Saint John police found their bodies inside a barricaded apartment in Millidgeville, in the north end, at 7:18 a.m. that day, responding to a 911 call from the eldest victim.<\/p>\n
Publication bans still prohibit naming the victims, identified only as A.B. and C.D., as well as Witness A.<\/p>\n
But CBC News can now report all of the relationships involved and tell more fully the tragic story of domestic violence the Crown described as being \u201cdriven by vengeance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blames ex-wife <\/p>\n
Kamyshnyy maintained he did not remember what happened. He claimed he had started drinking wine and beer in recent months to deal with the stress of his divorce on Nov. 8, 2024, after 20 years of marriage.<\/p>\n
According to the Crown\u2019s case, Kamyshnyy, who continued to live in the family\u2019s apartment until he could afford his own, used a kitchen knife to stab his 10-year-old son multiple times in bed as he slept.<\/p>\n
He broke that knife stabbing his 17-year-old son, who briefly escaped while he grabbed a bigger knife. Kamyshnyy dragged the teen back into the apartment and killed him on the kitchen floor, the Crown asserted. Then he shot himself in the head twice with a nail gun in an attempted suicide.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784567116_521_default.jpg\")
Police found a broken knife blade on the floor of the boys’ bedroom, along with the matching sock that was missing from the 17-year-old’s body. (Court of King’s Bench exhibit)<\/p>\n
Kamyshnyy denied the Crown\u2019s contention the killings were planned for at least eight days and designed to punish his ex-wife for her alleged infidelity.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause for [her], what could be worse?” Crown prosecutor Elaina Campbell asked in closing arguments in the Court of King’s Bench. “A mother whose children are gone forever.”<\/p>\n
Yet Kamyshnyy testified \u201call this situation\u201d could have been prevented by his ex-wife \u201cwith two simple sentences. \u2026 \u2018Roman, I’m sorry. Let’s get over it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury also saw a \u201cgoodbye\u201d email he wrote about \u201cthe tragic end to our story,\u201d which he scheduled to send to her and her mother at 1 p.m. on Jan. 29 after he was already in police custody and in hospital.<\/p>\n
It included screenshots of her private messages with another man and read in part: \u201cI tried VERY hard to make up with you, but you don\u2019t want that. \u2026 I KNOW in many ways this is my fault, but I can\u2019t forgive the fact that my children have a slut for a mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTHAT\u2019S why you\u2019re dealing with all this shit right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784567117_948_default.jpg\")
Police seized from the apartment a handwritten letter signed by Kamyshnyy accepting responsibility for the ‘situation.’ (Court of King’s Bench exhibit)<\/p>\n
The jury also saw a handwritten signed letter police seized from the apartment, which was addressed to Canadian officials and dated Jan. 27 \u2014 two days before the killings.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name is Roman Kamyshnyy and I\u2019m fully responsible for this situation,\u201d it read in part.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to commit suicide and take my kids cause I can\u2019t cope with the divorce recently happened in my family. We\u2019ve been married \u2026 for 20 years and I recently got to know that I no longer needed and loved in my family,\u201d he wrote, referring to alleged infidelity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t see myself without my family and made this desperate step.\u201d<\/p>\n
Relationship like \u2018a prison\u2019<\/p>\n
His ex-wife, who testified from behind a special screen that shielded her from seeing Kamyshnyy in the prisoner\u2019s box, although he could see her, described their life together as being \u201cin a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to leaving Ukraine, everything \u201clooked fine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo pretty, young people, beautiful kids. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n
They never argued in public or in front of the kids. Nothing would reveal they \u201chad some problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind closed doors, however, she was \u201call the time miserable\u201d and anxious to separate.<\/p>\n
The kids loved their father though, so she didn\u2019t want to cause them trauma.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784567117_777_default.jpg\")
A thumbnail of a video Kamyshnyy recorded to his parents on Jan. 26 and sent three days later, on the morning of the murders, warning them if they heard ‘anything bad in the near future, then it\u2019s most likely true.’ (Court of King’s Bench exhibit)<\/p>\n
She said she hoped the relocation would improve their relationship and \u201cmaybe everything will be fine.\u201d That didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
Spending more time together than before because she no longer worked as a flight attendant, she realized it was easier when she saw him only one or two weeks a month, she said.<\/p>\n
She was \u201cabsolutely not happy as a woman\u201d and started to believe \u201cmaybe I have a right to have happiness for myself,\u201d to \u201chave this freedom from a person\u201d who is \u201cjust hard to be with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting a divorce was the one thing she could do to \u201cprotect\u201d herself.<\/p>\n
She told Kamyshnyy \u201cmany times\u201d she wanted a divorce, but he told her every time that there \u201cmust be something wrong with your hormones,\u201d or that she was depressed and would \u201cnever survive\u201d without him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t listen to me\u201d and \u201cvictimized himself all the time about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
She eventually filed remotely for a divorce in Ukraine. He signed the papers but still talked about wanting to try again, she said.<\/p>\n
She wanted him out of the apartment but they continued to live together for financial reasons, she said. Kamyshnyy owed the Canada Revenue Agency about $15,000 because of a payroll error at work, she testified.<\/p>\n
Kamyshnyy begged her \u201call the time\u201d not to tell their sons or his parents about the divorce until he was able to get his own apartment, she said. It would \u201cdestroy them,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s final messages to teen<\/p>\n
She did tell the children and messaged with the eldest about it the morning of Jan. 28, the day before the murders, the trial heard.<\/p>\n
The teen told her he was angry after spending a week at home with his father and brother, while she was away on vacation in Europe and then at a work conference in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
He accumulated \u201cnegative emotions\u201d from Kamyshnyy, he wrote, \u201cbecause all the positive ones are being drowned out by alcohol. \u2026 And as an excuse, Mom doesn\u2019t want to make up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s manipulation,\u201d she replied. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why a grown man can\u2019t accept the situation like an adult and move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and [your brother] are more mature and smarter in this difficult life situation than a 45-year-old man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, let\u2019s do this at home,\u201d the teen wrote. “Not over the phone.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784567118_695_default.jpg\")
Police found the cellphone the 17-year-old victim used to call 911 in his bedroom closet, under a toy gun. (Court of King’s Bench exhibit)<\/p>\n
\u201cIn his eyes, I\u2019m to blame for everything; I\u2019ve turned the kids against him,\u201d she wrote to her son. \u201cI\u2019m not going to spend my life in a toxic and unhappy relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. See you tomorrow,\u201d the teen replied.<\/p>\n
The mother reminded the teen his father would be moving out. \u201cYou\u2019ll soon start your own independent life. \u2026 And I know you\u2019re going to make it big in life and achieve a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours later, at 7:08 a.m., Kamyshnyy messaged her in Ottawa saying, \u201cGo home. I killed everyone,\u201d the trial heard. He sent her a photo of the teen\u2019s bloody body splayed on the kitchen floor, his eyes open and lifeless.<\/p>\n
Details of police statement the jury didn\u2019t see<\/p>\n
In a videotaped statement to Saint John police, which was never shown to the jury but was submitted into evidence during a pre-trial hearing, Kamyshnyy painted a different picture of their family life.<\/p>\n
Their situation was \u201cpretty solved\u201d the previous year after fleeing Ukraine, he told Sgt. Tony Gilbert of the major crime unit on April 23, 2025, at the Dalhousie Regional Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n
They had a place to live and jobs. \u201cWe had, uh, nice perspectives,\u201d Kamyshnyy said, \u201cuntil I found out \u2026 what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled a day in the summer of 2024 when he allegedly tried to talk to his wife but she was distracted by her cellphone.<\/p>\n
He wanted to know why, so he went over to her, kissed her, then grabbed her phone and went outside, he recalled with a laugh.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784567118_168_default.jpg\")
Kamyshnyy gave a videotaped statement to Sgt. Tony Gilbert of the Saint John Police Force’s major crime unit on April 23, 2026. (Court of King’s Bench voir dire exhibit)<\/p>\n
He spent about 30 minutes reading through her private messages, some of which were with men, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that moment it was completely, a million per cent sure that she’s cheating [on] me, many years,” Kamyshnyy testified. “And I was completely shocked. How it is possible?\u201d<\/p>\n
He returned her phone, saying, \u201cI’m completely enraged with you,\u201d he said, hastening to add that all he did was speak, and there were “no actions, no beatings, no scandals.\u201d<\/p>\n
He later hacked into her social media account and read her private messages for months until hours before the murders, the courtroom heard.<\/p>\n
Used GPS to track ex-wife<\/p>\n
Kamyshnyy told Gilbert, the police officer, that he put a GPS tracker on the family vehicle without her knowing. So even though he was usually away five days a week for his work as a truck driver, he could see always see where she was and where she had been.<\/p>\n
He would also call and ask where she was \u2014 to check if she was being truthful.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the work, she’s not going home, she’s going to friends,\u201d Kamyshnyy alleged. \u201cWhen she is invited by friends, she, \u2018Yeah, I can go.\u2019 No matter about kids, no matter about [buying or cooking] food.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784567119_752_default.jpg\")
The Crown argued Kamyshnyy set up this chair and stool, blocking entry to the apartment, on Jan. 28, shortly before 1 a.m. (Court of King’s Bench exhibit)<\/p>\n
The boys \u201cdidn\u2019t notice\u201d because she would buy them fast food or do nice things for them, he said.<\/p>\n
He thought she should stick to her work and family. “It would be much better,” he said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t easy living together after the divorce, he admitted. When he\u2019d come home after days on the road, \u201cshe wasn’t, uh, flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t cook for him and say, \u201cYou were at work, here’s some food. Relax.\u201d Instead it was, \u201cDo it yourself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ex-wife was due back after trip with man<\/p>\n
He knew her trip to Europe on Jan. 21 was with another man, he said. It was the man\u2019s birthday gift to her. They flew business class, \u201cdrinking champagne.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a high life,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s 38 years, I guess, or 37, this guy. And now she’s 42.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was nice, he was smart, he did everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told him about the trip a couple of months prior, he said.<\/p>\n
I’m not gonna do something wrong to you or anything.- Roman Kamyshnyy<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018OK, you are not my wife. OK, you can go. I don’t mind. And I’m not gonna do something wrong to you or anything.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He took a week off work to stay with the kids so she could travel, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was scheduled to return the day the boys were killed, the trial heard.<\/p>\n
\u2018That was the beginning of the end\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think Roman \u2026 that what happened with your boys was to get at [her] for all that she did to you?\u201d Gilbert asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was taking everything from you, and she was rubbing [it] in your face by going on trips and being with other men. … Do you think that would\u2019ve drove you \u2026 to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, for sure,\u201d he replied without emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not about, you know, some difficult situation with less of money, or something less that can be improved or something. Something redone, or do something. No. That was the beginning of the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. And you knew that at the time?\u201d Gilbert asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, sure. I knew it half a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sentencing next month<\/p>\n
Kamyshnyy is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 13 at 11 a.m. to allow time for victim impact statements to be submitted.<\/p>\n