Turcotte trial: police describe gruesome details

The prosecution and defence working in the Guy Turcotte trial announced Thursday the former cardiologist admits to killing his children.

Turcotte entered a not guilty plea to the charges two days ago. The announcement means the defence isn't contesting the basic facts of the case. Their strategy will focus on something else that will be unveiled at a later date.

Regardless, the jury had to listen to police investigators for a second day as they described the gruesome scene they encountered as they entered the former cardiologist's home one night in Feb. 21, 2009.

Officer Patrick Bigras was the first one on the scene. He told the court he broke into the house at the request of Turcotte's worried parents. The house was silent but Bigras heard a noise upstairs. He walked up, and saw the bodies of Olivier, 5, and Anne-Sophie, 3. Neither had a pulse and both were covered in blood.

At first the officers couldn't find Turcotte in his bedroom. But then they heard something and discovered he was hiding under the bed.

The badly shaken officer placed Turcotte under arrest, but first called him an imbecile, to which he says Turcotte replied “Yes, I know.”

Earlier in the day, SQ officer Sylvain Harvey explained how he found Anne-Sophie's body.

She was lying on her back in her bedroom, wearing her underwear, in a puddle of blood with dozens of stab wounds to her abdomen.

Her older brother Olivier was in a similar position lying on top of a plush toy with a kitchen knife under his body.

Officers going through the house found a brown stain on the bedsheets in the master bedroom, with a glass full of purple liquid on a nightstand. A container with what appeared to be the same liquid was in the kitchen.

In the bathroom, police discovered stains and a second kitchen knife.

Turcotte's ex-wife, Isabelle Gaston, is expected to testify early next week. She cannot attend court until she testifies, and the Crown has said it intends to call her early as a witness so she can observe the trial.