Sudbury Teen Roch 'Rocco' Renaud Died At Work — Now 5 People, A Company Face Charges
A 19-year-old died of carbon monoxide poisoning on a Lively, Ontario job site in May 2025. Eighteen months later, five people and a company face charges — including two Greater Sudbury police officers accused of obstructing the investigation into his own department's conduct.
Case at a glance
- Roch "Rocco" Renaud — teenage worker, victim
Next: All five men charged in the case — the two facing criminal negligence causing death and the three facing obstruction of justice — are scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Sudbury on Jan. 6, 2027. Separately, the Ministry of Labour's file on potential Occupational Health and Safety Act charges remains under internal legal review, with no date yet for that decision. The OPP says its criminal investigation remains active and is asking anyone with information to call 1-888-310-1122.
A maintenance job that ended in a 911 call
Roch "Rocco" Renaud was 19 years old and doing maintenance work at a private residence in Lively, Ontario, a community within Greater Sudbury, on May 23, 2025.
Shortly after 8 p.m. that evening, Greater Sudbury Police Service officers responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive person at the property where Renaud had been working. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead there.
A post-mortem examination by the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service determined the cause of death: acute carbon monoxide intoxication.
The department investigating its own
Two off-duty Greater Sudbury police officers were present at the scene the night Renaud died. Their presence triggered internal reviews almost immediately.
On June 13, 2025, GSPS Chief Sara Cunningham opened a Chief's complaint through the service's Professional Standards Bureau into the off-duty conduct of the two officers. Five days later, on June 18, 2025, GSPS declared an institutional conflict of interest under the Community Safety and Policing Act and handed the entire criminal death investigation to the Ontario Provincial Police.
Both officers were suspended with pay, and the internal Professional Standards Bureau probe was paused so it wouldn't interfere with the OPP's criminal investigation. That handoff is the gap the Facebook hook points to — the stretch where the case moved between agencies before anyone was charged.
Who's been charged, and with what
The first charges came on Oct. 8, 2026, when the OPP charged two men and a corporation with criminal negligence causing death. The outlet's reporting on this round of charges does not name the two men or the company, or detail what the company is accused of allowing on the job site.
More than a month later, on Nov. 11, 2026, the OPP announced a second set of charges arising from the same investigation. GSPS Sgt. Jason Bonish, 43, of Sudbury, and GSPS Const. Alex Balloway, 43, also of Sudbury, were each charged with obstructing justice under Section 139(2) of the Criminal Code. A third man, Kris Ferguson, 46, of Lively, faces the identical obstruction charge.
Criminal negligence causing death is exactly what it sounds like: prosecutors allege a person or company's negligence directly caused someone's death. Obstructing justice means prosecutors allege a person acted to impede or derail the investigation itself — a separate allegation from how Renaud died, aimed instead at what happened afterward.
Balloway and Ferguson were arrested Monday, Nov. 9, 2026; Bonish was arrested the following day. All three have been released from custody. All five individuals charged in the case — the two men from the Oct. 8 negligence charges and the three men charged with obstruction — are scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Sudbury on Jan. 6, 2027.
What the police service and the OPP have said
GSPS issued a statement immediately after the Nov. 11, 2026 OPP announcement, addressing the charges against its own two officers. "The Greater Sudbury Police Service recognizes the concerns these allegations raise within our community and the importance of maintaining public trust and confidence," the service said, according to Sudbury News.
The department drew a line around the officers' off-duty status: "While this matter involves allegations concerning off-duty conduct, it does not diminish the dedication, professionalism, and integrity demonstrated each day by the members of the Greater Sudbury Police Service who serve our community with pride," GSPS said, per Sudbury News. The service added it remains committed to "accountability, and respect, both on- and off-duty," and pledged continued cooperation with the OPP.
Before the OPP's formal announcement, Const. Rob Lewis of the Nipissing-West OPP detachment told Sudbury.com on Nov. 10, 2026, that the case remained under the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch in Orillia, "who will be putting out any and all media updates related to this investigation."
Renaud's family spoke of him in starkly different terms. "Rocco was a bright light in the lives of all who knew him, a young man whose passion, kindness, and adventurous spirit brought joy to everyone around him," the family wrote, according to Sudbury News. "Though Rocco's time with us was far too brief, his impact will never fade."
Who Rocco Renaud was
Renaud was the son of Bobby and Michèle (née Duval) Renaud, and brother to Chloé and Mia. Sudbury News described him as an avid sportsman drawn to the ice, fairways, slopes, and outdoors.
A separate regulatory track is also running. The Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development opened a workplace fatality investigation on June 2, 2025, after being notified a worker had suffered fatal injuries on the job. The ministry told Sudbury.com its field investigation has concluded and the file is now under internal legal review to determine whether charges will be laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act — a separate question from the criminal case now headed to court.
What happens next
All five men charged in the case — the two facing criminal negligence causing death and the three facing obstruction of justice — are scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Sudbury on Jan. 6, 2027. Separately, the Ministry of Labour's file on potential Occupational Health and Safety Act charges remains under internal legal review, with no date yet for that decision. The OPP says its criminal investigation remains active and is asking anyone with information to call 1-888-310-1122.
How this plays in court
On the negligence charges, a prosecutor has to prove the two men and the company owed Renaud a duty of care on that job site and that their conduct fell so far below a reasonable standard that it caused his death by carbon monoxide poisoning. Expect the defense to argue the gas exposure was an unforeseeable accident, not a product of negligence — and to push hard on what safety measures, ventilation, or warnings were actually in place.
The obstruction charges against the two officers are a different animal entirely. Prosecutors don't need to show either officer caused Renaud's death — they need to show deliberate acts meant to impede the OPP's investigation into what happened that night. That's often proven through inconsistent statements, altered records, or communications uncovered after the fact, and the defense will likely argue any missteps were confusion or poor judgment rather than intent to obstruct.
A jury weighing the obstruction counts will also be sizing up credibility and motive: why would an officer obstruct a probe into a death he merely witnessed, unless there's something about his own conduct that night he didn't want examined? That question is exactly why GSPS handed the case to the OPP in the first place, and it's the subtext the courtroom will have to confront even though the coverage doesn't yet spell out what the officers are alleged to have done.
The long gap between Renaud's death in May 2025 and the first charges in October 2026 is itself fodder for argument on both sides — prosecutors will frame it as the time multi-agency, multi-track investigations legitimately take; the defense will frame delay as evidence the case against their clients is thinner than it looks.
- Sudbury News: GSPS officers charged with obstruction in Rocco Renaud workplace death case