Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic details. Discretion is advised.
NANAIMO — An estranged boyfriend has admitted to the carefully orchestrated and violent murder of his vulnerable former girlfriend as she slept at her home.
Luciano Emilio Mariani, 45, pleaded guilty to first degree murder in BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo on Tuesday, July 4 in connection to an early morning ambush on Aug. 31, 2021 at the Bowser home of Caroline Bernard.
Armed with a recently purchased baseball bat at 4:10 a.m., Mariani smashed through Bernard’s sliding glass door and beat her with the weapon while her daughter laid beside her, the Crown’s Nick Barber told court.
Awoken by her granddaughter’s screams and crying, Bernard’s mother rushed downstairs to find her two loved ones covered in blood.
She took her granddaughter, who was uninjured, to the kitchen and called 911. Local firefighters and paramedics arrived at the Thompson Clark West Dr. home within 20 minutes.
Following the attack, Mariani’s vehicle was located at Rosewell Creek Provincial Park while his phone was also found nearby and seized as evidence.
Barber said Mariani cut his arms and walked along the Island Hwy. where he told area workers he thought he had just killed his girlfriend.
Police were called and Mariani was arrested at the scene.
Caroline Bernard’s passing has left a deep hole in many lives. (Submitted photo)Barber said the 41-year-old Bernard was pronounced dead in an ambulance at just after 5 a.m. following multiple strikes to her head and face with a bat wrapped in hockey tape.
About 25 family and friends filled the courtroom, including the victim’s mother, who were struggling to absorb the excruciating facts of the case.
The offender sat silently in the prisoner’s box with his head tilted downward.
Barber stated Bernard kicked Mariani out of the home in May 2021 after he lived there off and on since March. He then moved back to Alberta.
Leading up to the murder, Barber said Mariani made several disturbing internet searches.
“How do you feel after committing a murder? What do you do when you want to kill ex? I want to hurt my ex? How do you kill somebody with a baseball bat?”
Mariani borrowed his father’s SUV and drove back to Vancouver Island about a week before the murder.
On the way, he bought a bat in Vancouver and other supplies associated to the murder in Duncan.
Surveillance video showed the SUV traveling past Bernard’s home about nine times the morning she was attacked.
‘She was adored by everybody’
Christa Petch of Cumberland was a friend of Bernard’s and former roommate.
She worked and played soccer with Bernard in the Comox Valley for several years, first meeting her in about 2009.
“She was just so kind and thoughtful, did a lot of things for people that were just randomly kind and thoughtful,” Petch said.
Petch said Bernard, a highly respected high school teacher in the Comox Valley, was an extremely complimentary person, who constantly supported people going through hard times.
“She was a real light in this world and she had a strong sense of social justice, she was an incredible mom, she was fun to be around,” Petch said with tears welling up in her eyes on the front steps of the courthouse.
Aside from being an accomplished teacher who spoke multiple languages, Petch said Bernard was a fierce advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
Jenn Wrye met Bernard in 2012 when they joined the same soccer team at the same time, the Comox Valley Shooters.
“She was adored by a everybody,” Wrye told reporters.
Wrye and her teammates constantly think and reminisce about their lost friend.
“She touched a lot of people through her running, through her gardening, through relationships with kids, through just all of the things she loved to do.”
Jen Wrye wore a commemorative soccer jacket in Caroline Bernard’s honour to the Tuesday, July 4 court hearing. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)Angela Davies of Nanaimo was a longtime friend of Bernard.
They first met in 1997 when the pair were growing up near Calgary, AB.
“The world feels like a darker place without her, she was one of those people,” Davies said with tears rushing down her face.
What happens next
A conviction of first degree murder automatically results in life in prison without parole eligibility for at least 25 years.
Defence lawyer Donna Turko indicated she may file an application to accelerate when Mariani could apply for parole.
Turko told the court a privately sourced psychiatric assessment will be conducted.
A pre sentence report was ordered by Justice David Crossin to shed further insight into Mariani’s offending.
A sentencing hearing is expected to take place some time this fall.
Mariani has remained in custody since the day of the murder and is currently housed at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre in Saanich.
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