CALGARY — The cousin of one of the victims in a quadruple homicide broke down in tears as she recalled a conversation with a man claiming to be her cousin, Hanock Afowerk, asking her for $30,000.
Sara Lackew said the voice on the phone was not Afowerk.
“Hanock doesn’t speak fast. He always speaks slowly … I don’t believe it’s him,” Lackew testified. She also said that man spoke in Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia), but Afowerk only understood the language and couldn't speak it.
Lackew said she received the first phone call around 10 p.m. on July 9, 2017. When she asked which Hanock was on the phone, the person hung up. When she called back, she said there was no answer.
Her phone rang again and the person on the line asked for the money.
“I told them I don’t have $30,000 in my house,” said Lackew, who added she also heard a woman’s voice in the background during the call.
Jurors began hearing witness testimony Tuesday at the trial of Diana Liao and Tewodros Kebede, charged in the first-degree murder of Afowerk.
In her opening statement, Crown Prosecutor Heather Morris told the jury, Afowerk was held for ransom, tortured and ultimately shot.
Morris said on the night of July 9, 2017, Afowerk had plans to meet with Liao to sell her fake ID, but was kidnapped shortly after they met.
“His body showed evidence of restraint, torture and captivity,” said Morris.
Afowerk’s body was dumped next to a highway west of Calgary.
The bodies of three other victims, Glynnis Fox, her sister Tiffany Ear and Cody Pfeiffer were found in the back seat of Afowerk’s burning vehicle, left beside a construction site in the northwest community of Sage Hill on July 10, 2017.
The jury was told autopsies determined all three had been shot and killed before the fire, which police believe was done to eliminate potential witnesses.
Liao also faces charges of accessory after the fact in their deaths.
Tewodros faces an accessory after the fact charge in Pfeiffer’s death.
The trial is scheduled for six weeks.
