Austin Isadore looked at the RCMP officers at his doorstep and realized then that he was a suspect in the death of his girlfriend Cassidy Bernard.
“They eventually asked me if I killed Cassidy,” the 20-year-old recalled Friday.
By this point, a week had passed since Bernard had been found dead in her mother’s We’Koqma’q home last October. Her two babies were with her and were discovered dehydrated but otherwise unharmed. Isadore is the father of the babies.
He’s also well aware that several people in the Cape Breton Mi’kmaq community believe he’s responsible for Bernard’s death.
But he was still surprised when police officers showed up to question him.
“I didn’t think I would be a suspect. It never crossed my mind until they came knocking at my door at about 1 a.m.,” said Isadore. “I thought, ‘Holy s--t.’
“I have an alibi and that’s why I was released. The cops picked me up and everything. They talked to me for hours. They weren’t necessarily convinced I did it. I gave them what information I had and they followed up on it. I’m no longer a suspect.”
The investigators said if anything popped up they would contact him, he recalled.
“Someone was getting mad at me every day.”
Almost seven months have passed and RCMP have released few details about the case that has left many residents of the First Nations community angry and questioning the justice system. RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Clarke said investigators recently received Bernard’s long-awaited autopsy report, but she did not provide any more details. Nor would she say if investigators ever considered Isadore a suspect or even if they are considering Cassidy’s death a homicide.
Isadore lives in Wagmatcook, a neighbouring Mi’kmaq community located about 30 kilometres away. He said no one is willing to listen to his side of the story. He said he was at home at the time Bernard died.
He also said he never assaulted Bernard in the two years they were together. He said the couple had split up temporarily while he dealt with a drug problem.
“I saw her a week and a half before she died. I would like to know what happened. I’m not too sure. I thought it would have been solved within the same month ... I haven’t been able to move on and I won’t be able to move on for a while.”
But Isadore has had run-ins with the law. He’s facing six outstanding criminal charges.
Three of the charges are from an incident on Oct. 31, 2017. They include possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, uttering threats to damage property and unauthorized possession of a firearm.
The other two charges are from a Nov. 2, 2018, incident: uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and uttering threats to damage property.
The latter charges came after Bernard’s death. People were accusing him of murdering his former girlfriend and he’d had enough.
“I started getting mad at people. Someone was getting mad at me every day. If someone kept bugging you daily, you would eventually get mad and that’s what happened.”
The fall 2017 incident involved an altercation with his brother. He ended up threatening his brother with an unloaded gun.
“I’m a hunter and I always carry guns in my truck and I would never kill my brother.”
But relatives of Bernard’s are not convinced of Isadore’s innocence.
Her cousin Ericka Bernard is one of them.
“The police don’t have any information and it’s driving us crazy,” said Bernard. “If someone else dies in our community is anything going to happen?
“I see this little girl in her coffin. There was so much makeup on her face but you could see the bruising on her jaws and cheeks. She had a scarf covering (bruising on) her neck. I firmly believe she was murdered.”
Madonna Bernard, Cassidy’s aunt, confirmed that the family did receive results of her niece’s autopsy but did not offer any more details out of fear of jeopardizing the investigation.
“I’m hoping we find justice for her soon because it’s getting hard on her mom, on her family,” said Madonna. “It’s driving us crazy. Her mom is saying, ‘Stay calm and stay patient.’
“We feel the justice system is failing us but we’re trying to be patient.”
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