Accused in Saskatoon woman’s death says he was under psychological pressure

SASKATOON—A man accused of first-degree murder in the death of a Saskatoon woman says contradictions in his statements are the result of the tremendous psychological pressure he was under.

Douglas Hales is charged with strangling and savagely beating Daleen Bosse, whom he had met at a bar where he worked as a bouncer.

He was arrested after a so-called Mr. Big Sting, in which undercover RCMP officers posed as members of a criminal organization trying to recruit Hales.

On Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Matthew Miazga asked Hales why he said in a police interview that he strangled Bosse after she allegedly laughed at him for his inability to perform sexually.

Hales said he was under enormous pressure during the interrogation and was just following the detectives’ lead.

Hales has testified that Bosse died of what he assumed was alcohol poisoning after they spent an evening drinking a large quantity of alcohol and that he burned her body out of fear he would be charged with murder.

Miazga noted that in a transcript of a conversation with an undercover officer, Hales gave a graphic account of strangling and beating Bosse.

Hales said Wednesday it was an exaggeration meant to portray himself as a “stone-cold killer.”

Hales also re-stated claims he made on Tuesday that police tampered with evidence against him.

Although the tape recordings show he told the undercover officers they would find Bosse’s body under a fridge, he said Wednesday he never actually threw a fridge on Bosse’s body.

He said that was an exaggeration and suggested it was police who put the fridge over Bosse’s body to make the scene fit the recordings.

Miazga also addressed a bizarre incident from earlier in the trial in which one of the undercover officers alleged Hales was making threatening gestures at him from the prisoner’s box.

Asked about the incident, Hales admitted that he was clutching the crucifix he wears around his neck and pointing at it. Asked why, Hales said he believed the officer was lying on the stand, and that he was pointing to his crucifix to indicate he was praying for him.

Bosse, who was 25, was a mother and fourth-year university student who wanted to be a teacher.

Her burned remains were found four years after she vanished in 2004.