Katharina Buczek
The petition ended up being unsuccessful, though. So, after Dodier was later found dead inside a barn, rumors began to swirl. At first, it was believed he had passed away following a blow to the head by a horse.
However, with Corriveau and Dodier’s tumultuous marriage, the idea of murder soon entered the conversation. Dodier’s wounds were also reexamined, and it was determined that he had died at the hand of a different weapon– not horse hooves, but a pitchfork.
In turn, both Corriveau and her father, Joseph, were ultimately accused of murdering Dodier.
Then, after a trial was conducted before the military, Joseph was actually the one found guilty of Dodier’s murder. Corriveau was found guilty, too, but as an accomplice.
Once Joseph was actually sentenced to be hanged for the crime, though, he cracked like an egg. More specifically, he turned the blame over to his daughter and claimed that Corriveau had actually committed the murder.
Finally, once she was questioned again, Corriveau admitted to bludgeoning her husband with a hatchet.
And this turn of events did not look good for the British authorities who were newly in charge of the province.
In fact, they were probably embarrassed about the wrongful conviction– leading to a prompt and speedy second trial.
“It was a military trial because they were not equipped to hold a civil trial. They surpassed their given powers because the King in England did not give the final approval,” explained Sylvie Toupin, a curator at the Quebec Musée de la Civilisation.
In turn, Corriveau was not only sentenced to hang, but her deceased body was subsequently going to be displayed in a metal gibbet– or cage-like contraption– to serve as a warning to other townspeople.
So, she was executed in April of 1763, and her corpse was put on gruesome public display near Pointe Lévis for five weeks.
