton hotel.
"When we were checking in, he said, through a psychic conversation, 'If you're not a killer, we're going to kill you,'" Lindsay said.
But, court heard, he tried to "keep a relationship" with SM and his associates in the hopes that they would become friends and his life would be spared.
So, as the two drove from Edmonton to Kamloops on Sept. 21, 2011 — ostensibly as part of a "job" — Lindsay attacked SM.
"The closer we got to Kamloops, the more dark and kind of foreboding he seemed," Lindsay said, describing the situation as "fight or flee."
"I was certain that he wanted to kill me. It just got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore."
Lindsay said he took a pen he had in his pocket and stabbed SM as the two men pulled away from a gas station in Barriere.
Court had heard previously that the weapon was a carpet knife, but Lindsay maintained that was not the case.
SM jumped out of the window of the truck and Lindsay took the vehicle and headed south toward Kamloops.
He was arrested by Kamloops RCMP near McLure. Lindsay said he was attempting at the time to turn around and drive to Edmonton.
Lindsay also admitted to stabbing his KRCC cellmate, Michel Fougere, during a game of Scrabble about a month after his arrest.
According to Lindsay, Fougere's father was part of the group of serial killers and had at one time lived in an apartment beneath him in Edmonton.
"I started feeling a really strong feeling of panic — like impending doom," Lindsay said.
"He looked at me and said, 'I put a spell on you.'
"While we were playing Scrabble he was saying things like, 'I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill a lot of people, I'm going to kill the world.'
"It was like, if I didn't attack him he was going to kill me."
Lindsay said he never wanted to hurt anybody — let alone murder his ex-girlfriend and stab two others.
"The only reason I would attack somebody in violence is if my life was threatened," he said.
"And, on all three occasions, I felt my life was threatened."
Under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Will Burrows asked Lindsay if he was insane.
"Absolutely not," Lindsay replied.
"I know for a fact everything was existing.
"I understand that my actions might not have been the best actions, but at the time I was just — I was scared."
Crown prosecutor Will Burrows has applied for a psychiatric evaluation of Lindsay. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley will decide tomorrow (Aug. 16) on the request.
Next week, Lindsay is slated to stand trial on the KRCC stabbing charge. In January, Lindsay’s preliminary inquiry on one count of second-degree murder is expected to begin in Alberta.
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