Marie Gabriel, 24, was found dead in her mansion on Monday. Police have charged the father of her two children with second-degree murder. Photo by Norlande Tassy / Handout
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Marie Gabriel’s best friend is waiting for her phone to ring.
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She knows it will not happen – police found Gabriel’s body at her mansion in Heddington on Monday morning and charged the father of her two young children with second-degree murder. But when you spend hours on FaceTime with someone almost every day, as Norlande Tassy did with Gabriel, it ‘s hard to accept that they will never call again. Gabriel was a friend who could count on saying her opinion with humor and without filtering. She sang and smiled, even in “the most difficult moments,” Tassy said. She was sweet but stubborn and, although she was self-sufficient, she tended to put the needs of others above her own. For about six years, Gabriel had an affair with the man accused of her murder: a security guard named Jean Fenellon, now 40. Tassi and Gabriel’s brother, David Gabriel, both said he was both controlling and manipulative. that Gabriel had been trying to get out of the relationship for a long time.
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None of Fenelon’s allegations have been tried in court. Fenelon’s lawyer told the newspaper he was unable to comment on the story. Ottawa police vehicles parked Monday near the mansion where Marie Gabriel’s body was found. Photo by Jean Levac / Postmedia In November, Gabriel moved into a hotel with her children — now one and two years old — and was eventually offered the Ottawa Community Housing unit where she was living at the time of her death. Shortly after his move, Tassy said Gabriel returned to Fenelon, who then came with them to the family’s new home. “She moved to her new place, where she was trying to escape.” For almost two years, Tassy said she was trying to help her friend get out of the relationship. Tassy lives in New Brunswick and there was a constant invitation for Gabriel to come back with her when she visited Ottawa. It was something the women had talked about doing in a few weeks from now: picking up Tassie’s car and coming back with Gabriel and her kids.
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“Even if it was just temporary, just to get away from them for a while, clear her head, get her a game plan and clear things up. To let her breathe for five minutes. “ The two young women were Jehovah’s Witnesses who grew up and met through the church they eventually left as older teenagers. They were inseparable – they became blood sisters, piercings and all, at the age of 14 – until they both left their family homes a few years later, and were carried away by each other for a few years. Tassy said Gabriel, who had no social media and had changed phone numbers, spotted her in June 2020. After Tassy found out that her ex-boyfriend was now a mother, they began a habit of daily dialing and FaceTimes that often included just to keep one another company, without words, but a window into each other’s life.
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Tassy watched her friend raise her children, with whom she planned to stay home until they both went to school. Gabriel hoped to continue her own education at that point, with nursing as an area of interest. “He was human, he was human, he had a story and it should not end like that,” Tassy said. “She had to be happy with her children; she was successful with her children.” Marie Gabriel, 24, was found dead at her mansion in Heatherington on Monday. Photo by Norlande Tassy / Handout David said his younger sister was an affectionate and patient person who would do anything she could to make someone happy and smile. She was crazy, but stubborn, for sure: “They tell her ‘Do not do this,’ but she wants to try it for herself.” They were born in the Gambia and moved to Canada in 2007, and she remembers the day she climbed a mango tree… only to break the branch beneath it.
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Afterwards, David said he wanted to be more persistent in intervening in his sister’s relationship, “and he just made sure it was really good, not just pretending to be good.” On Saturday, two days before police were called for Gabriel’s body, Tassie said her friend had kicked Fenelon out of the house. He was on the phone with Gabriel when he returned to the mansion and Gabriel started screaming at him, Tassi recalls. Then the sound was cut off from that point and then Tassi could not reach her friend. “I have heard them argue in the past. “Nothing was recorded. Nothing was recorded that could possibly be in danger,” Tassy said. “For me, it was just another phone call.” For Tassy and David, the loss still seemed unreal on Friday and the fate of Gabriel’s children was their main concern. Tassy, meanwhile, is still waiting for her best friend to call. “Just to spend a normal (day),” he said, on the verge of tears. “Just to hear her sing. Anything.”
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