A number of witnesses testified on Thursday at the trial for a man accused of murdering a Crowsnest Pass senior, father and little girl almost two years ago.
** WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT FOLLOWS **
Derek Saretzky is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Hanne Meketech, 69, Terry Blanchette, 27 and Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette, 2, in September of 2015.
Blanchette was found dead in his Blairmore home and the body of his daughter, Hailey, was found at a rural property a few days later.
A neighbour found the body of Meketech in her Coleman area home a few days after the bodies of Terry and Hailey were discovered.
Saretzky’s trial got underway in a Lethbridge courtroom on Wednesday and the Crown began laying out its case.
The jury was shown graphic images and heard that Terry Blanchette’s father found his son lying in a pool of blood in the bathroom, covered by a blanket with his throat slit.
Prosecutors allege that Terry was attacked in his bed and then dragged to the bathroom. Blood was found throughout the home including on a doll and blanket in Hailey’s crib.
Court heard that a white van was seen on surveillance video near the Blairmore home and that Saretzky’s uncle came forward to police saying the van matched one belonging to the family’s dry cleaning business.
Blood was also found inside the van and a search of Saretzky’s apartment turned up more blood evidence including a measuring cup with dried blood in it.
The Crown says Saretzky led police to a rural property owned by his family outside Blairmore where Hailey's remains were discovered and reenacted what happened.
Bones were recovered from a fire pit on the property along with a knife and hatchet and a child’s toy was found nearby
The Crown alleges that Saretzky told police he also killed Meketech five days earlier and a neighbour testified that he found her trailer door open and the senior’s body in her bloody bedroom.
“Over the next few weeks we will see how the evidence comes out. There is still reliability issues when it comes to confessions and as the evidence comes out it will be more clear,” said defence attorney, Patrick Edgerton.
On Thursday morning, court heard from two police officers who worked the Meketech homicide.
Constable Carla Perrin was the exhibit custodian for the case and went through the photos that were taken inside Meketech’s home while on the stand.
She said that she met with Bill Blanchette, Terry’s father, the day he discovered his son’s body.
Sergeant Ashley Davidson, a blood stain expert, was the second witness to testify and told the jury that there are three categories of blood stains; gravitational, transfer and spatter.
Davidson said most of his work was focused in Meketech’s bedroom, where her body was found.
He told the court that she was found in her underwear and that the blood pool was about a metre in size, which indicated that she had been there for some time.
He testified that over 150 blood spatters were found in the bedroom and that an object was used to disperse blood on to the wall and closet door.
On Thursday afternoon, Dr. Jeffrey Gofton, the medical examiner who conducted Hanne Meketech's autopsy, testified via CCTV from Viirginia.
According to Gofton, Meketech had suffered a fractured left skull, five blunt force impacts, three sharp force injuries including a 8.5 cm deep stab wound to her neck and lacerations on either side of her forehead. The senior's death was determined to be the result of blunt force trauma to her head as the stab wounds occurred after she had suffered significant blood loss as a result from her head injuries.
Several members of the jury were in distress after viewing the autopsy photographs prompting the judge to issue an unscheduled break.
Day 2 of the trial has concluded and the case will resume on Friday morning at 9:30 a.m.
Saretzky has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial is scheduled for four weeks and prosecutors are expecting to wrap their case by June 22nd.
@CTVKaellaCarr is covering the trial for CTV News.
