The last time Amy Lamontagne saw her friend Jennifer Edmonds-Zabarylo was at her wedding held just hours before the mother of two was allegedly killed by her husband in what Ottawa police have called a femicide.
“Jenn is amazing, an amazing mom and I first of all need her to be remembered for that,” said Lamontagne. She and Edmonds-Zabarylo met in high school and have been friends for more than 30 years.
“She loved traveling. She loved her job. She loved her friends. She loved her family so, so, so much.”
Edmonds-Zabarylo was found with “traumatic injuries” inside her home on Lady Slipper Way west of Stittsville on Aug. 25 and was pronounced dead at the scene. Lamontagne said it was her children who found her.
She worked as a civilian with the Royal Canadian Navy Headquarters Team.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of her tragic death, and we are offering support to her family and colleagues,” the Department of National Defence said in a statement. “We offer our deepest condolences to her loved ones during this difficult time.”
Ottawa Police have charged Edmonds-Zabarylo’s husband Michael Zabarylo with second-degree murder.
Michael Zabarylo made a brief court appearance on Wednesday morning and will appear in court again on Friday. The allegations have not been tested in court. His lawyer had no comment about the charges.
Ottawa Police have deemed the death a femicide related to an alleged act of intimate partner violence.
“This is significant step in labelling the violence that is experienced because of gender and I think that is an importance piece,” said Yamikani Msosa, the executive director of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women. “Gender-based violence is about power and control, to control somebody, to control the ways in which not only they exist within the world but that entitlement over women.”
Lamontagne said Edmonds-Zabarylo told her husband she was leaving him two months ago.
“And I haven’t seen her so happy since. The stress, the burden of everything was just was gone,” Lamontagne said. “She felt like everything was amicable. She felt like she was getting through it and doing a good job as parents.”
Ted Rance knew Edmonds-Zabarylo from the Calabogie Motorsports Park.
“We’re all in it together and the loss of one affects us all,” Rance said. “Two months ago she asked me to drop the Zabarylo and just call her Edmonds. But there was never any discussion about any problems,” he said.
Lamontagne echoed that sentiment.
“On Saturday I called her Zab. I said ‘Zab’ and she said to me ‘when are you going to stop calling me Zab?’ Today I stopped calling her Zab. She does not want to be known as Zabarylo. She was very happy to start her life over as Edmonds back again.”
Lamontagne said she and others want to remember her friend for who she was and not how she died.
“If anything on Sunday before all of this tragic happened she felt love by her friends and she got a really good hug,” she said. “She was a beautiful, beautiful person and her soul will live on through all of her friends and we will make sure she’s not forgotten.”