WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg mother who was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered inside her Fort Garry home in 2011 had just returned home from a social when she was attacked.
Gina Swanson, 33, was a single mother to a seven-year old girl, who was not home at the time of her murder.
Schuyler Vanwissen, 31, stands trial for first-degree murder.
On Wednesday the 12 member jury heard from Swanson’s best friend who broke down on the stand when asked how she knew her.
“She was my best friend,” Katrine Levesquen said.
The two worked together at the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission and bartended together at the Dakota Community Centre periodically.
That’s what they did the night Swanson was murdered.
READ MORE: Winnipeg father relives moment he found daughter Gina Swanson murdered
“We cleaned up and left,” Levesque said. She added she saw Swanson go home alone around 1:15 a.m.
“She was really excited that night and was in a good mood,” she said. “The next morning she was supposed to go pick up a puppy so she was excited for that.”
Swanson never showed up to work the next day.
When her father Dennis Swanson got a call from her boss, he went to her Edderton Avenue home looking for her.
He found her laying on the floor with her hands tied behind her back. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed five times in the chest.
When Levesque was asked if she knew the suspect, Schuyler Vanwissen, she replied, “I’d never heard the name before.”
The trial continues.
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