A Carstairs man entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder on Friday in connection with the death of his 51-year-old ex-girlfriend, at her insistence, inside her home in Cranston in 2016.
"I'm sorry for the events that happened," 47-year-old Joseph D’Arcy Schluter told the court.
Schluter admitted in court to fatally shooting Cindy Enger eight times in the head with a .22 calibre firearm on January 22, 2016. The shooting occurred moments after a recording was made of Enger stating she wanted her life to end due to the pain she suffered from. In the video recording, Enger and Schluter professed their love for one another.
According to court documents, Schluter and Enger had been in a relationship years earlier but Schluter was married to another woman at the time of Enger’s death. Schluter said Enger had told him of her previous unsuccessful suicide attempt and how she wanted him to end her life in a way that would go unsolved but not appear to be an act of suicide.
On January 8, 2016, a single gunshot was fired by Schluter in Enger’s basement as the two attempted to determine how the sound would be perceived. Enger told Schluter the gunshot sounded like a hammer from where she had been on the main floor of the home.
In the two weeks that followed, Schluter ran errands for Enger, who suffered from chronic pain, and his attempts to change her mind on ending her life were unsuccessful. Schluter fatally shot Enger on January 22, 2016
Police were called to Enger’s home on Cramond Close S.E. on January 24, 2016 after Terry Enger, the father of Cindy Enger’s autistic adult son, was unable to contact Cindy Enger. Officers entered the home and located Cindy Enger’s body and several shell casings. A firearm was not recovered from the scene.
In the weeks that followed Cindy Enger's death, Schluter contacted Terry Enger and asked how Terry and Cindy's adult son was doing. Schluter also contacted the executor of Cindy Enger's will for an update on the police investigation into the death.
Investigators interviewed Schluter and he was charged with first degree murder in connection with Enger's death in March 2016.
Schluter's second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence (25 years). The judge accepted the Crown and defense's joint submission requesting parole ineligibility for 10 years.
The presiding judge referred to the events that resulted in Cindy Enger's death as a 'unique and tragic set of circumstances'.
With files from CTV's Ina Sidhu
