Veteran Lionel Desmond became controlling of wife before murder-suicide, inquiry told

Afghanistan war veteran Lionel Desmond became more controlling of his wife — taking away the keys to her car and changing their banking information — in the months before he fatally shot his family and himself at a rural eastern Nova Scotia home, his sister-in-law has testified.

The fatality inquiry examining the circumstances leading to the 2017 murder-suicide heard Monday from Shonda Borden, sister to Desmond’s wife, Shanna, and aunt to the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Aaliyah.

Desmond killed Shanna, Aaliyah, his mother, Brenda, and then himself after he entered his in-laws’ home in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S., on Jan. 3, 2017.

Borden was living out