-Prince George, B.C.
Wendy Ratte has mysteriously gone and no facts are concrete. Denis is Wendy’s (now) widow, and in an attempt to join a gang, after Wendy’s death, ended up admitting to the murder of his wife. Many believe he is guilty, while others believe otherwise. Michael Bassett looks into this:
Wendy Ratte and Denis Ratte met in Las Vegas where Denis helped Wendy out of a bad relationship. The two had an interesting back story of why they were in Vegas.
For Denis, Gambling was one of the only ways of earning a living since, he can’t read or write. It was the only way of earning money other than working labor
Wendy ran away from her home and family when she was 17 years of age. Often after, she would send letters to her family, but she would sign using the name “Shana”, Doctors link the symptoms to Bipolar disorder. Wendy was eventually found hiding in the woods, and was checked in to a mental hospital. One year later, after she turned 18, she checked herself out of hospital and left for Vegas. That’s where they met.
Wendy and Denis, years after they married, had 2 children named Anna and Gabriel.
One fateful afternoon, at Denis work, he was alone working labor without supervision. Denis fell off a platform, and suffered a career ending back injury. Because Denis couldn’t Read or Write, Denis couldn’t work anything other than labor, he did the only thing he could do, go to the casinos and gamble.
Gambling caused problems in Wendy and Denis marriage. Many tough weeks later, Wendy announced good news to their kids, Wendy has decided to stay with Denis because of the way Denis listened to her and helped out of her alter-ego state. Only a couple weeks later, Wendy mysteriously went missing.
Reasonably, the police interviewed Denis first, since he is the husband. Denis decided to prove his innocence by taking a lie detector test, he passed easily.
Only a few months later, police were clueless with no leads, and had every theory as a possibility; did she run away to become lesbian? Did she join a Cult? Was she murdered? Denis daughter Anna was desperate for answers from police. One day, an RCMP officer contacted Anna telling her that “ he is new to the case, and doesn’t know how long he will be on it, but will do everything he can to solve the case”, Anna felt a tidal wave dose of relief.
Denis was struggling raising his kids on no income, since he can’t find work, and had no money to gamble, was desperate, so he decided to start selling heroin, to feed his kids, and his cocaine addiction.
One night, Denis was eating at a soup kitchen, when a police officer, posing as a gang member, came up to Denis, and offered a position, Denis saw this as an opportunity to
‘Get rich”. The officer told Denis to meet them inside a motel room, if he wanted to join. Denis accepted the offer not knowing what was really going to happen.
In order to capture footage of the event, police set up surveillance cameras. At the time of the event, Denis told the undercover officers that he shot Wendy, once “for the neighbours”, and brought her dead body to the middle of the woods, near the highway of tears. He then proceeded to bring the undercover officers to the exact spot of where he left her body, there was no trace of Wendy. Perhaps wild animals of that region ate it? Undercover officers caught video of it thru a secret body camera.
Police arrested Denis and Denis was charged with 1st degree murder and life in prison, and 16 years without parole. Denis lost his appeal to the B.C. court of justice, and is currently appealing his sentence.
