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       Ula Theoret, a former nurse and mother of three grown sons, moved to Burk’s Falls, Ont., in 2014, to look after her aging parents.

       Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

       A triple murder-suicide in rural Ontario is a case study in the ways rape myths and tunnel vision can compromise a police investigation, and should be used to teach police how to handle sexual and domestic violence complaints, a provincial review has found.

       On Feb. 23, 2018, six months after Ulla Theoret told police that her neighbour, Mark Jones, had sexually assaulted her, Mr. Jones shot and killed her in her Burk’s Falls, Ont., home. He also killed her son Paul, 28, and her mother, Raija Turunen, 88, before turning his gun on himself.

       Following a Globe and Mail investigation in 2019, which highlighted the warning signs missed by police and others in the tight-knit small town, Ontario’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) decided the case warranted a probe, even though it was not a clear-cut instance of domestic violence because Mr. Jones and Ms. Theoret were not officially a couple.

       The review committee analyzes all cases of intimate-partner homicides in the province and makes recommendations to prevent future deaths. It looks for a list of 41 “indicators” (such as sexual jealousy, prior threats with a weapon, access to firearms, or victim vulnerability) that demonstrate, in hindsight, the potential for lethality. In almost three-quarters of cases the committee reviews, it identifies seven or more risk factors. In this case, there were 13.

       The committee’s report – which is not public, but was shared with The Globe and Mail by Ms. Theoret’s family – includes recommendations to the Ministry of the Solicitor-General and the Ontario Police College. It calls upon them to review and reframe their policies and training related to intimate-partner and sexual-violence cases, in order to better prepare police to deal with victims who are reluctant to press charges, or whose relationships with their abusers aren’t stereotypically romantic. This tragedy, the report says, should be adopted as a case study by the police college, “to illustrate the complexity of investigating domestic/intimate partner violence, dating violence and sexual assaults as multiple forms of gender-based violence.”

       Like those made by inquest juries, the committee’s recommendations are non-binding. In an e-mail to The Globe, the Ministry of the Solicitor-General said the police college is constantly updating its course content, and will consider future incorporation of Ms. Theoret’s case. But the ministry said it does not need to implement the committee’s recommendations for updated policies and training, because existing practices are effective at equipping police to deal with domestic and sexual violence.

       Prabhu Rajan, who is chair of the review committee and chief counsel to the chief coroner, said that while the recommendations are non-binding, “we truly hope that they are persuasive.”

       He added that he cannot speak for the ministry, or to the intricacies of its policies.

       “But I guess what I would say is, ‘I hope they’ve thought about it seriously … and if they feel that the policies, as they’re written, adequately deal with the situation, maybe it’s an issue of practice,’” he said. “I hope that anyone involved in this tragic situation [will] reflect and consider what they could have done better.”

       Ms. Theoret, a former nurse and mother of three grown sons, moved in 2014 to Burk’s Falls, 265 kilometres north of Toronto, to look after her aging parents.

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       Family photos of the Theoret boys taken at the Burks Falls area home.

       Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

       The DVDRC report notes that Ms. Theoret, who separated from her husband after the move, had an active social life and many friends, but struggled with severe anxiety and depression, for which she was receiving counselling. One of the things troubling her, the report notes, was “unwanted attention from a man (the perpetrator) that her mother wanted her to date.”

       In the months leading up to her death, Ms. Theoret had become increasingly fearful of Mr. Jones because of his aggressive attempts to court her. And in September, 2017, “after encouragement from several friends and her therapist,” she reported to the Ontario Provincial Police that he had sexually assaulted her. “At that time, she also reported several concerning incidents involving stalking and threatening behavior exhibited by the perpetrator towards her,” the report says.

       She had confided in friends about her troubling encounters with Mr. Jones, and some had even witnessed his behaviour firsthand. For example, when Ms. Theoret began seeing another man, she would return home from dates to find Mr. Jones waiting for her, the report says. Mr. Jones would also drive by the other man’s house and shout at him, threatening them both.

       Mr. Jones frequently left unwanted love letters and small gifts in Ms. Theoret’s mailbox. But perhaps most chilling was his use of Ms. Theoret’s own guns as an intimidation tool: “The perpetrator would access the family’s firearms cabinet to examine their firearms, and twice he handled an unloaded firearm, pointed it at [Ms. Theoret] and pulled the trigger,” the report notes.

       But when Ms. Theoret spoke with police about the sexual assault, the DVDRC report says, she didn’t want to press charges. And she kept the assault a secret from her sons, because she was concerned about what they might say or do.

       In its recommendations to the Ministry of the Solicitor-General, the DVDRC stresses the need for clear policy and training for police on “managing sexual assault victims who are reluctant to proceed with criminal charges, but may require additional time and counselling to recognize the risks they face from the perpetrator and the potential benefits of engaging in the criminal justice process.”

       Police policies and training must also reflect a “broad definition” of domestic violence, the report says, including violence that takes place in “dating relationships, online relationships and intimate relationships that may be of brief duration and more one-sided.”

       As the report notes, police wrote in Ms. Theoret’s file that she “did not resist or say no. She does not want charges at this time.”

       This summary, the DVDRC says, reflects “an adherence to rape myths” and potential “tunnel vision” by police. If the sexual assault and stalking behaviours Ms. Theoret reported had been considered in the context of intimate-partner violence, the report adds, her case would have been automatically investigated under an Ontario policy that requires police to lay charges in probable domestic violence cases, whether or not a victim agrees.

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       Ms. Theoret's wedding day.

       Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

       Bill Dickson, a spokesperson for the OPP, said in an e-mail Monday that the force “cannot speak for the Ministry of the Solicitor-General or the Ontario Police College,” and declined to comment on the report or the case.

       “The OPP continually strives for investigative excellence, which includes constant reviewing of policies and procedures surrounding both intimate-partner violence and sexual assault. This includes training all officers, as well as new recruits, on the dynamics of such cases,” Mr. Dickson said.

       According to the DVDRC report, Ms. Theoret’s last known interaction with Mr. Jones before the day of the murders was in January, 2018 – one month before she was killed.

       “The perpetrator attended the victim’s home and told her that he knew they belonged together,” the report says. “He was asked to leave and complied.”

       In the early hours of Feb. 23, 2018, Mr. Jones returned to the family’s rural home and entered through an unlocked door. He shot and killed all three victims with a .40 calibre semi-automatic handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun, the report says. Then he sat in a chair at a kitchen table and shot himself with the handgun. Paul’s girlfriend discovered the four bodies when she arrived at the house that night after work.

       “Very detailed notes” written by Mr. Jones suggest he had been planning the killings for about three days, the report says. “There was evidence that the perpetrator’s motivation was his anger and jealousy over the victim’s termination of the relationship, rejection of him and new relationship.”

       Thomas Theoret, one of Ms. Theoret’s surviving sons, said he was pleased with the DVDRC report, and with the possibility that his family’s case would be used to educate police.

       Had police considered Ms. Theoret and Mr. Jones intimate partners, he said, “then her report to them would have automatically resulted in a domestic-violence case. In that case, action could have been taken on Jones and perhaps it would have helped prevent the havoc he caused.”

       Mr. Theoret said he believes the report helps to highlight the risks and warning signs that friends, neighbours and family should be aware of.

       “I can’t help but feel like everyone failed my mom in some way, including myself,” he said.

       Even the DVDRC itself has been reflecting on its role and ability to make change, Mr. Rajan said.

       “Do we need to start thinking about how we approach our cases? Maybe we need to demand more in our recommendations,” he said. “I just think we’re at a point now where … things aren’t changing. They aren’t getting any better. So how do we improve things? It’s an ongoing process.”

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