Overwhelmed relatives, a neighborhood in shock and a crime scene worthy of a horror movie: the day after the triple murder that shakes a quiet street in the Rosemont district of Montreal, the entourage faces the tragedy.
Bunches of flowers began piling up Saturday afternoon outside this duplex on Bélanger Street in Montreal, located between Viau Street and 40th Avenue. They are carried by relatives in tears, shaken. And by neighbors who had known the family for decades.
The day before, a 19-year-old young man, Arthur Galarneau, allegedly stabbed his mother, father and grandmother to death in this same building. He was charged Saturday morning before the Court of Quebec with the unpremeditated murders of three people, namely Mylène Gingras, 53, Richard Galarneau, 53, and Francine Gingras-Boucher, 75.
According to our information, the young man would have mental health and consumption problems. On Friday, a friend of his told La Presse that Mr. Galarneau’s social media posts had taken a paranoid turn in recent weeks1.
The neighborhood is stunned by the tragedy that decimated a seemingly happy family in a few hours.
“I can’t stop thinking about it, about what happened,” said Filomena Parisi, owner for 50 years of the building adjacent to where the killings took place, from the backyard. “In the summer, they had barbecues, we also talked a lot, she adds. »
The duplex where Arthur Galarneau would have lived since his childhood, and where he would have murdered his family, had recently been put up for sale. Francine Gingras-Boucher, the accused’s grandmother and owner of the building, had been considering the sale since last summer, Ms. Parisi said. “She wanted to move to the Olympic Stadium,” she recalls. She said she was going to help them [her daughter Mylène Gingras, who lived upstairs, and her grandson Arthur, who lived in the basement] to find another place. »
A family friend, reached by La Presse via social media on Saturday, also described a close-knit and loving family. “Arthur was very well surrounded by parents and extended family who loved him dearly. He was the center of Mylène and Richard’s life. We try to understand,” he said. “We are all appalled and truly affected. »
On site Saturday, the shock was almost palpable. Approaching the building—a tidy gray brick house with a red roof—you could already see blood splatter in the windows framing the front door.
On Friday, the arrest of Arthur Galarneau, covered in blood, in front of the building went viral on social networks.
The crime scene inside the building, visible through the window, is particularly disturbing: streaks of blood on the walls and floor, white-turned-pink slippers left outside the window, carpets soaked in blood…
Several immediate neighbors preferred not to speak with La Presse. “It’s too painful,” dropped a neighbor from an adjacent building on her doorstep.
Another saw it all through his window: the arrest and the presence of a body. The images haunt him, he explained, preferring to refrain from commenting on the event.
“It’s really upsetting,” said Adrasse Olguine, a resident of a building near the scene of the tragedy. In the company of her own children, the mother of the family was all the more shocked when she learned the details of the story.
“Before, I walked without fear in the street, but now I feel that I have to watch out for cars, and now for pedestrians”, also affirmed, visibly moved, Naima Arfaoui, a resident of the district.
For Geneviève Hébert, another neighbor who lives about 300 meters from the duplex where the tragedy occurred, mental health must be a priority. “Mental health must be taken care of collectively, there should be no more taboos,” said the one who says she has already suffered from psychological difficulties herself. “I can understand how much [the defendant] was in pain and how he could have freaked out. But it’s heavy, I didn’t think that news like that could affect me so much. »
Arthur Galarneau had no criminal record according to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. He will be back in court on April 11.
The Bélanger Street murders are the third, fourth and fifth homicides in Montreal in 2023.
According to our information, these five murders which occurred in Montreal in 2023 were all allegedly committed by young people suspected or accused of having stabbed a member of their family.
