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Drug charges laid against son of Dieppe double homicide victims

Sylvio Sauliner, one of the sons of Bernard Saulnier and Rose-Marie Saulnier, leaves the Moncton courthouse in early 2020.  (Shane Magee/CBC - image credit)
Sylvio Sauliner, one of the sons of Bernard Saulnier and Rose-Marie Saulnier, leaves the Moncton courthouse in early 2020. (Shane Magee/CBC - image credit)

An arrest warrant has been issued for the son of a Dieppe couple found dead in their homes in 2019 after he failed to appear in Moncton provincial court Monday morning.

Sylvio Saulnier, 46, faces charges of possession of methamphetamine and cocaine for purpose of trafficking as well as a conspiring with several other people to commit an indictable offence. The alleged offences occurred between July 4, 2019, and Sept. 1, 2019. Saulnier is co-accused with two others in the court documents.

Saulnier wasn't present Monday when he was scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges laid last week, despite being personally served on Friday with a notice to appear in court.

Judge Luc Labonté issued an arrest warrant for Saulnier.

CBC News has requested comment from a spokesperson for the New Brunswick RCMP about the charges.

This duplex on Dominion Street was one of the Moncton properties searched by police in August 2019.
This duplex on Dominion Street was one of the Moncton properties searched by police in August 2019.

Saulnier owned a duplex on Dominion Street that was raided by RCMP on Aug. 28, 2019, as part of an alleged drug-trafficking operation in the Moncton, Fredericton and Woodstock areas.

An RCMP news release from 2019 says eight people between 17 and 49 were arrested when five search warrants were excecuted, resulting in the seizure of about 14.5 kilograms of what was believed to be methamphetamine and about 880 grams of what was believed to be "cocaine/crack cocaine."

While police said several of those arrested were given promises to appear in court in December 2019, in the summer of 2020 RCMP indicated only one person had been charged.

The charges laid against Saulnier allege he possessed methamphetamine and cocaine on Aug. 28, 2019, the day of the RCMP searches.

The bodies of Bernard Saulnier, 78, and his wife, Rose-Marie Saulnier, 74, were discovered in their Dieppe bungalow on Sept. 7, 2019.
The bodies of Bernard Saulnier, 78, and his wife, Rose-Marie Saulnier, 74, were discovered in their Dieppe bungalow on Sept. 7, 2019.

Saulnier's parents, 78-year-old Bernard Saulnier and 74-year-old Rose-Marie Saulnier were found dead in their Amirault Street home on Sept. 7, 2019. So far no one has been arrested or charged in connection with their deaths.

"Police do not believe this was a random occurrence," RCMP said in an earlier statement about the couple's death, without elaborating.

Sylvio was listed in property records as living at his parents' Amirault Street home.

An RCMP spokesperson previously said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on any possible connections between the raids and the couple's deaths.

In January 2020, a Court of Queen's Bench judge ordered details of the estate of a Dieppe couple kept secret out of fear the information could result in harm to their family by "unsavoury members of the public."

Justice Jean-Paul Ouellette wrote in a decision that the couple's other son, Luc Saulnier, wanted the court to bar public access to the estate files, normally public records, given the "absence of more information about the motive and identity of the murderer(s), the risk to the survivors cannot accurately be estimated."