Police confirm murder-suicide in 8th case of femicide in Quebec this year

Two dead in possible murder-suicide in Nunavik A woman and man were found dead Tuesday in a northern Quebec town; authorities are treating it as a potential murder-suicide.

Montreal — Provincial police confirmed Thursday that they believe the deaths of a man and woman in northern Quebec was a murder-suicide.

This is the eighth case in Quebec of a man accused of killing their female partners in eight weeks.

Surete du Quebec spokesperson Nancy Fournier told CTV News that investigators believe Peter Ainalik, 44, killed Kataluk Paningayak-Naluiyuk, 43 and then took his own life.

The two were found without vital signs the evening of March 25 in Ivujivik, a fly-in community of about 400 people 2,000 kilometres north of Montreal.

The cause of death has not been released.

The woman’s daughter told La Presse the victim was in an abusive relationship with Ainalik, and he once broke her ribs. She said the woman was a mother of six with a big heart and who needed help.

The case is the latest in a recent rise in femicides in Quebec that has victim’s families speaking out and the premier facing calls to do more to protect women.

Women’s groups and supporters of victims’ families are holding marches against domestic violence in Quebec over the Easter holiday.

Teddy Frenette, the brother of the seventh victim in Quebec, Rebekah Harry, read the names of women killed this year, allegedly by their partners, during a news conference on Monday.

"No man should ever put their hands on women," Frenette said. "We hear the stories but we choose to close our eyes and we think it can never happen to me, can never happen to my mother, can never happen to my sister, or my friend."

Harry's death was the seventh case of suspected femicide in Quebec in the past seven weeks.