The mother of a murdered Moncton man says her son had a long relationship with the woman accused of killing him, and was living with her just weeks before he died.
Twenty-year-old Marissa Shephard was in Moncton provincial court Friday morning, where her lawyer Gilles Lemiuex asked that she be sent for a 30 day psychiatric evaluation.
Shephard faces charges of arson and first-degree murder in the death of Baylee Wylie.
It was Shepard’s second appearance before a judge.
“I felt she looked straight at me,” said Amanda Wylie, Baylee Wylie’s mother. “I started to get really nervous when she looked at me.”
Amanda Wylie says her son was friends with Shepard as far back as junior high.
“They even hung out back when we lived in Riverview,” she said. “(Marissa) used to play in the backyard of my apartment building, but they lost touch for years.”
Wylie says Shephard’s name only came up again a few months before Baylee was killed, after he had apparently moved in with her.
Baylee Wylie’s cousin Courtney Mullins was also in the courtroom. She says she was living in the apartment rented by Shepard where Wylie was killed just a week before his death.
“She just messaged me on Facebook and said that we had to move out ASAP,” said Mullins. “I didn't hear from her again.”
Shephard was arrested on March 1 on a Canada-wide warrant two-and-a-half months after the death of Baylee Wylie.
Wylie’s body was found by firefighters inside a burned-out triplex in Moncton on Dec. 17.
Two others, Devon Morningstar and Tyler Noel, are also facing charges in relation to Wylie’s death.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis.
