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An RCMP expert says there were bloody pet paw prints and hundreds of blood stains around the body of one of three victims a southern Alberta man is accused of murdering.
RCMP Sgt. Ashley Davidson was called to examine blood patterns after Hanne Meketech was found dead in her mobile home in September 2015.
Derek Saretzky, 24, is on trial charged with first-degree murder in Meketech’s death, as well as in the deaths of Terry Blanchette and his daughter Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette.
Davidson told a court in Lethbridge that it appeared Meketech was struck one or more times about 40 centimetres from the floor.
He said her body was also covered with bloody paw marks from her dogs. One of her pets was found by police lying across her dead body.
Davidson said 400 smaller blood spatter stains also suggested she had been attacked.
“It would have taken a significant force to cause these small spatter stains,” he told court Thursday.
Davidson said blood droplets were sprayed against the wall as the weapon was raised. He said investigators used 3-D technology to determine the blood’s point of origin.
“If you’ve ever seen any crime shows like “Dexter” or “CSI,” you always see the blood-stain guy has his strings out. He’s stringing them out to the wall and bringing them back,” he said.
“It’s the same process.”
Davidson said the amount of blood at the scene suggested Meketech was there for some time. He told jurors there was a huge pool of blood measuring one metre by 60 centimetres under her body.
RCMP Const. Carla Perrin collected evidence at the Meketech residence and testified that the front door appeared to have been forced open because of “obvious splits in the door frame” and a latch lying on the floor.
While she was working on the case, she received a call to go to Blanchette’s home in Blairmore, Alta., Perrin said. She waited outside with William Blanchette who had discovered his son’s body.
Blanchette “was quite in shock” as she tried to gather more information from him, Perrin said.
Court has already heard that Saretzky confessed to police that he killed Meketech, who was 69, as well as 27-year-old Blanchette and two-year-old Hailey.
The Crown said on Wednesday that Saretzky had inside knowledge of the deaths and provided details to police that only the killer would know. The prosecution also said Saretzky took officers to a remote area where the girl’s remains were found in a campsite firepit, along with a hatchet and a metal pot.
Police seized a number of things from Saretzky’s apartment, including books on serial killers and how to practise cannibalism.
Saretzky has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, as well as to a charge of committing an indignity to the girl’s body.
No motive has yet been suggested in any of the deaths.
Police have said Saretzky and Blanchette were acquaintances, but have not elaborated on how the two men knew each other. The little girl’s mother has described Saretzky as an old friend whom she hadn’t spoken to in years.
Watch below: Global’s ongoing coverage of the case
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