Rachelle Fournier was a 49-year-old mother of eight children who ranged in age from 8 to over 20. For about three years she and her husband Paul Fournier were partners with Gary Couture in a four-cab fleet called City Taxi that operated from its own taxi stand in Bathurst. Before entering the taxi business she was a primary school teacher. Rachelle and Paul Fournier shared taxi driving duties and like many small business owners they took separate vacations. On August 18, 1974, Rachelle had just returned from a holiday in Amqui with her daughters and Paul was away on a visit to Quebec City. On the evening of August 18 Mrs. Fournier was driving cab number 4, a blue and white 1973 Dodge Coronet. She was on the City Taxi stand when a 16-year-old boy climbed into the back seat and sat directly behind her. He apparently came from the nearby K-Mart shopping centre. The boy directed her to drive to the hotel-motel strip along El Cordobès, but as she was signalling a turn he changed his mind and told her to drive further along the road to Middle River. He then directed her down Golf Course Road and finally to Mattie's Lane. When he directed her up a drive leading to an old garage Mrs. Fournier balked, saying that the road was too rough and she didn't want to damage the car. The boy told her the road was fine and that he was camping behind the garage. Whether or not he had planned all along to kill and rob the taxi driver, the boy later said he felt cornered by Mrs. Fournier's refusal to drive further. His response was to attack her from behind, stabbing her with a folding knife and punching her with his fist. When it became clear that her attacker intended to kill her Mrs. Fournier threw herself across the front seat and played dead. The boy then got behind the wheel and drove off down Golf Course Road. When he met a car coming in the opposite direction he quickly made a U-turn and drove back at high speed. The couple in the oncoming car were close enough to describe him. The boy did not get far before the taxi went out of control and hit a tree. His mouth struck the steering wheel, cutting his lower lip. At that point he bolted from the car and ran off into the woods bordering the road. Mrs. Fournier radioed for help three times. She was too weak to walk and fell out of the cab onto the ground when she opened the door. Since she had reported each change in her itinerary the dispatcher was able to direct police to the scene of the attack. The first officers arrived about five minutes after Mrs. Fournier's call for help. They were not the first at the scene, however. At the time of the attack Lorraine Lavigne was walking along Golf Course Road with a group of teenage campers when a co-worker at Canadian National Railways, Adolphus Arsenault, came by in his truck. He offered Ms Lavigne and the children a ride and it was they who first came across Mrs. Fournier and her taxi. Ms Lavigne and the teenagers went to Mrs. Fournier's assistance while Mr. Arsenault flagged down a passing car and asked the driver to call for an ambulance. An ambulance with two volunteer nurses was dispatched about 8:25 and directed to meet a truck driver on Ste. Anne's Road and get directions to the "accident". The directions were imprecise and the ambulance wound up at a gravel pit. The driver had to return to Ste. Anne's Road get clearer directions. As a result Mrs. Fournier didn't arrive at the Chaleur General Hospital, ten minutes away, until 8:50. [Next column]

The old post office and custom house on Main Street, built in 1885, is a Bathurst landmark and a national historic site. Photo by Jeff Boucher. (Source: Facebook: Jeff Boucher's Photos.) Mrs. Fournier had a three-inch gash on her neck and about a dozen stab wounds to her abdomen and chest. The nurses tried to stop the bleeding and monitored her pulse and blood pressure on the way to the hospital. The Fourniers' partner in City Taxi, Gary Couture, was on a trip to K-Mart when he got the news. After completing the trip he went to the scene of the attack but Mrs. Fournier had already been removed to hospital. He then drove to the Fournier residence and picked up one of Mrs. Fournier's daughters. A police officer was with Mrs. Fournier but it was actually Gary Couture who interviewed her. She was in a state of severe shock but was semi-conscious and terrified -- she kept saying "My God! I'm going to die!" Nevertheless she was able to give a clear account of what happened and a good description of her attacker. Mrs. Fournier's condition soon worsened. She lost consciousness and died about 1:30 a.m. on August 19th. An autopsy revealed that knife wounds had punctured her heart and lungs. She died of internal hemmhoraging which blocked her airway and resulted in cardiac arrest. Meanwhile the killer showed up at the West Side Laundromat about 9:30 p.m. in a highly agitated state. He told the owner, Mrs. Maymay McArdle, that he had cut his lip in a fight with his best friend. He said he wanted to wash his shirt because his mother "would kill him" if she saw the state it was in. His voice shook and he seemed on the verge of tears when he said this. Mrs. McArdle's 14-year-old son James actually knew the boy since they were enrolled in Air Cadets together. The boy told James McArdle the same story about being in a fight and claimed that the blood on his shirt, pants and shoes came from the person he fought with. Police made an arrest three days after the attack and the boy quickly confessed under questioning. The boy's father was present during the interrogation but left suddenly "on an emotional impulse" when his son confessed. The father had given the murder weapon to the boy as a gift.