Police close to arrest
Woman murdered in Fredericton in July

AREA SEARCHED: St. Thomas University criminology student Erin Foster shows the area behind her house where investigators searched for evidence in the murder of Shaila Bari. The building in the background on the right is where Bali lived. The photo in the bottom right shows where Abdul Bari lives at 247 Wright St., Fredericton. The Daily Gleaner/Stephen MacGillivray Photo

Investigators with the Fredericton Police Force are on the cusp of making an arrest in the Bari murder case, sources have told The Daily Gleaner.

The body of Shaila Akther Bari, 26, was found in her Regent Street apartment July 22. City police have confirmed she was the victim of a homicide.

It took several days to identify the body as that of Shaila Bari's, and police have released few details about the circumstances of her death.

The University of New Brunswick business administration student was originally from Bangladesh, but had been living in Fredericton for the past seven years.

Sources within the law enforcement community indicate an arrest in the case is coming soon.

Fredericton Police Force spokesman Const. Peter Vail could not confirm these reports.

"We are making progress with the investigation," he said. "We have a much clearer picture of events."

He said investigators are still looking for witnesses.

"There's always the possibility there could be more information out there," he said.

Police and search and rescue volunteers conducted a wide area search for physical evidence around Regent Street over the Labour Day weekend as part of the homicide investigation.

Shaila Bari

Shaila Bari had come to Canada as part of an arranged marriage. She and her husband, Abdul Bari, were still married, but separated at the time of her death.

A young man who lived with his girlfriend in the same roominghouse as Abdul Bari, at 247 Wright St., said police have questioned them both.

James Morrissey said Abdul Bari's comments made it clear he was distraught about the unhappy domestic situation between himself and his wife and the mounting legal bills to try to resolve their marital status.

Morrissey said he and his live-in girlfriend have provided statements to police with regard to comments Abdul Bari made to them.

Circumstances surrounding Abdul Bari's movements just days before his estranged wife's body was found were out of his normal pattern of walking or taking taxis to and from the house, Morrissey said.

"A lot of strange things happened. Rent-a-cars showing up and groups of people that, if this had been Sept. 12, 2001, you'd be on the phone with the police," Morrissey said.

He was referring to the monitoring of suspicious persons following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Abdul Bari is wary of running afoul of the court system because of the order.

"I'd like to say something, but they (police) suspect me and they are following me and why, I don't know. I'm very upset. I lost everything. I have nothing left," Bari said this week.

"How lovely she was," Abdul Bari said.

The 36-year-old and his deceased wife were still in the process of working out a legal separation at the time of her murder.

He brought his wife to Canada as part of an arranged marriage in Bangladesh.

"But I did my responsibility. I brought her. I married her. I lived with her seven years and she (later was) living by herself."

Abdul Bari, who works at the Sheraton Fredericton Hotel as a laundry employee, said he has immersed himself in his job to overcome his sorrow.

He would not say more, citing the court order that stems from his June sentencing.

Abdul Bari originally faced an indictable charge of criminal harassment but June 16 he pleaded guilty to the lesser, included offence of summary criminal harassment.

At his sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Kevin Connell said the couple separated August 2002, and on Nov. 27, Shaila Bari and some friends saw him looking in the window of her apartment.

Connell said Shaila Bari and her friends then went to a local mall.

"At the mall, he approached her and said, 'You know what I'm capable of. I want to do what I want to do, so be careful,' " the prosecutor said.

Abdul Bari was once again seen looking in his wife's window Dec. 2, Connell said, and he called her Dec. 3, saying, "You know what I'm capable of," and hung up.

He was also seen looking through her mailbox and would show up at the library on the UNB campus looking for her.

On Dec. 5, Abdul Bari was again back at Shaila Bari's apartment and was arrested.

"She does not feel that he is going to kill her," Connell said at the June sentencing, but he said she was afraid her husband might hurt her.

The prosecutor said that in her victim impact statement, Shaila Bari said she just wanted her husband to leave her alone.

The June 16 court proceedings were translated from English to Bangladeshi so Abdul Bari, whose grasp of English is not strong, could understand.

Defence lawyer Carol Boxill said it took many hours of translation for her client to understand what was happening to him in terms of the criminal charge.

She said he came to Canada from Bangladesh in 1993 and found work at the Sheraton Hotel in housekeeping and laundry.

Boxill said Abdul Bari returned to his homeland briefly in 1995 and in March 1995 he married Shaila Bari under Islamic law.

He returned to Canada shortly thereafter and sponsored her to enter the country to be with him. She arrived in Canada in 1996.

Before sentence was passed in the harassment case, Abdul Bari addressed the court in Bangladeshi, and an interpreter provided translation.

"I'm very sorry. I cannot understand, but now I understand," Abdul Bari said. "In Canada, it is my mistake."

He said his wife's decision to go to movies with friends, other men, and her filing of legal separation papers was not something she could have done back in their home country of Bangladesh.

"I married her according to my culture in my country," he said. "With my love, I brought her to Canada ... I did everything for her."

At the court hearing, he said he'd loaned thousands of dollars to members of her family, but now neither she nor they would acknowledge him.

"Since I helped her and I love her still, I had to come to the criminal court," he said. "I am spellbound, and I don't know what to do."

Abdul Bari worried he would be jailed as part of his sentence.

"My last wish is to be made free. That would make me very happy," he said.

Judge Patricia Cumming granted a conditional discharge in the case, which means Abdul Bari will have no criminal record should those conditions be fulfilled.

Among the conditions were an eight-month period of probation, an order to have no contact with Shaila Bari or her family, psychological and psychiatric assessment, and possible treatment.

Cumming said Abdul Bari needed to realize that the laws in Canada are radically different than those in Bangladesh. She said one culture is not superior to the other, just different.

The judge said she believed that Abdul Bari was beginning to accept his marriage was over.

"Whether you believe it is right or wrong, your wife has a right to live her life in this country on her own," Cumming said.