A psychiatrist has determined that an 86-year-old man accused of killing his wife in their Rideau Park home in October is not mentally fit to stand trial.

Siegfried Van Zuiden was charged with second-degree murder after police found the body of his wife Audrey, 80, in the couple’s home on Rideau Place S.W. at about 4:15 a.m. on October 4.

A psychiatric assessment was ordered for Siegfried Van Zuiden and a doctor told the court at that time that he likely suffered from dementia and had a minimum understanding of why he was in court.

Van Zuiden was moved to the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre where he underwent two months of tests.

On Friday, his lawyer Alain Hepner presented a letter from the head of the Centre and it was determinded that Van Zuiden was mentally unfit to stand trial.

Family friends, Vince Walker and Gordon Van Gunst, know Van Zuiden as Fred and say the decision is a step in the right direction.

“What we’re ultimately hoping is that the charge will go away and I think that’s part of the legal side going forward and the next part is looking forward to the what the medical recommendations are. At the end of the day, we want Fred to be happy, healthy, comfortable, we want to be able visit him, we want to be able to sit at a table with him, play a game of chess with him, make his life as comfortable as possible,” said Walker. “Ultimately I’d like to see that second-degree murder charge dismissed because, like we’ve always said, this is a dementia case not a murder trial.”

They are hoping that Fred will be moved to a facility that can give him the treatment that he needs.

“It’s a tragedy that has happened, dementia is a terrible disease and we want Fred to get the best care for the disease that he has and until such time as this court is over with, that impedes that a little bit,” said Van Gunst. “We would just like a little more personal access to him for family,”

“The facility he’s in right now is very much like a prison. You make appointments, you talk to him through a pane of glass with a phone. We would rather have something certainly a more friendly environment, more accessible environment,” said Walker.

The case will be back in court on December 13, 2016.

A fitness determination can be reversed if at any point the patient improves with treatment.

(With files from The Canadian Press)