Melissa Friedrich

Case record: Melissa Friedrich (“Black Widow”)

Names and aliases

Melissa Friedrich was also known as Melissa Stewart and Melissa Ann Weeks (also charged under the surname Weeks).

Background

Melissa Stewart was born in Burnt Church, New Brunswick, in 1935 and later lived in Ontario with her family when she was a teenager. She moved to Ontario in 1953 and completed high school through evening correspondence at Stafford College while living with an aunt.

In 1955, Melissa met and married factory worker Russell Sheppard. They had two children.

Between 1970 and 1985, Melissa was charged with over thirty counts of fraud and forgery while in Ontario and Prince Edward Island, and she was convicted and spent over five years in jail.

In December 1985, Melissa was released from detention and returned to Prince Edward Island.

In 1988, Melissa met widower Gordon Stewart and began a romantic relationship while she was still married to Russell Sheppard. Melissa divorced Mr. Shepard and became Mrs. Stewart.

In 1990, Melissa and Gordon Stewart married in Las Vegas and later had another ceremony in Vancouver. Shortly after, Gordon Stewart became delusional and was admitted to hospital where benzodiazepine was found in his system.

In 1991, Gordon pleaded guilty to assaulting Melissa and served time in jail. A probation order stipulated that he was to have no contact with Melissa, and over the next few weeks she initiated contact upon several occasions. In April 1991, Melissa and Gordon Stewart relocated to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

In 2000, Melissa met Robert Friedrich after spotting him in a Christian Retreat newsletter. She enclosed a photo and told Robert Friedrich that she believed God wanted them to get married. He invited her to visit him, and within three days of her arrival they agreed to get married. She married Robert Friedrich in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, at the interfaith Wedding Chapel on June 23, 2000, and then joined him in Florida.

In 2004, Melissa returned to Prince Edward Island and later traveled back and forth between Canada and the U.S. In November 2004, Melissa returned to Florida to meet Alex Strategos, with whom she had corresponded on AmericanSinglesDating.com. She moved into his Pinellas Park apartment on the same night.

In September 2012, Melissa Shepard married Fred Weeks. The Vital Statistics division later ruled their union invalid after false information was provided on the marriage certificate.

The offence (1991 death of Gordon Stewart)

On December 23, 1990, at an apartment in Prince Edward Island, Gordon Stewart became delusional, and two hours later he was discovered frothing at the mouth on the floor and taken to hospital where benzodiazepine was found in his system.

On April 27, 1991, Melissa ran over and killed her husband on a deserted road. Three hours later, she reported his death.

Non-prescribed benzodiazepine (valium and restoril) was found in Gordon Stewart’s system, and it was judged to be enough to kill him. Melissa claimed that Stewart sexually assaulted her. Medical tests did not confirm any rape. Her account of the death in the context of an attempted rape made no sense in the findings described, and Stewart before his death wrote a letter chronicling how Melissa cheated on him, repeatedly lied, and drained his bank account. A physical exam showed no evidence of a sexual assault. A tracking dog could find no signs of anyone being in the woods where she claimed she was raped.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, prosecutors said she gave her 44-year-old husband a combination of pills, booze and rubbing alcohol that would have made him unconscious before running him over on a dirt road near Halifax International Airport. Her alleged motive was to collect his pension benefits. Defense attorneys contended she accidentally backed over him in a rush to escape after he raped her in the woods beside the road. A judge told jurors that if they believed she had intended to kill her husband, Stewart should be convicted of second-degree murder, and if they believed it was an accident, they should convict her of manslaughter.

Gordon Stewart was heavily drugged when she ran him over twice with a car.

Trial (1992 manslaughter conviction for Gordon Stewart)

In the spring of 1992, a jury in Kingston, Ontario found Melissa Stewart guilty of manslaughter.

Melissa was sentenced to six years in prison on August 20, 1992.

During incarceration, Melissa formed a support group for wives who had been abused by their husbands. She later founded Project Another Chance, a toll free counseling line for women having trouble in jail.

While incarcerated, she was featured as a prime character in the National Film Board documentary “When Women Kill,” which aired in March 1994.

In 1994, Melissa was released from prison with full parole.

In March 1994, the National Film Board documentary “When Women Kill” aired, and Melissa was featured as one of the prime characters.

In May 1996, she set up a toll free counseling line for women having trouble in jail called “Project Another Chance.”

The offence (Strategos case and attempted murder charge reference)

In April 2000, Melissa wrote to a Florida widower and retired engineer she had spotted in a Christian Retreat newsletter. She later returned to Florida in May 2000 to visit Robert Friedrich. Three days after arriving, she and Robert Friedrich agreed to get married.

Robert Friedrich’s health faltered, with slurred speech and faltering health noted by his family, and he was in and out of hospitals. In July 2002, one of Robert Friedrich’s sons complained to the Elder Abuse Line, blaming Millie for his father’s decline.

Robert Friedrich rewrote his will in 2002, leaving out his sons and making Melissa the sole beneficiary of his full estate.

Robert Friedrich died of cardiac arrest on December 16, 2002. There was no autopsy. Melissa continued to cash Robert Friedrich’s social security checks before returning to Prince Edward Island in 2004. The Social Security Administration specified that benefits were due only through the last full month that the beneficiary lived.

Records showed that Melissa held multiple prescriptions for Lorazepam, a benzodiazepine. Florida’s Manatee County Sheriff investigated her for “doctor shopping” and prescription fraud; by the end of 2004, the county decided it did not have enough evidence to prosecute her. In 2004, Human Resource Development Canada started its own investigation into possible involvement in Old Age Security fraud, alleging she bilked the government of over $30,000, and the investigation was dropped in 2009.

In November 2004, Melissa returned to Florida to meet Alex Strategos. On November 5, 2004, she had dinner with Alex Strategos in Pinellas Park, Florida and moved into his house the same night. Later that night Alex was taken to hospital after falling down and hitting his head. Over a two-month period, Alex was hospitalized eight times. Alex was given power of attorney to Melissa; in December 28, 2004, Alex signed over power of attorney to Melissa while he was in the hospital.

In January 2005, Alex Strategos’ son Dean noticed unprescribed drugs (benzodiazepine) in his father’s medical report and blood tests and discovered around $18,000 missing from his father’s bank account.

On January 6, 2005, Pinellas Park Police arrested Melissa and charged her with exploitation of the elderly, theft and forgery. Police said she coerced Strategos to give her power of attorney and then siphoned money into her own bank account.

On February 1, 2005, Nova Scotia RCMP issued a warrant for Melissa’s arrest. She was charged with defrauding the government of Canada of $30,348.54 over a four year period with fraud offences allegedly taking place between July 1997 and October 2003.

On March 14, 2005, scheduled date of pre-trial, Melissa Friedrich pleaded guilty to seven charges related to the Strategos case, including three counts of grand theft from a person 65 years or older, two counts of forgery and two counts of using a forged document. As part of a plea agreement, she was sentenced to five years in jail.

On April 2, 2009, the Crown Attorney’s office in Halifax dropped Old Age Security fraud charges against Melissa, stating they had not received enough evidence to proceed. On April 4, 2009, she was released from prison in Florida and deported to Canada, and she lived on her own in a seniors’ apartment building in Nova Scotia.

The offence (Attempted murder charge and 2013 plea related to Fred Weeks)

In late September 2012, Melissa Shepard’s courtship with a neighbor culminated in marriage to Fred Weeks. Their marriage was on September 25 after knowing her just a month, following the marriage ceremony performed by a justice of the peace, George Megeny, who had seen Melissa on a CBC documentary about her alleged crimes, “The Widow’s Web.”

Melissa and Fred Weeks checked into the Chambers Guesthouse in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, on September 28. Melissa complained of a rough ferry crossing and said her husband was not feeling well. The innkeeper thought she heard someone fall in the night, but Melissa insisted everything was fine.

The next morning Melissa asked the innkeeper to call an ambulance for Fred but insisted on finishing breakfast first. The innkeeper called for an ambulance and police. Paramedics found Fred Weeks on the floor of the couple’s room in a bed and breakfast, weak and disoriented.

On September 30, Weeks’ son called the police and reported that hospital staff had told him that Melissa insisted that Fred Weeks suffered from dementia and that he had no children. Police found that Melissa also told neighbors at the Quinway Apartments seniors villa that Weeks was childless and struggled with dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and that he had had multiple heart attacks. Fred Weeks survived and was released, but tests showed a high dose of benzodiazepine in his body.

Police confined Melissa and searched their apartment. Investigators found 144 tablets of Lorazepam, a small amount of Temazepam, three unlabeled empty bottles, prescriptions from five different doctors, and a suspicious tub of ice cream for analysis.

Fred Weeks later said he was piecing together what happened, remembered little between the wedding and waking up in the hospital, and was not convinced they took the ferry. He learned there was a mistake on their marriage license indicating they were not in fact married.

Melissa Shepard was charged with attempted murder and administering a noxious thing listed in court documents as the tranquillizer benzodiazepine after the 75-year-old fell ill at the bed and breakfast in Cape Breton. Her sentencing was scheduled for Tuesday in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The maximum sentence was two years for administering a noxious thing and 18 months for failing to provide the necessaries of life.

On June 10, 2013, Melissa pled guilty to administering a noxious thing and failing to provide necessity of life. A 78-year-old woman nicknamed the Internet Black Widow for her ability to persuade grieving widowers to marry her pleaded guilty in Sydney, N.S., to administering a noxious thing and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Outcome

Melissa Stewart was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison, with sentencing on August 20, 1992.

Melissa Friedrich pleaded guilty to seven charges related to the Strategos case and was sentenced to five years in jail as part of a plea agreement.

Melissa Shepard pleaded guilty on June 10, 2013 to administering a noxious thing and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Other details

Melissa had a long history with the law, including charges of fraud, forgery and impersonation and a conviction involving manslaughter in 1992, followed by a guilty plea in connection with exploitation, theft and forgery relating to the relationship with Alex Strategos.

A plea for information was issued by police regarding Friedrich’s activities from 1997 until the time of investigation. Detectives asked if there were other victims in the local, statewide or across the nation range and asked for information through calls to Mike Lynch at (727) 541-0797 or police Sgt. Paul Andrews at (727) 541-0793.

Melissa met Robert Friedrich through correspondence after seeing him in a Christian Retreat newsletter and wrote a letter to him stating: “God wants us to be married.”

In December 2002, the cremation certificate was issued and no autopsy or toxicology reports were done. The doctor confirmed the death certificate by telephone without examining the body.

In 1991, Gordon Stewart pleaded guilty to assaulting Melissa, and she visited him in jail.

In 2000, the wedding ceremony in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia occurred on June 23, 2000 at the interfaith Wedding Chapel.

In 2005, she was arrested and charged in Pinellas Park, Florida, and later faced charges in Nova Scotia related to defrauding the government of Canada.

In 2012, at the bail hearing on October 5, her bond was denied.

The Vital Statistics division later ruled the September 25 marriage to Fred Weeks invalid after false information was provided on the marriage certificate.