‘I’m in big, big trouble’: Ibey murder trial hears tense text exchange

James Ibey couldn’t believe what he was seeing: His son, Nikolas Ibey, had just texted him saying he had killed his roommate.

“I’m in big, big trouble. I got into the booze and drugs last night and killed my roommate. I’m going to turn myself in,” Nikolas Ibey wrote, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2022.

James Ibey, the father of accused killer Nikolas Ibey, testifies in court Thursday. (Courtroom sketch by Lauren Foster-Macleod)

“LOL, quit the bullshit,” his father replied, as he stood outside smoking a cigarette in the driveway of his son Chris’s home 30 minutes away.

“I’m not lying, I’m going to kill myself too,” Nikolas Ibey responded. He said he had a knife.

Still in disbelief, his dad wrote back: “No, where are you?”

The stunning text exchange was read in court Thursday during the third day of Nikolas Ibey’s first-degree murder trial in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa.

Ibey, 35, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Savanna Pikuyak, 22, who less than a week before had moved from Sanirajak to Ottawa to study nursing at Algonquin College.

“She dead,” Ibey texted his father that morning.

“Just bring the cops before I kill myself too.”

James Ibey testified he continued trying to text Nikolas, who had stopped responding. Meanwhile his other son, Chris, called 911.

The pair were already on the road, making the drive from Vanier, in Ottawa’s east end, to Nikolas Ibey’s row house residence at 34C Woodvale Green in the western part of the city.

The police were also on their way.

James and Chris Ibey both testified Thursday about the events of that day.

Chris Ibey said he bought the home in August 2022. For $2,200 a month, he was renting it to his brother who in turn decided to rent out two of the spare rooms in the home.

Pikuyak lived in one of the spare rooms.

Savanna Pikuyak is pictured here in this photo provided by her mother. (Photo courtesy of Sheba Pikuyak)

James Ibey and his wife, Donna, with the help of Nikolas Ibey had been making light renovations at the home on Sept. 9 and 10.

Pikuyak was sleeping on the floor and living out of her suitcases, so the couple bought a dresser, bed frame and mattress for her. They didn’t think it was right for someone to be sleeping on the floor, James Ibey said.

By the evening of Sept. 10, the dresser and bed were in Pikuyak’s room. The next morning, that’s where police found her unclothed body after responding to the 911 call.

The final witness to testify Thursday was Sgt. Yannick Bernard, a forensic investigator for the Ottawa Police Service.

Prior to his testimony, Crown lawyer Sonia Beauchamp warned people in the courtroom of the graphic nature of crime scene photos they were about to see.

Bernard provided details on evidence found in Pikuyak’s room as Beauchamp presented photo after photo, many showing blood stains and pools of blood.

Next to the bed, there was a nearly metre-long piece of wood, marked with splotches of blood and a bloody fingerprint.

Bernard and Beauchamp spent 15 minutes discussing that single piece of evidence which was marked as exhibit nine and physically presented to the jurors for examination.

The trial continues Friday.