WATCH: “Betrayed, bullied and miscast,” the Oak Bay father charged with murdering his daughters says he needed to escape. Tess van Straaten reports from the Andrew Berry trial.
It’s a key piece of evidence for the prosecution — a letter police believe was meant to be a suicide note that Andrew Berry left for his sister.
For the first time, we’re hearing about the long list of complaints Andrew Berry had against his parents and Sarah Cotton, the mother of his children.
When Oak Bay Police discovered the bodies of four-year-old Aubrey Berry and six-year-old Chloe Berry on Christmas Day 2017, they also found a three-page letter addressed to Berry’s sister.
“I couldn’t take the abuses by Sarah plus parents,” Berry writes. “I gambled to get away, live in exile with the girls. The first time I won $100,000 I could have used it as one would expect but I didn’t.”
The full letter was read aloud in court on Tuesday.
The first page of the letter lists the grievances against his parents, which include:
Reneging on a deal to advance him $50,000 of an ICBC settlement
His mother “feeding Sarah harmful things about me and refusing to stop”
“Calling child services against me as revenge for arguing over religion and taking kids to a Baptist Church for a Halloween party”
The second page lists his beefs with Sarah, accusing of:
Lying about her financial position
Blaming him for Aubrey’s head trauma and “getting away with it”
Calling child services
Radically altering his time with the kids before Chloe started school, “just because”
“That was the last straw,” Berry writes after each list. “I quit my job and went for it.”
Towards the end he writes: “Betrayed, bullied, and miscast I set out to leave with the kids. I love you and (your children) but I thought it better for myself and kids to escape.”
The trial continues Wednesday and is expected to last several more weeks.
Tess van Straaten
