EDMONTON - A woman who drowned her two children in a bathtub is expected to testify today as her second-degree murder trial continues at Wetaskiwin Court of Queen’s Bench.
Allyson McConnell has admitted to killing her two sons, 10-month-old Jayden and 2-1/2 year old Connor, at the family home in Millet on Feb. 1, 2010. She has pleaded not guilty, and the trial is focused on whether she had the intent necessary to be convicted of murder.
Born in Australia, the 33-year-old moved to Canada after meeting Curtis McConnell at a B.C. ski resort in 2006. The couple’s marriage broke up after the birth of a second child, Jayden, in 2009, and Curtis started divorce proceedings late in the year.
Court has heard that the divorce had become increasingly acrimonious in the months before the children’s deaths.
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After drowning the children, Allyson McConnell drove into Edmonton and threw herself off an overpass into traffic. She broke her legs, pelvis and collarbone. She had left her wedding ring sitting on the toilet near the boys’ bodies.
During the first week of the trial, witnesses testified Allyson had once been a loving and attentive mother who took good care of her children. Court heard she seemed tired, stressed and possibly depressed after the breakup of the marriage. But two friends and her former mother-in-law, Audrey McConnell, testified that they had no concerns about Allyson’s treatment of the boys, and never expected she would harm them.
RCMP found numerous searches on Allyson’s computer about suicide from drowning, electrocution, and sleeping pills. In the days before she killed the boys, she gave away baby clothes and other items, including her computer.
Monday’s testimony will be the court’s first chance to hear directly from Allyson.
She has spoken only once in court so far, a whispered “yes” when asked to confirm her name at the start of the trial. Her lawyer, Peter Royal, entered the not-guilty pleas on her behalf.
Allyson has spent the trial slouched in the prisoner’s box, her eyes often cast down toward the floor. She has glanced occasionally at her mother and sister sitting in the courtroom, but doesn’t appear to acknowledge them.
The only time Allyson has shown outward signs of emotion was when Curtis described finding the bodies of their children inside the bathroom. At the beginning of the trial, court heard Allyson remains under suicide watch at Alberta Hospital.
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