Kindersley family, community grieve after separated couple murder-suicide

A woman who was killed in a murder-suicide in Kindersley on Thursday is being remembered as a loving mother, grandmother and co-worker by family and the larger community.

Elsie Gartner, 64, a health worker with the Heartland Health Region, was shot by her estranged husband, 66-year-old Dave Gartner, at their family home around 10 a.m. on Thursday. It led to an extended RCMP standoff that forced schools to keep children inside for the day.

The RCMP says a single gunshot was reported from the home just after 10 a.m., and an adult daughter of the couple fled the home to alert police.

Friends say the couple had been separated for months and living apart. The RCMP confirmed the Gartners were in divorce proceedings, but there weren’t any previous reports of domestic violence.

Dave was living in the family home while they worked to sell it, friends said. The RCMP said the home was recently sold.

“It’s hard for me to even speak about it,” said Bob Elmhurst, who shared coffee with Dave Gartner at the local A&W on a regular basis. “Yesterday was just a regular day.”

Elmhurst said Gartner engaged in the usual conversations, discussing the sale of his house among other things. Everything seemed normal, Elmhurst said.

Others told 650 CKOM Gartner left the restaurant to have a smoke sometime before 10 a.m., and wasn’t heard from again.

According to the RCMP, the first officers to arrive set up a perimeter then waited for the emergency response unit. All through the day, police didn’t see any movement or hear sounds from the home.

“Officers tried several times as they were setting up the interior perimeter to try to make contact with anyone in the residence, through voice, cellphone. There was no response,” Cpl. Rob King said Friday.

Officers entered the home around 3 p.m. with the use of a robot and discovered the bodies of Elsie and Dave.

“A window was broken out, a robot was put in and then went through the house to assess the situation and members followed afterward once it was deemed to be safe,” said King.

It’s relatively uncommon for the RCMP to say publicly that an incident is considered a murder-suicide, and to release the identities of those involved. King said the RCMP determined this case warranted the information.

“We take each situation on its individual merits, and then we make a decision at the time, based on the circumstances of each situation. Based on the totality of this situation, it was determined that we would release the names,” said King.

Elmhurst said the tragedy is being taken hard by many in the Kindersley community.

“It’s hard on family, friends. It’s going to be a rough Christmas for a lot of people.”

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Keenan Sorokan and 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick

Editor’s note: A Facebook quote from a family member was removed from this story at the family’s request.