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“From our perspective, the timing of the stay of proceedings on the very morning that we were to get access to [the police officer’s] disciplinary records is no coincidence.”

Numbers sometimes speak volumes and here they look baffling: It has been almost eight years since the incident allegedly took place; two prosecutions have ended in mistrials before Monday’s abrupt conclusion; and one reluctant witness was found dead before he could testify.

‘This was nothing more than drug-fuelled, sexual role-playing or fantasy role-playing. They never wanted anybody killed’ — Joseph Neuberger

It is that death — of Robbie Verch of Eganville, northwest of Ottawa, whose charred body was found in a burned-out SUV in a remote area within days of being subpoenaed to testify in the case by Mr. Greenspan — that indirectly led to Monday’s halt.

The case was unusual from the start.

In January 2004, Mr. Petraitis, 69, and Sandra Rinella, 47, were accused of hiring Ms. Rinella’s former husband, Kerry Anderson, who was a biker and former convict, to kill the businessman’s wife of almost 40 years.

The defence insist the plot was only a sexual role-playing game that Mr. Petraitis engaged in with his dominatrix mistress, Ms. Rinella, whom he paid.

One clue comes from Mr. Petraitis wearing a diaper during his first meeting with the would-be hit man.

“This was nothing more than drug-fuelled, sexual role-playing or fantasy role-playing. They never wanted anybody killed,” said Joseph Neuberger, lawyer for Ms. Rinella.

But Mr. Anderson secretly recorded some of the conversations and was bilking large sums of money out of Mr. Petraitis until a friend of Mr. Anderson’s told police and Mr. Anderson was arrested and at least some of the tapes recovered.