durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, Octover 6, 2022 | | 14 After months of denying he had any knowledge of how his longtime girlfriend came to be in a shallow grave near the lakefront in Whitby -- including during an interview with police -- Jeffrey Weldon finally tipped his hand. The revelation came in the spring of 2019, nearly a year after the body of his fiancée, Melanie Vachon, was discovered. Weldon, thinking he was talking to friends who could help him out of a jam, admitted it was he who had concealed Vachon's body. But Weldon -- who was actually making the disclosure to undercover police of- ficers -- insisted again he did not kill his girlfriend of nine years. Rather, he said, Vachon had died of an apparent drug overdose, and he hid her body to cover that up. "I didn't kill her," Weldon said during the conversation, recorded surreptitiously during a visit with a man he thought was a crime boss. "She did too much of something." The taped revelation, heard by jurors in an Oshawa courtroom Wednesday, Sept. 28, was the first time Weldon admitted to the men he took to be his friends that he'd had anything to do with Vachon's disappearance. Weldon, 47, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and committing an indignity to a body in connection with Vachon's death. Weldon reported the 46-year-old Vachon, with whom he shared an apartment in Whitby, missing in mid-May of 2018. Her body was found June 2, 2018 by people walking near the lakefront in Whitby's Gordon Richards Park. As they investigated Weldon, Durham police put into motion an undercover operation based on the Mr. Big model: undercover police posing as landscaping workers approached Weldon with an offer of work and over time, befriended him, welcoming him into a fictional criminal organization that offered him a chance to make money. Association with the group offered Weldon something in addition to money and friendship, jurors heard: Access to a man they called The Fixer, who could help people out of legal trouble. The undercover operation began in the summer of 2018 and continued until the spring of 2019. During that time, Weldon was present as his new pals conducted deals involving bags of money and credit cards. Along the way, he also saw The Fixer step in when serious criminal charges threatened a member of the crew. After a meeting with The Fixer, the man was taken to an airport, where he was whisked away on a private plane, apparently flying away from his troubles. As the operation unfolded, police turned up the pressure on Weldon. In one instance, homicide detectives confronted Weldon as he and his friend left at a south Oshawa coffee shop, telling him they were still looking at him as the main suspect in Vachon's death. In another instance, an undercover officer who had befriended Weldon attended a staged interview with a Durham homicide detective and came back with chilling news: Police had phone records that put Weldon near the lake at the time of Vachon's death and were awaiting more "lab reports" that would further bolster their case against him. In spite of the mounting pressure, Weldon continued to insist he had no idea what had happened to Vachon -- until April of 2019, when he finally agreed to let The Fixer step in. Weldon's buddies helped set the meeting up but insisted on one thing: That he fully disclose the whole story. "We can move past this," an officer told Weldon. "But we can't help if we don't know the details of what happened that day." Weldon was driven to a hotel in London, Ont. for a meeting with the gang's boss, with the understanding he would tell his story prior to meeting with The Fixer. During the meeting, The Boss confronted Weldon with documents he said had been snuck out of the Durham police offices, including phone records that indicated Weldon's phone had been active in the area Vachon's body was found. Weldon finally cracked, and told his story: He said Vachon had left their apartment one morning in early May, claiming she was on her way to see a friend. But Weldon said he soon heard Vachon was hanging out in Oshawa. Weldon said that on the morning Vachon died, he was fishing at Lake Ontario and, acting on an "educated guess", made his way to an isolated area where he knew people gathered to party. He said that as he approached the area, a car sped off and he heard Vachon shouting. Weldon said he scaled a large fence and made his way to the lake, where he found Vachon extremely intoxicated and covered with mud. "She was f---ed up," Weldon said. He claimed Vachon quickly became unconscious. "She was slipping," he said. "She was f---ing gone." When an officer asked if Weldon considered calling for help, he replied, "They would have come down and realized it was a drug overdose." Weldon said he wanted to keep Vachon's loved ones from finding out she'd died of an OD. He recounted wrapping Vachon in a blanket and placing her in a depression in the ground, then heaping earth and sticks over her body. "I even took chunks of plants out of the ground," he said. Although he made the revelation, Weldon continued to insist he had not caused Vachon's death. And he wondered aloud if Vachon, who lived with constant pain after being the victim years earlier of a violent robbery, had deliberately overdosed. "I'm just wondering if it was by accident, or if it was intentional," he mused. After making the admission, Weldon told one of the undercover officers he was relieved: "I feel better," he announced. The officer expressed sympathy for Weldon and what he'd been through. "I understand why you did what you did," he told Weldon. "And we'll work through it." "We're a different breed of people," Weldon commented. "You got that right," the cop replied. The trial continues in Oshawa. SUSPECT IN WOMAN'S DEATH MADE A REVELATION TO UNDERCOVER POLICE JEFF MITCHELL jmitchell@durhamregion.com NEWS Melanie Vachon was reported missing in May 2018 and her remains were found near the Whitby lakefront a few weeks later. Jeffrey Weldon (pictured on the right), is on trial for manslaughter. Metrolad graphic "We can move past this. But we can't help if we don't know the details of what happened that day." - Officer to Weldon