Accused of the murder of his wife Ernesto Fera blames a thief who was “in the wrong house”

(Saint-Jérôme) Nadia Panarello was murdered by a thief who “simply went to the wrong house”. This is at least the thesis proposed by her husband in his declaration to the insurance companies. The Crown concluded its case Monday at the trial of Ernesto Fera, accused of killing his wife in 2004 to collect $350,000 in insurance.

"We will have a brief defense, yes," then announced Mr. Joseph La ^Leggia , Ernesto Fera's lawyer. The defense must thus begin Thursday at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse. It is not known whether the accused will be called to the stand. Ernesto Fera is accused of the first degree murder of his wife, which occurred on February 12, 2004, in the Vimont district of Laval. The 35-year-old woman was stabbed around 30 times.

Judge James Brunton, however, already had an idea of ​​Ernesto Fera's version when he watched the video of the defendant's polygraph test in May 2004 on Monday. At that time, it had been three months since Nadia Panarello had been found, the slit throat, in the toilet adjacent to the family room. No arrests had been made.

During the test, Ernesto Fera strongly denied killing his wife:

According to his account, the accused was to drive their daughter to school that morning. Before leaving, he had taken care to put their golden retriever dog in a room. He had last seen his wife when she went downstairs to get her make-up case.

On the way, he tried to call her, as he was used to, but she didn't answer. Around 10 a.m., Nadia's office called him, since his wife hadn't come to work. Something was wrong. When he arrived at the house, the police and the ambulance were already there.

During his interrogation, Ernesto Fera refused to forgive his wife's killer. " Nope. He took someone from me. He took someone from me, can you forgive yourself? There is no reason. The particularly bloody crime scene shows signs of a fight.

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The mystery of this murder remained intact for a long time, since the police did not notice any sign of forced entry. No marks on the lock or footprints in the house or outside the house. Only two cigarette butts were found on the snow in front of the house.

In his insurance claim, Ernesto Fera assumed that a thief had "committed the act" by taking the wrong residence. However, he clarified that the jewelry worn by his wife had not been stolen. Only the jewels in the "madam's office" were stolen, he adds in the document filed in evidence. According to Crown evidence, other valuable jewelry was not stolen.

Prior to his wife's death, Ernesto Fera was overwhelmed with debt, amounting to $115,000. He was three months behind on his mortgage payments and his credit card was full. The couple could not even pay their school taxes and registration fees for one of their vehicles.

Shortly before the murder of Nadia Panarello, the accused asked an acquaintance to lend him $120,000, but the latter refused. The accused then entrusted him with "expecting an inheritance of 175,000 euros".

His wife's life insurance enabled Ernesto Fera to repay the house mortgage and all of his debts. He benefited from $350,000 in total.

While the murder took place in 2004 in Laval, it was not until 2019 that Ernesto Fera was arrested. Such a delay is extremely rare in a murder case in Quebec.

The public ministry is represented by M ^e Nektarios Tzortzinas, M ^e Steve Baribeau and M ^e Alexandre Dubois.