CALGARY -- The chief forensic investigator in a triple murder trial found what he believed to be fragments of teeth and jewellery in the ash from the suspect's farm near Calgary.
Const. Ian Oxton choked back tears in court while describing the 10 months he spent using a new method involving water to recover tiny fragments in ash from a burning barrel and pit on Douglas Garland's farm.
Garland is on trial for three counts of first-degree murder in the disappearance of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson Nathan O'Brien in 2014.
Oxton said out of hundreds of litres of ash, he identified four pounds of possible biological material.
He told court it appeared there were 17 fragments of teeth -- including a crown -- as well as an earring, a bracelet and buttons.
Oxton said police also recovered several large empty liquid nitrogen containers, a chemical agent used to breakdown DNA and book entitled the "Handbook of Poisoning."
