Fredericton Police says they have reopened an investigation into the murder of a 43 -year -old school teacher in 2008 who was allegedly poisoned with Mercury.
Charges were never presented, and Fredericton’s police force will not say why he is reviewing the case, which he cooled in 2013.
In 2011, the police briefly identified and arrested a 44 -year -old man in relation to the death of Patricia Ann Kucerovsky, but was then released unconditionally.
As of 2012, it was still the only suspect. The Police would not confirm this week if that remains the case, but said that a decision to reopen the investigation was carried out in June 2025.
“Our goal is to ensure that no case is forgotten, and that unsolved files continue to receive attention so that opportunities are not lost to advance,” said Sonya Gilks spokeswoman in an email.
Lori Haggerty, one of Kucerovsky’s sisters, said in an interview that the family believes that the case is of intimate couple violence. Spokeswoman Megan Barker did not confirm if the police are treating him as such.
No one has been accused in relation to the death of Kucerovsky.
Haggerty said the decision opens injuries that he has been trying to heal, in part, walking through Canada to raise awareness about his sister’s story.
“He had felt that he had found a way to deal with all the emotions that occurred knowing that no one was going to be convicted of his murder,” he said.
“And so, they turn around and say: ‘Oh, well, we are going to reopen the case now 17 years after the fact,’ it was difficult to hear … there is still that feeling of, well, why didn’t they do it 17 years ago? Why didn’t they protect us from the beginning?”
Haggerty believes that the decision to reopen the investigation was “reactionary”, since history won more attention with its walk through Canada, aimed at raising money for beneficial organizations related to domestic violence and mental health.
Gilks said Fredericton’s police force “regularly reviews the main investigations” to see if there could be new information, technology or research techniques to advance.
“[The force] Understand that reviewing an earlier investigation can be very painful for families, and we don’t take that light impact, “he said in an email.
“We recognize the importance and value for those who choose to advocate for their loved ones and raise awareness in their own way, and communicate directly with families throughout the process to provide updates and support.”
The criminologist of the University of New Brunswick, Mary Ann Campbell, says that reopening a cold case is not very common, pointing out the impact it can have on families and witnesses involved.
“You are reopening many wounds, many interruptions in the lives of people who are still affected by that,” he said in an interview.
“It will also ask witnesses potentially new information for the problems they had put in the past, and perhaps they have moved. And that is why there are many lives that can be affected by this.”
Reviewing a case does not necessarily mean that the police were wrong in their original conclusions, Campbell said.
“It simply means that they are doing their due diligence to ensure that research should not go in a different direction or if they were on the right path to start the original research,” he said.
Campbell said that the most common reason to reopen an investigation is that new evidence has been available.
There could also be a new technology available for the police now that it would not have been at the time of crime, he said.
While Haggerty said that the choice has mentioned painful emotions, he would still like to see it results in a conviction.
“It’s hard not to have hope again, but it’s very difficult to have hope,” he said.
“Because we had that before, for a long time.”
