The man convicted of the murder of a RCMP constable in Hay River in 2007 was recently granted permission to make multiple escorted trips outside of prison.
Emrah Bulatci will be able to leave custody to obtain a passport photo so he can get an Alberta I.D. card, as well as open a bank account and visit a facility in the area of the prison he’s incarcerated at to learn about an unspecified culture. NNSL Media obtained a copy of the decision by the Parole Board of Canada late Tuesday afternoon.
Bulatci has been behind bars since his conviction in NWT Supreme Court on a first-degree murder charge in November 2009. He was found guilty of murdering Const. Chris Worden and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
The board recommended Bulatci be handcuffed and escorted by two officers for his first two trips outside of prison, which the report estimated would to take about an hour each. They also recommend that he be accompanied, without handcuffs, by one corrections officer or an elder for the culture-related visit.
Bulatci previously had an escorted release to get passport photos, but the photos were reportedly of poor quality and were not accepted, according to the board.
While Bulatci has been jailed, he has reportedly been charged with nearly two dozen violations of prison rules, including the possession of and being under the influence of drugs. He also apparently had a bottle of urine in his cell which was discovered during a routine search last year. That charge was dropped after another inmate took responsibility for it.
Bulatci has also started a family while incarcerated; he’s been married twice while in prison and had a son born in May 2020 from his second marriage. Both of those unions have since dissolved, according to the report.
The location of where Bulatci is currently serving his sentence was redacted in the report.
Bulatci was the subject of a Canada-wide manhunt after Worden was found in a wooded area between an apartment complex and the former Dene K’onia young offenders facility on Oct. 6, 2007. Worden had been responding to a request for assistance in the Woodland Avenue area at around 5 a.m. earlier that morning.
Bulatci was eventually apprehended on Oct. 12, 2007 at a home in Edmonton and was returned to Yellowknife to face the first-degree murder charge.
Worden was first posted to the NWT in 2002 and served at both the Whati and Yellowknife detachments before transferring to Hay River.