Warning: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing to readers.
Court heard that when a couple came across an elderly West Kelowna woman who had allegedly been left for dead by her son, Eleanor Holmes was shoeless, her hair had been ripped out and her left eye was swollen shut, according to one of the people who helped save her.
“Just a bloodbath,” said Alexandria Davies, who came across Holmes on a forest service road in West Kelowna.
Kevin Barrett is accused of his mother’s attempted murder and aggravated assault in April 2019.
The Crown alleges the West Kelowna man beat his mother with a crescent wrench, drove up a forest service road and rolled her down an embankment.
In court, Barrett sat in court in a red jumpsuit, sometimes taking notes as Davies testified.
Davies said that her boyfriend at the time, Peter Hunt, slammed on the brakes when he spotted somebody covered in blood sitting on a skid steer up the forest service road near Hidden Creek.
He told her to stay in the vehicle to be safe, Davies testified, while he got out and started talking to the woman.
“And then Peter jumped back in the vehicle, so we could call 911 and make sure that there was nobody out there with a gun or anything trying to kill us,” Davies said.
They then drove Holmes to the bottom of the Bear Creek’s main road, where they met the ambulance and police officers, Davies said.
Meanwhile, neighbour Brian Clark has previously told court he spotted Barrett and Holmes together in an SUV at the entrance near the Westview Village Mobile Home Park earlier in the day around 5 p.m.
Court also heard from a passerby, Kip Bateman, who testified that around the same time, he saw Barrett rummaging through a vehicle in the same vicinity.
Bateman said he spotted dentures near a tree and assumed Barrett was looking for the missing false teeth, so he pointed them out.
Barrett responded by saying something like, “Oh, hey, thanks man,” Bateman said.
That’s when he noticed Barrett had blood on his hands and forearms, Bateman added.
“Something was telling me just to get away from there, so that’s what we did,” he said.
The Crown contends Barrett threw the dentures out of the vehicle while he was beating and biting his mother.
Under cross-examination, Bateman agreed it was a very brief interaction with a person he had never seen before.
The Crown is still expected to call more witnesses into next week, including the victim herself.
The defence has not yet had the opportunity to present its case.