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"As painful as it is for the families and the larger community, I cannot provide the kind of explanation I would like to clear the air," Scott wrote. "I am bound by the same rules as the investigators and prosecutors involved in this case."

Citing the Canada Evidence Act, Scott said he could not disclose information regarding national security, communications between police and Crown lawyers, the identities of informers, investigative techniques, internal police communications, ongoing investigations and surveillance locations. 

Regarding these topics, Scott said: "I am duty and legally bound not to say anything."

In his report, Scott said during his 40-year career as a lawyer, he had never encountered such a turn of events.

Despite the magnitude of the error, Scott said he could not find any substantial criminal or disciplinary misconduct among any of the officers involved in the cases.

Most of Scott’s 19 recommendations for change focus on improving the training, oversight and administration for major cases.

The collapse of the trials before they began in the Court of King's Bench meant no one was convicted for the murders of 41-year-old Corey Christopher Markey, originally from Woodstock, N.B., and 27-year-old Brandon Patrick Donelan of Fredericton.

On Dec. 21, 2021, Markey was shot on Paul Street in Sitansisk First Nation, on the north side of the Saint John River in Fredericton. He died in hospital eight days later. Donelan was reported missing in January 2022, and his body was found in a wooded area off a snowmobile trail northeast of Fredericton on March 31, 2022.

The Fredericton Police Force led the investigation into Markey's death, and the RCMP investigated Donelan's killing. Scott's report makes it clear the mistake made by the municipal police force prompted the Crown to scuttle both cases.

In all, five people were charged with either first-degree or second-degree murder, but court files reveal little of why they may have been killed.

ºÃÉ«tvreviewed hundreds of pages of evidence, photographs, trial motions, testimony and hours of proceedings from a courthouse in Fredericton, but most of the evidence is covered by a publication ban.

“The impact upon the Fredericton community, and in particular the families of Corey Markey and Brandon Donelan, cannot be adequately expressed in words when these murder charges were stayed," wrote Scott, a former director of Ontario's police oversight agency.

“The entry of the stay (of proceedings) shook the public confidence in the criminal justice system and deprived everyone, especially the family members, of a public trial.�

Scott's investigation included a review of 26 major crime cases and 37 high-risk files that covered a period between 2021 and 2025.

The file review found investigators with the Fredericton Police Force were adept at managing cases "until the point where cases became more complex." At that stage, problems arose because of limited exposure to complex cases and a lack of support. The review also pointed to gaps in "supervisory oversight and competency." 

"These challenges reflect less on the effort of individual investigators than on the need for a stronger system," Scott's report says, adding the police force was often working under challenging conditions with limited resources.

"However, this review also identified a lack of consistency in the application of (major case management) principles ... and gaps in oversight and competency in key areas."

Fredericton police Chief Gary Forward, who called for the investigation in June, issued a statement Friday saying all recommendations would be adopted.

“We regret the pain our error has caused the Markey and Donelan families and take full responsibility for how this has affected public confidence,� Forward said in a statement. “While we cannot undo the wrong, we are fully committed to learning from it and ensuring it never happens again.�

This report by ºÃÉ«tvwas first published Dec. 12, 2025.

— By Michael MacDonald in Halifax