John Felsing, 48, and his wife Isabelle were newlyweds, married for only a few months, when their life together was cut tragically short. Isabelle had spent years caring for her ailing parents in her family home at 679 Churchill Row in Fredericton, New Brunswick. After they passed away, she married John, a man she had known for 14 years. Isabelle's father had been a music professor at the local university and the head organist at Christ Church Cathedral. The couple settled into Isabelle's childhood home, creating a new chapter that should have lasted for decades.
On the evening of Tuesday, October 19, 1965, John and Isabelle took their black Labrador retriever, Heather, for a walk, something they did frequently. They chose a quiet, dead-end road known as Oromocto Flats Road in Lincoln, which ran near the riverbank. It was hunting season, and other people had been in the area with firearms that day. As the couple walked, a single blast from a 12-gauge shotgun, loaded with #4 shot, erupted from the woods. The shooter was positioned between the Felsings and the river, only 50 to 70 feet away.
Both John and Isabelle were struck and killed by the same shot. According to a coroner's report and family accounts, Isabelle likely died instantly from catastrophic injuries to her face and chest. John was hit by several pellets in his jugular vein and is believed to have bled to death within 20 minutes. Their dog, Heather, was physically unharmed. A passing cab driver later discovered the tragic scene and alerted the police. When officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrived, the loyal dog was so protective of the couple that she had to be lassoed and tied to a tree before they could get close.
The investigation that followed was complex and frustrating. The RCMP interviewed numerous people over the years, but no definitive leads emerged. A central and unanswered question has always been whether the shooting was a horrific hunting accident or an intentional act of murder. The person who pulled the trigger has never been identified. The coroner's report noted that John's body had been turned over by someone after he fell, an act he could not have performed himself. While some speculated the dog may have moved him, Isabelle's family believed it was a human, someone their dog would not have seen as a threat.
Isabelle’s only brother, Francis Smith, always believed there was foul play involved. His daughter, Cindy Taylor, has worked to keep her aunt's case from being forgotten, writing letters to the local newspaper around the anniversary each year. The family was deeply hurt by the actions of John Felsing's sister and her husband immediately following the deaths. Because the couple had no will, and it was determined Isabelle died first, their entire estate, including the historic family home on Churchill Row, passed to John's family. Isabelle's brother was initially barred from entering his own childhood home when he traveled to Fredericton after the tragedy, compounding his grief with shock and suspicion.
Decades later, the deaths of John and Isabelle Felsing remain an open and active cold case with the New Brunswick RCMP. Investigators have assured the family that they still work on the file, but without a confession or a new witness coming forward with crucial information, the mystery of what happened on that autumn evening endures. The only one who knows for certain if it was a tragic mistake or a calculated killing is the person who fired the shot, leaving two families shattered and a community with an unsolved crime that has haunted them for generations.
