AIRDRIE — RCMP are confirming that a 33-year-old woman found dead in her southern Alberta home last week was the victim of a stabbing.
Andrea Conroy, originally from Swift Current, Sask., was killed by her boyfriend, Rick Doucette, a professional bodybuilder and trainer in Airdrie.
RCMP say they were searching for Doucette after last Friday’s slaying when his body was found in a hotel in Nanton, Alta.
They say he committed suicide.
The RCMP said in a news release issued Thursday that prior to Conroy’s death, civic officials in Airdrie had approved funding for an additional domestic violence position for the detachment.
The RCMP said they consider domestic violence to be one of their policing priorities for the community just north of Calgary.
Friends of Doucette’s have said he had a long history of being violent and abusive toward women.
Dennis Gawley said he used to be good friends with Doucette before the pair had a falling out.
Gawley said Doucette used steroids regularly and was prone to fits of rage.
Doucette’s estranged wife, Stacey Burns, said she moved to Toronto with her two children and thankfully got away alive.
Burns said she had to take a restraining order out against Doucette, who she said had to move to Alberta because he would have been deemed a dangerous offender had he committed one more violent offence.
However, Airdrie RCMP said they had never received any previous calls for service from Conroy.
Conroy was a single mother of a young girl who wasn’t at home at the time of the murder.