RCMP receptionist told Stobbe wife dead

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Mark Stobbe (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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Beverly Rowbotham (POSTMEDIA)

Beverly Rowbotham's husband was still asking if RCMP had found his wife when a police receptionist mistakenly revealed to him she was dead.

Iris Kachkowsky, who worked in the Selkirk RCMP office, testified on Wednesday Mark Stobbe phoned her early on Oct. 25, 2000, to report Rowbotham was missing.

Kachkowsky said that during the four-minute call at 2:41 a.m., Stobbe was "very polite. Very nice. He wasn't excited."

Kachkowsky said because Stobbe was so insistent his wife was missing after waking up and seeing she wasn't home, she transferred him to the police officer who was in charge overnight. She said that officer, after speaking with Stobbe, had a "gut feeling" something was amiss, so he authorized Rowbotham's name to be added several hours earlier than normal to the nationwide system RCMP use when looking for missing people.

But a few hours later, when an emotional Stobbe phoned back, Kachkowsky knew officers had already found Rowbotham's body.

"He wanted to know what we were doing trying to find his wife," she told the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench jury.

"He was very upset. He was crying from what I gathered. I said 'They're doing what they can and they'll let you know.' "

When asked how Kachkowsky could be sure Rowbotham's body had already been found when she spoke to Stobbe a second time, she admitted it was because "I slipped up.

"I offered him my condolences... he was upset so I thought (an officer) had told him."

Stobbe, a former high-ranking adviser in the Doer government, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Rowbotham, the mother of two boys, was found dead in the back seat of the family sedan. Court has heard the Crown believes she was slain in the backyard of her RM of St. Andrews home, put in the car and driven to Selkirk.

Several relatives have already testified Stobbe told them Rowbotham had said she was on her way to Safeway to pick up some groceries she hadn't got earlier because one of their young sons had started acting up. Stobbe also told them he fell asleep watching television and when he woke up hours later the lights were on in his home, but Rowbotham wasn't home.

The Crown has told the court they believe Stobbe repeatedly attacked Rowbotham with an axe or hatchet, drove her to Selkirk and rode a bicycle back to their home 15 kilometres away. Police found bone fragments and blood in the backyard, which DNA testing showed came from Rowbotham.

Later, Brian Haines testified he found a woman's wallet on the shore of the Red River near Captain Kennedy's Tea House on a rock that had become exposed when the water level was reduced by the Lockport locks in preparation for winter.

Haines said he found a $10 bill inside but no identification or credit cards. He put two and two together after finding a photo in the wallet of two young boys and then looking through recent copies of newspapers for articles on Rowbotham's slaying.

He said he figured it was Rowbotham's wallet because "the picture in the paper was identical to the one in the Winnipeg Sun and then it clicked."

Haines said he found the wallet just days after Rowbotham's slaying, about seven metres out from the riverbank.

But Haines said although there appeared to be a man's shirt near the wallet, RCMP never seized it for evidence because they felt it had been there for some time and it wasn't a woman's shirt.

Earlier, the court heard Rowbotham bought more than three dozen food items just hours before her slaying.

During questioning by the Crown, Linda Fortne, the former assistant manager of the Safeway store in Selkirk, said Rowbotham bought 37 items in total on Oct. 24, 2000, including eggs, pork loin and different muffins, and paid $108.32. Store surveillance tape shown in court earlier this week showed Rowbotham and her son walking to various departments in the store for more than three quarters of an hour.

Fortne said because the woman used her Safeway loyalty card, the store could track her shopping habits.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 9, 2012 A7