The partner of a man allegedly slain by Eric Wildman testified Tuesday, describing the days following Clifford Joseph’s disappearance near Stead, Manitoba on June 7, 2021.
Cristin Wise dabbed her eyes with a tissue as Crown prosecutor Christian Vanderhooft asked her to identify a hat she said belonged to Joseph that she found while searching the area around their rural home the day he went missing.
Wildman is charged with first-degree murder in connection with Joseph’s death. His jury trial is expected to run until Feb. 15.
Forty-four-year-old Wise told the court she and Joseph had been in a relationship roughly a year and a half when they began renting a house neighbouring Wildman’s property. The pair would do odd jobs for money, and fished and chopped wood to sell, court heard.
“I knew him since kindergarten, so pretty much my whole life,” Wise said.
June 6, 2021, was a “normal day” at home with Joseph, Wise said. That afternoon, Joseph told Wise he wanted to take a winch from a trailer on Wildman’s property. Court heard Wildman’s property had suffered a significant fire less than a month earlier.
Wise told the court she went to bed before Joseph. When she woke in the morning, Joseph, and the couple’s truck, was gone.
Wise then described finding the couple’s truck and Joseph’s phone abandoned in a nearby field, coming across some of Joseph’s hat, shoes, and headlamp near a set of tire tracks, and venturing with her roommate onto Wildman’s property to discover Joseph’s tool bag near the trailer he’d mentioned the day before.
“It was not like him not to be home,” she said.
Wise then called the RCMP to report Joseph missing. She provided a statement to RCMP, telling the court she didn’t mention Joseph’s intent to steal the winch so that police would take his disappearance “seriously.” Wise said she got upset with officers who suggested his disappearance could be linked to his involvement in the drug trade.
“That is why I kept it from them and I lied on my statement, because I didn’t want him to be judged, I didn’t want him to get in trouble,” she said.
During cross-examination, defence Martin Glazer grilled Wise about her knowledge of Joseph’s drug use — something Wise admitted she initially hid from police because she didn’t fully trust them. Wise insisted she didn’t know Joseph was selling drugs, but admitted they had used together in the past.
Wise also told the court she discovered Joseph was cheating on her with his sister’s roommate in April and May of 2021, and kicked him out of their house. He returned just days before he went missing.
“I regret asking him to come home,” said Wise. “He’d still be with me.”
Glazer questioned why Wise immediately suspected Joseph was missing and not at his sister’s.
“He could have left that morning to go buy drugs for all you know,” Glazer said.
Glazer also questioned why Wise took moved valuable evidence; upon finding the truck, Wise said she drove it back to their property, and brought all Joseph’s belongings she discovered home with her. RCMP later instructed her to put them back where she found them to the best of her knowledge.
“You didn’t call the police until after you say you found all these items and took them all home,” he said.
The trial continues Wednesday with testimony from five witnesses, including a longtime friend of the couple and their former roommate.