'Internet Black Widow' bail hearing adjourned
A woman nicknamed the Internet Black Widow for her ability to persuade grieving widowers to marry her has had her bail hearing in Sydney, N.S., adjourned until Friday. She is facing an attempted murder charge.
Melissa Weeks, 77, was charged after her latest husband became ill at a bed and breakfast in Cape Breton.
She is also charged with trying to poison her husband — Fred Weeks — under Sec. 245 of the Criminal Code, known as administering a noxious substance.
Weeks made a brief appearance Tuesday in Sydney provincial court and asked for more time to prepare a case for why she should be allowed out of custody.
This is the second adjournment in Weeks' bail hearing. Last week's hearing was adjourned for the same reason.
"Last week, Mrs. Weeks asked that her bail hearing be adjourned until today's date," Crown attorney Diane McGrath told reporters outside the courtroom on Tuesday.
"Today they indicated that they were not ready to proceed with the bail hearing and it's been adjourned until the end of the week."
McGrath, who has said the Crown will oppose Weeks' release, said she did not know why the accused needed more time to prepare.
The alleged victim in the latest case, Fred Weeks, has been released from hospital and returned home, where he is resting with his family.
The woman best known as Melissa Friedrich has a long history with the law.
In 1991, she was convicted of manslaughter and served two years of a six-year jail term after killing her husband, Gordon Stewart, of P.E.I., on a deserted road near Halifax. Stewart was heavily drugged when she ran him over twice with a car.
Shortly after she was released from jail, she travelled to Florida and met Robert Friedrich at a Christian retreat.
They married in Nova Scotia in 2000, but a year later, Friedrich's family noticed his health was faltering. He had mysterious fainting spells and slurred speech, and was in and out of hospitals.
They also said his money had started to disappear.
Friedrich died in 2002 of cardiac arrest. No one was charged.
In 2005, Weeks was sentenced to five years in prison for a slew of charges stemming from a relationship she had with another Florida man she met online.
