REGINA — “It occurred to me that if I tell anybody about this accident, I’m going to go to jail.”
Joseph Thauberger spoke those words while providing testimony in a Court of King's Bench trial where he stands accused of first-degree murder. Thauberger explained that he had studied cases of people who were wrongfully convicted - particularly that of David Milgaard - and was worried he might face the same fate after his brother, Patrick Thauberger, had fallen down the stairs in Joseph’s Francis Street home on Sept. 3, 1997.
“If I reported the incident, there’s a 98 per cent chance that I would be convicted of murder and I would go to jail for many years, if not the rest of my life,” Joseph said. “So I covered it up. I had no choice but to cover it up.”
While being examined by defence lawyer Tyne Hagey, Joseph gave an account of what happened that fateful day. As with previous testimony in the case, Patrick came to Joseph’s home that day via their brother James Thauberger. Joseph and Patrick were going to meet about business concerning farmland they owned together, then Joseph planned to give Patrick a ride to the bus station in order to catch his bus to Edmonton.
During their conversation in the living room, Joseph excused himself to retrieve some paperwork from a filing cabinet, relating to their conversation about the land. Patrick followed up the stairs to the second level of the home a few minutes later, but according to Joseph, fell backwards before reaching the top of the stairs. Preoccupied with finding the papers, Joseph claims not to have witnessed the fall.
“The next thing I heard was a loud yelling sound,” he said, recalling a “big bang” when Patrick hit the bottom of the stairs. Joseph “ran immediately to see what was going on.”
“There he was at the bottom of the stairs, and his head was twisted,” Joseph explained. “I think he hit that post…and broke his neck. His head was twisted very much to one side.”
Last week, Joseph’s former wife Barbara Hayes was called as a witness, and also described the events that afternoon. She had been in the basement at the time, operating her daycare business, when she heard the loud crash. In her testimony, Hayes claimed the door from the basement to the kitchen was locked - a rarity in the household - but Joseph was positive the door was open.
“My memory is very different from hers,” Joseph said. “I’m sure it was not locked.”
In his account, Hayes opened the door and was standing on the steps, asking what happened. Joseph explained that Patrick had an accident.
“She said, ‘I don’t want to know anything about it,’ and she went back downstairs,” Joseph said.
During this morning’s proceedings, Hagey point blank asked Joseph “did you kill your brother?”
“He died accidentally by falling down the stairs. I didn’t do anything,” Joseph replied. “That night, I hauled him to the farm in the truck and I put his body in the slough. I had intended to bury him in the slough.” He explained wrapping Patrick's body in a piece of carpet measuring approximately 6x9 feet, dragging the dead man through the main floor and onto the tailgate of his pick-up truck, which was backed to the side door entrance of the home.
Joseph - who had back issues at the time of Patrick’s death - paid an acquaintance to bury his brother, promising $500 up front, then $1,000 in the future as assurance the hired man would remain quiet about the act.
The Crown has yet to re-examine Joseph, which will occur this afternoon.
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