It was an emotional first day in a Winnipeg courtroom for the family of a young Indigenous woman who was killed nearly three years ago.
Christine Wood’s family came face-to-face with Brett Ronald Overby, the man charged with second-degree murder in her death, on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Trial begins Tuesday for man accused of killing Christine Wood
Overby has pleaded not guilty.
The first day of the 14-day trial began with opening statements from the Crown attorney.
“You will know the who, the when, the where, the what and the how,” Chantal Boutin said. But, Boutin said, the one point the jury may never know is the ‘why.’
“People do things for any number of reasons, often known only to them — even murder.”
Wood allegedly met Overby online while using the dating site Plenty of Fish. Court heard the 21-year-old Wood’s account was last accessed at 9:25 p.m. on Aug. 19, 2016.
It’s the same day the young woman was last seen by her parents.
Wood and her parents had been staying at the Days Inn hotel in Winnipeg while visiting the city from their home in Oxford House.
Melinda and George Wood left their daughter in the room that evening while running out to get cigarettes. When they arrived back a short time later, they said she was no longer there.
“She had plans to go out with friends,” Melinda told the court during her testimony Tuesday.
The Crown alleges she had arranged to meet up with Overby, 32, at his home on Burrows Avenue.
It’s there where Boutin said Wood was killed.
“She did not leave his residence alive,” Boutin told the court. “She bled in his residence and she died in his residence.”
Winnipeg Police spent months piecing together what is believed to be her last moments alive.
Detective Jean Guy-Roy told the court more than 100 people were interviewed and 21 different types of warrants and production orders were executed.
It took four months, but eventually, police were able to gain access to Wood’s email and social media accounts.
She had sent two messages on Facebook — one at 12:58 a.m. and one at 12:59 a.m. — on Aug. 20, 2016.
Both messages were to people she was looking to buy drugs from, the detective said.
Eventually, on Jan. 18, 2017 a production order for a computer IP address came back with information and a lead.
“The subscriber… was a Brett Overby of 341 Burrows Avenue,” Det. Guy-Roy said.
Those messages are believed to be her last attempts at communicating with anyone else. The detective said both were sent from Overby’s cellphone using his wireless connection.
Wood’s body was found in June 2017 in a shallow ditch in a farmer’s field in the RM of Springfield, about 30 kms east of Winnipeg.
The Crown told the court she died “violently as a result of both blunt and sharp force trauma.”
It’s believed Wood was killed on Aug. 20, 2016.
Judge Chris Martin is presiding over the trial, which is expected to continue until May 17.
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