Victim recounts harrowing story in Woodstock Provincial Court
A 54-year-old Aroostook woman testified in Woodstock Provincial Court on March 26 about being kidnapped, gagged, beaten, and tortured for two days at Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) last April.
Michelle Albert, who testified via video link, told the court she begged for her life during the last hours of her captivity and detailed how she crawled out of a body bag in the trunk of a car and ran for help. She said she now lives with long-term physical injuries and deep emotional trauma caused by the experience. Seven individuals have been charged in connection with the crime.
“I couldn’t believe what they were doing to me,” Albert testified. “I just wanted it all to go away.”
Troy Pelkey, 56, of Tilley, who is accused of orchestrating the crime, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, uttering threats, forcible confinement, extortion with violence to obtain $10,000, pointing a firearm at a female victim, and unauthorized possession of a gun between April 27 and April 29, 2024, at Neqotkuk. The RCMP laid the charges. His trial got underway this week before Judge Anne M. Richard and continues on April 1 and 2.
Dressed in prison garb with long white hair, a white beard, and glasses, Pelkey sat quietly in court and took notes during the victim’s testimony. He has been in jail since his arrest last year.
Crown Prosecutors Derek Weaver and Samantha Goodine questioned Albert over a video link from another room at the Woodstock courthouse. At the same time, a victim service dog was curled up by her side for support. Defence Counsel Annie Maltais of Moncton took notes in preparation for her cross-examination.
When the incident occurred, Albert told the court she was working on the weekend at a bar on the First Nation and left the premises in the wee hours of the morning in her convertible. She was smoking a cigarette when she noticed her vehicle sounded like it would break down. She parked behind a friend’s house on the First Nation and locked her car before walking back toward the bar. Two women, Sheena Sappier and Ashley Paul, called to her from Sappier’s residence. They asked her to retrieve two dogs in the yard. Albert grabbed one dog and took it to the house, and the other dog followed.
Suddenly, she was surrounded by four men from the community: Jacob Perley, Adam Perley, Keegan Paul, and Preston Sockabasin. She said she was placed in a choke hold and pushed to the floor inside the messy home.
A dirty rag containing a noxious substance was shoved in her mouth and taped to her head. Her pockets were emptied, and her car keys were taken. She was dragged inside a bathroom, kicked, and handcuffed behind her back. Her legs were taped together, and a plastic bag was pulled over her head. Her neck was burned by a cigarette. She felt the inside of her mouth burning from the dirty rag, and her lips began to swell.
Albert testified she was left lying on a filthy bathroom floor for hours. She bit a hole in the plastic bag so she could breathe. Her captors checked on her to see if she was dead.
“Jacob came in and kicked me and said: ‘Are you dead yet?’ I thought I was dying.”
Albert could hear Ashley Paul crying while Sheena Sappier advised, “Don’t watch.”
The two women talked about driving to a bridge in Minto. The four men returned, and Albert was dragged out of the bathroom and rolled into a body bag. She was still in handcuffs when she heard them zipper it up.
After dark, she was moved to the trunk of Keegan Paul’s vehicle. There was another long wait before the vehicle drove off.
During the drive, Albert could hear laughter and music inside the vehicle. She began to struggle inside the body bag. She broke the tape around her legs and managed to pull on the zipper. The dirty rag still hung from her mouth; the tape was stuck to the side of her face. She moved her head around until the plastic bag was pushed toward her forehead.
When she heard the vehicle stop for gas, Albert began to yell for help. Jacob Perley opened the trunk, punched her twice in the face, and slammed it shut.
Albert heard more conversations about going to Minto. A phone rang, and she heard Jacob Perley announce they were returning to Neqotkuk.
When the car stopped again, Albert said she could hear a party going on and began to yell for help. Jacob Perley opened the trunk, punched her in the face again, and slammed it shut. Then the car was moving again.
When the trunk opened, she saw they were at the water’s edge of Indian Beach on the First Nation. Troy Pelkey and Jacob Perley were both standing outside the vehicle. Albert began begging for her life while others laughed inside the car. Then she said Pelkey spoke.
“I told you I’d get you, Albert,” she testified. “He thought I stole his credit card. I said you have to have a job to have a credit card. He said, “Kill the bitch, I don’t care.””
Albert testified she heard a gun fire. She told the court that Pelkey told Jacob Perley, “Don’t be so stupid.” Perley leaned in the trunk and put a handgun to her head. Pelkey took it from him and held it to her head again, demanding $10,000, or she would be killed.
She was warned she would be killed if she called the police.
“I can get you again, and you’re dead,” Pelkey told Albert.
Jacob Perley punched her one more time. Pelkey told him to remove the handcuffs because her hands and wrists were swollen. The trunk closed, and they headed for the bingo hall. She felt and heard a loud crash as another vehicle smashed into the trunk where she lay. The impact fractured several of her toes. A video recording of the collision was shown in court.
Albert testified the crash caused the trunk to fly open. The vehicle pulled over into a yard. She heard Preston Sockabasin ask Jacob Perley if he still had a gun.
To her surprise, Jacob Perley helped Albert climb out of the trunk. It was Monday morning around 4:30 a.m. when he told her she was lucky to be alive.
“You’re not dead because they want to get paid,” Jacob Perley told Albert.
Still in shock, Albert urinated in her clothes. She stumbled on foot to her boyfriend’s house on the First Nation. She was taken to the Upper River Valley Hospital for treatment. She had injuries to her face, feet, ankles, hands, back and shoulders, and her mouth and lips were blistered and burned. She told hospital staff she had been in an accident. Her convertible was later found destroyed.
“I was afraid to tell what happened,” Albert stated. “They get away with everything up there.”
Albert’s testimony resumes on June 2 at 9 a.m.
Preston Sockabasin, 27, Adam Perley, 33, and Jacob Perley, 34, of Neqotkuk, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges and are awaiting trial. Sockabasin was released with an ankle bracelet while the Perley men remain in custody.
RCMP jointly charged Sockabasin and Jacob and Albert Perley with forcible confinement by choking and suffocation, unlawful confinement, administering a noxious substance, using a handgun to kidnap a female victim, being an occupant of a vehicle knowing it carried a firearm, assault causing bodily harm, and extortion with violence to obtain $10,000.
Jacob Perley was also charged with pointing a firearm at a female victim, possession of a restricted weapon (a handgun), and obstructing a police officer.
The crown later withdrew three charges against Adam Perley. A charge of unlawful confinement was also withdrawn against Sockabasin.
Sheena Sappier, 36, Keegan Paul, 32, and Ashley Paul, 33, of Neqotkuk, also face charges related to the incident.
Sheena Sappier and Ashley Paul were each charged with kidnapping a female victim, unlawful confinement, attempting to obstruct justice by disposing of evidence, and theft of a motor vehicle.
Keegan Paul was charged with unlawful confinement, using a handgun to kidnap a female victim and being an occupant of a vehicle, knowing it carried a firearm.
Ashley Paul was released with conditions, including wearing an electronic monitoring device attached to her ankle.
Preston Sockabasin is also facing a charge of possession of a firearm without a licence and charges of dangerous driving and flight from police for a separate incident on May 7, 2024, at Neqotkuk. He pleaded not guilty.
Keegan Paul and Preston Sockabasin were released with conditions, including wearing an electronic monitoring device attached to their ankles. They must also follow a curfew and undergo a 90-day drug rehabilitation program in their community.
Both men were ordered to abstain from alcohol and drugs, and they were prohibited from possessing firearms. Paul and Sockabasin were also ordered to have no contact with the victim or any of the five others charged in the crime.
Sheena Sappier was released with conditions, including a curfew and wearing an electronic monitoring device attached to her ankle. She was also ordered to enter a drug rehab program in her community.
