‘So shocking’: Calgary murder trial hears from police officer who found victim’s body

The first-degree murder trial for a Calgary man accused in the violent death of a woman in 2023 began on Wednesday.

**GRAPHIC WARNING: Some of the details of this story may be disturbing to some readers**

The first-degree murder trial began Wednesday for the man accused of killing Judy Maerz just three years after he was released from prison for his role in the death of another woman.

Christopher Ward Dunlop, 50, is accused of stabbing Maerz, 58, to death in what the Crown argues was a “crime of domination.”

She was found naked and burned in Deerfoot Athletic Park on Feb. 16, 2023.

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Sgt. Dave Mills of the Calgary Police Service began testimony. He was the first responder on scene after a woman discovered the body while walking her dogs that morning.

“It was terrible,” Mills said.

He described the victim’s badly burned body laid out in plain sight near the parking lot of the park.

He said the victim was severely burned, had numerous stab wounds and had her pants were pulled down to her ankles. Mills said Maerz’s throat had been slit.

He said he questioned if what he was looking at was a mannequin because it was such a horrific state.

“It was so shocking I had to walk up close because I knew it was real but a big part of me didn’t want to believe it was real.”

According to the Crown’s theory, Maerz was stabbed 72 times during sexual intercourse.

Dunlop has pleaded not guilty to both first-degree murder and causing indignity to a body.

‘I’m here to advocate for the victim’

Dunlop was previously convicted of manslaughter in the death of Laura Furlan almost 14 years prior to Maerz’s death.

In that case, he admitted to strangling the 38-year-old woman after having sex with her in the Deerfoot Athletic Park on Sept. 7, 2009, before dumping her body in Fish Creek Provincial Park.

Furlan’s mother Kathryn was in court Wednesday for the beginning of the trial.

“I’m here because I’m representing my daughter Laura Furlan who was killed at the hands of Christopher Dunlop,” she told CTV News.

“This is a continuation of that as far as I’m concerned so I’m here to advocate for the victim in this trial and her family. Hopefully at the end of it all, justice will get served.”

Maerz and Furlan killings tied together: judge

Both women worked in the sex trade and Crown prosecutors argue Dunlop “had an animus toward street sex workers and set out that fateful night to find a street sex worker to kill.”

Prosecutors needed to fight to have the evidence from the Furlan’s killing considered during this new trial.

In that ruling, Justice Colin C.J. Feasby said two killings were so similiar they were “unlikely to be the result of coincidence.”

Dunlop was given 13 years for killing her but received six-and-a-half years for credit of the time he’d already served.

“I think the justice system has to reevaluate this type of sentencing and have to serve more time,” Kathryn said.

Feasby is presiding over the trial, which is scheduled until June 27.

(With files from Michael Franklin)