The man charged in the shooting deaths of two Whitefish Lake First Nation teens made his first court appearance on Monday.
Edward Devin Boyce Gladue, 19, faces two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Cory Grey and Dylan Laboucan.
The case was adjourned until Sept. 19.
Laboucan’s mother, Becky Thunder, described a tense scene in the High Prairie courtroom.
“He didn’t even look at us,” she said of Gladue, adding that family members of accused did not make eye contact or speak to the victims’ relatives.
“They never showed their condolences,” Thunder said.
‘It’s somebody we trusted’
Thunder said Gladue grew up down the road from her family in Whitefish River, a small community on Whitefish Lake First Nation.
Gladue attended Atikameg School on the reserve with the victims, and used to play with Laboucan with they were younger, Thunder said.
“We didn’t have anything against him,” she said. “He was our son’s friend. It’s somebody that we trusted.”
Thunder said Gladue called her when her son and Grey went missing, and even visited in person.
Grey, 19, and Laboucan, 17, were in a relationship and lived with his parents at their trailer.
Laboucan and Grey had both been accepted at Northern Lakes College in Slave Lake and had made a deposit on an apartment there.
They were reported missing on July 23.
A member of the community found Laboucan’s body on a well-site two days later. Another member of the community found Grey’s body the next day.
Both had been shot to death.
Gladue, who lived on the reserve, has no criminal record. He was arrested in Peace River last week.
Police say they’re not looking for any other suspects.