Coming out of Swift Current Provincial Court this morning, the preliminary hearings for the five defendants in the Logan Ring murder case have been set, and two pairs of defendants will be tried together.

Collin Perrault, Todd Donaldson, Rebecca Kuhlman, Jolene Epp, and Tanisha Perrault were all charged with second-degree murder in October, 2017 after Ring's body was found at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park in November, 2016.

Kuhlman will be tried on her own with her preliminary hearing set to start September 24.

There were two instances of joint information - where multiple people are tried together: Collin Perrault will be paired with his daughter, Tanisha Perrault, and have their preliminary hearing beginning October 1. Collin Perrault's wife and Tanisha Perrault's mother, Jolene Epp, will be paired with Todd Donaldson, and their preliminary hearing is expected to begin October 22. 

The preliminary hearings are expected to last up to six or seven days. All five defendants are proceeding by judge and jury in the Swift Current Court of Queen's Bench.

Setting it up so that there is a joint information on two pairs of the defendants is a move to save the court time. When it comes to the Crown determining who is paired together for a joint information case, the evidence that they'll be able to call out of witnesses is an important factor. So in Kuhlman's case, all of the other four defendants could be witnesses. For Collin and Tanisha Perrault, it's only Kuhlman, Epp, and Donaldson that could be witnesses. And for Epp and Donaldson, it's Collin Perrault, Tanisha Perrault, and Kuhlman that could be witnesses.

The last murder or manslaughter case in Swift Current was the April, 2010 death of Roland Ruest. The last in the Swift Current area was the death of Herbert's Henry Gin, whose body was found in Morse in September, 2013.