WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.
A jarring 911 call was played in a Calgary courtroom Monday as jurors heard the voice of a distraught 90-year-old woman who had just been raped in her assisted living apartment.
“I don’t know what to do,” said the woman, crying. “I was in bed asleep and this guy broke in and had sex with me … I don’t know how he got in.”
The woman died last year. A publication ban protects her identity, so CBC News will call her Mary in this story.
Duran Ross Buffalo, 40, is on trial for aggravated sexual assault and break and enter to commit sexual assault.
The break-in
Buffalo is accused of breaking into the seniors’ complex on Jan. 1, 2021, hiding in Mary’s storage closet and then attacking her hours later.
Initially, police did not believe Mary had been raped. They blamed her dementia and sent her to a local hospital for a potential bladder infection.
This, despite the fact that police responded to the complex earlier in the evening after a man — whom the Crown alleges was Buffalo — broke into the building.
Around 7 p.m., two officers arrived, spent 15 minutes looking through the 17-storey building before they left, believing he had escaped through a different doorway.
‘I can’t stop crying’
Less than four hours later, Mary called 911.
She was connected with a 911 call taker, Mary-Ellen Weller. Mary told Weller a man had turned up in her room, held her down and raped her.
Mary said the man left after she threatened to call police.
“I can’t stop crying,” said Mary.
“You’ve had a very shocking thing happen, it’s OK to be emotional,” Weller replied.
“I’m going to get lots of help for you … just stay on the line with me.”
Officer doubts Mary’s story
Weller told Mary not to shower, change her clothes or use the washroom.
She stayed on the line with Mary until police arrived.
In the 20-minute call with 911, Mary’s story never changed.
But Const. Megan Kretzer testified that when she arrived, Mary’s memory and recollection “seemed a bit skewed.”
Kretzer testified she did not examine clothing on Mary’s bedroom floor that was later determined to belong to her attacker.
Mary discharged from hospital
Mary’s own daughter was initially in disbelief when her mother called to say she’d been sexually assaulted.
“She was frantic, I’ve never heard my mum speak that way before,” said Mary’s daughter, a woman CBC will identify as Pam.
“She was crying. She was so upset.”
Pam, who lives in Edmonton, said she had a hard time processing what her mother was saying.
“I didn’t believe this … something else must be the matter.”
Shirt still in the bedroom
Pam and her husband headed to Calgary. She said she was hoping that her mom was experiencing a cognitive episode linked to a urinary tract infection (UTI), which can affect cognition in people with dementia. Mary was in the early stages.
Meanwhile, both Kretzer and her partner agreed Mary should be taken to hospital to check out the possibility of a UTI. A rape kit was not done the night of the sexual assault.
The officers did not attend the hospital, and Mary was ultimately sent home alone in a taxi around 5 a.m.
The next morning, when Pam arrived from Edmonton, Mary told her: “I know I was sexually assaulted last night … the guy’s shirt is still in the bedroom.”
Bruises develop
Pam discovered the shirt and called police.
Mary was finally taken for a rape kit exam.
Over the next few days, Pam says, “dark and extensive bruises” appeared on her mother’s face and wrists.
Prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz told jurors they will hear evidence that DNA from the rape kit “very likely” came from Buffalo.
Buffalo is representing himself and, for the most part, refusing to speak. At one point, Justice Michele Hollins called for a recess because Buffalo was sleeping on the floor in the prisoner’s box.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, support is available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
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